Acorn TV

‘Inspector Ellis’ Returns for a Summer-Timed Season 2

'Inspector Ellis' books a return for Season 2, as Acorn TV reveals the new season's release date.

Ani Bundel

03 Jun 2026 — 4 min read

Sharon D Clarke as Ellis in 'Inspector Ellis' (Acorn TV)

Acorn TV’s success across the 2025-2026 television season was fueled by multiple series featuring actors who had their heyday decades ago, returning to TV to begin their detective eras. Each series has its own spin on the tried and true formula, from Harry Wild’s adopted mother-son pairing to Art Detective’s focus on counterfeits. However, none of them aimed for the gold standard of the British TV mystery – the grizzled loner cop with a young sidekick trope that made Morse, Lewis, and Prime Suspect huge hits in earlier eras. That’s because the position has been filled by Sharon D Clarke (Doctor Who) in Inspector Ellis*.

(*Like Morse and Lewis before her, the show is titled Ellis in the U.K. The American version adds the honorific.)

Though the series first season arrived only a few months before Acorn TV’s big gains in viewership, the format is such that new fans will be able to quickly get up to speed ahead of Season 2. It helped that the core cast is actually quite small, given the loner-style trope the show has settled into. As a character, DCI Ellis is something of a one-woman AC-12 from Line of Duty, parachuting into cases where local law enforcement isn’t making headway, usually due to internal corruption. Technically, it is just her job to solve the case, but along the way, she tends to root out those who stood in the way to protect their own interests.

The first season ran three feature-length case-of-the-week episodes, each named for the town where she’s been dispatched. Season 2 alters the format a touch, running four one-hour installments, two episodes per case.

Here’s the new season’s synopsis:

Season 2 sees DCI Ellis, who, together with her colleague DS Harper, face a new wave of fractured communities and suspicious deaths that test not only her forensic brilliance but her resilience. This season takes them from a rural village, where the suspicious death of a beloved community leader exposes long-nursed resentments, to the industrial shadow of a stoneworks, where the death of a young woman reveals a hidden network of coercion and exploitation. Every case peels back layers of silence, ambition, and betrayal.

Season 2 will bring back Sharon D Clarke (Doctor Who) as the titular DCI Ellis, Andrew Gower (Miss Scarlet) as her partner-in-crime-solving, DS Chet Harper, and Allison Harding (Malpractice) as their boss, ACC Alison Leighton. It will also add a new main character to assist them, bringing back Season 1 guest star Charlotte McCurry (Dalgliesh) as DC Kate Trent. The first case will also feature John Hollingworth (Belgravia) as DS Malcolm Oliver, and the second Stephen Tompkinson (DCI Banks) as DCI Chalmers.

The guest cast for Season 2 is pretty extensive. The first case will feature James Doran (Say Nothing), Sasha Desouza-Willock (Inside Man), Joel Morris (The Couple Next Door), Kirsty Bushell (Murder in Provence), Hannah Chinn (The Lady), Niamh Blackshaw (The Jetty), Cariad Lloyd (Beyond Paradise), Keir Charles (Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story), Sonny Walker (Legends), Elliot Douglas (Heartstopper), and Kyle Ndukuba (Grace).

The second case will include Mark Addy (Game of Thrones), Caroline O’Neill (Endeavour), Dorothea Myer-Bennett (The Payback), Matilda Freeman (Passenger), Lisa Ambalavanar (Father Brown), Sonny Ashbourne Serkis (Young Wallander), Judy Flynn (Call the Midwife), Jack Bandeira (Happy Valley), Natalia Kostrzewa (Out There), Florian Rafuna (The Capture), and Julia Krynke (Ridley Road).

Ellis was conceived of by Paul Logue and Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre; Ejiwunmi-Le Berre wrote the first two episodes; Oliver Frampton (Sister Boniface Mysteries) penned the season’s back half. Directors Edward Bazalgette (Poldark) and Max Myers (Don’t Let Go) split helming duties; Chris Martin is the producer. Catherine Mackin, Bea Tammer, Michele Buck, and Lucy Raffety executive produce the series.