Marcella is a British “Nordic”-noir detective series, written, directed and produced by Swedish screenwriter Hans Rosenfeldt, creator of The Bridge. The series is produced by Buccaneer Media for ITV and distributed worldwide by Buccaneer’s parent company Cineflix. It was the first broadcast on ITV on 4 April 2016, with seven further episodes broadcast weekly.
The series stars Anna Friel as Marcella Backland, a former London detective who returns to work to investigate an open case from 11 years earlier involving an unidentified serial killer who appears to have become active again. Marcella also has to deal with a hectic home life, where her husband, Jason (Nicholas Pinnock), has made the decision to leave her and, at first, send their two children to a boarding school; but later on (in the second season) he uses Marcella’s mental disorder as a means to take full custody. Nina Sosanya (series one), Ray Panthaki and Jamie Bamber are also credited as principal members of the cast.
The series was commissioned in June 2015, with location filming taking place in London and the Port of Dover, After their broadcast on ITV, episodes are available to stream on Netflix outside the United Kingdom. The first series was released on DVD via Universal Pictures UK on 20 June 2016. In 2017, Friel was awarded the International Emmy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Marcella.
On 26 August 2016, ITV announced that a second series had been commissioned. The second series premiered on 19 February 2018 and was released on DVD on 16 April 2018. On 3 October 2018, it was announced that Marcella would be returning to ITV for a third series, and will begin airing in 2020. Season 3 also returned to Netflix, on 14 June 2020.