Mandip Gill & Robert James-Collier Return to ‘Cooper & Fry’
The new mystery series, 'Cooper & Fry,' has been renewed for a second season. Now it just needs an American distributor.
We were unfortunately on hiatus when Channel 5 debuted its new police procedural series, Cooper & Fry, in November 2025. Based on U.K. writer Stephen Booth’s best-selling mystery novels, the series had only just been commissioned that spring. However, it was already high on our list of shows that needed to cross the pond, as the main cast features Robert James-Collier (Downton Abbey) and Mandip Gill (Doctor Who) as crime-solving team DC Ben Cooper and DC Diane Fry.
The series is still stuck in limbo without an American streaming home. However, hopefully, that will be corrected soon, as U.K. network 5 has just confirmed the series will return for a second season. More notably, the new season will adjust the series format from four feature-length episodes to eight hour-long installments; the latter is far friendlier to American networks, especially those like PBS, AMC, and Starz, which are still tied to the traditional U.S. broadcast schedule.
Season 1 covered four of Booth’s novels, including the first two (Black Dog and Dancing with the Virgins) before skipping ahead to the fourth (Blind to the Bones) and seventh (Dying to Sin). Season 2 will also cover four novels – there are 18 books in all – starting with the fifth, One Last Breath, before jumping ahead to three much later ones: The Devil’s Edge, The Murder Road, and Fall Down Dead.
Here’s the series’ overall synopsis:
The series follows DC Ben Cooper, a member of a rural police force in Derbyshire who is teamed up with DC Diane Fry, a successful detective from Leeds who transfers under mysterious circumstances.
While the two initially butt heads, finding that they have very different approaches to policing, they slowly begin to come to an understanding as they work together on a case surrounding a body unearthed on a local farm.
And here is the Season 2-specific one:
Building on the unique friendship forged in series 1, Ben and Diane will navigate cases steeped in the legendary folklore of the area, all while battling each other’s conflicting investigation styles and facing their complicated personal lives head-on.
James-Collier and Gill are joined by Charlotte Bradley (Endeavour) as Ben’s mother, Isobel Cooper; Lorcan Cranitch (Bloodlands) as boss DI Paul Hitchens; Barry O’Connor (Shetland) as fellow detective DS Todd Eland; Niamh McCann (The Listeners) as station liaison Tracey Garnett; and Clara Simpson (The Reunion) as forensic scientist Dr Juliana Taylor. All are expected to return for Season 2,
Series creators Ben Court and Caroline Ip (Whitechapel) return as lead writers for the show’s second season, with directors Ronan Burke (Clean Sweep) and Rob Burke (Harry Wild) splitting helming duties. Sebastian Cardwell. Mike Benson and Jonathan Hall will Executive Produce for Clapperboard along with Tamryn Reinecke of Pale Rebel Productions.
Cooper & Fry Season 2 is currently filming in the U.K. and is expected to debut in 2027. Hopefully, the series will have an American streaming home by then.
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