Strike: The Ink Black Heart cast, filming locations and episode guide

Private detectives Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott are back on the BBC to solve the sinister murder of a cartoon creator who was the victim of online persecution.

The pair find themselves drawn into a world where the lines between reality and virtual reality are blurred in the latest installment of Strike: The Ink Black Heart.

Starring Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger, this is the sixth story adapted from JK Rowling’s best-selling crime novels, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith,

And it’s a testing case which will push them to their physical and mental limits while they also wrestle with their own feelings about each other.

What is Strike: The Ink Black Heart about?

When Edie Ledwell appears frantic and dishevelled in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn’t know what to make of the situation.

Ledwell is the co-creator of popular cartoon The Ink Black Heart. She claims she is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure, who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie, and she is desperate to uncover Anomie’s true identity.

Robin decides the agency can’t help with this and moves on. However, a few days later she reads that Edie has been tasered and murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.

Robin and her business partner Cormoran Strike then become drawn into a quest to uncover Anomie’s true identity.

But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, they find themselves embroiled in a case which stretches them to their limit.

Who is in the cast of Strike: The Ink Black heart?

Tom Burke

Tom Burke leads the cast as Cormoran Strike a former military police officer injured in action, now running his own private detective agency in London and still dealing with the trauma of his past.

Burke, 43, starred as Athos in the television series The Musketeers and played Fedya Dolokhov in the BBC adaptation of War and Peace.

He recently starred as Denis Rebrov in the science fiction series The Lazarus Project. And he had a main role in the 2024 film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Holliday Grainger

Holliday Grainger stars as Robin Ellacott, a partner in Strike’s detective agency. Grainger, 36, rose to fame as Lucrezia Borgia in the historical drama The Borgias.

She played Estella Havisham in Mike Newell’s 2011 film adaptation of Great Expectations. Viewers will have seen her most recently as Rachel Carey in the television thriller The Capture.

Ruth Sheen

Ruth Sheen reprises her role as Pat Chauncey, the agency’s office manager.

Sheen is a familiar face on screen having featured in a number of Mike Leigh films including Secrets & Lies and Vera Drake.

In 1989, Sheen won the European Film Award for Best Actress for the role of Shirley in the Mike Leigh film High Hopes. She has also appeared on television in Brassic, It’s A Sin and Unforgotten.

Jack Greenlees

Jack Greenlees returns to the series to play Sam Barclay, an ex-serviceman employed by Strike to do some of his legwork.

Greenlees rose to prominence as Craig Cooper in the BBC’s Scottish crime drama Shetland. He has also appeared in The State, Harlots and the crime thriller Payback.

The remaining cast includes:

• David Westhead as Grant Ledwell (The Iron Lady, Enola Holmes 2)
• Mirren Mack as Edie Ledwell (The Nest, Sex Education)
• Christian McKay as Inigo Upcott (Me and Orson Welles, Warrior)
• Emma Fielding as Katya Upcott (Van der Valk, Sanditon)
• Tupele Dorgu as Midge Greenstreet (Coronation Street, The Case)
• James Nelson-Joyce as (The Outlaws, The Family Pile)
• Natasha O’Keeffe as Charlotte Campbell (Peaky Blinders, Misfits)
• Caitlin Innes Edwards as Ilsa Herbert (Hanna, The Halcyon)
• Liza Sadovy as Mariam (Outlander, A Small Light)

Where is Strike: The Ink Black Heart filmed?

The detective agency in Strike is based in Denmark Street in central London and much of the filming takes place in the capital. Highgate Cemetery features heavily, as does London Underground and the West End.

Alex Rendell, the show’s producer, said: “London can be expensive to film in, particularly when you need to be more central and servicing locations can be tricky.

“Obviously, the Strike books are rooted in London, his office is in Denmark Street and Jo (JK Rowling) includes some very specific London locations that she will have researched. We always try and visit some of them whilst filming, depending on permissions and budget!”

Series director Sue Tully said there were some advantages to Rowling’s precise locations: “When we’re preparing, looking for locations, our first point of call is always to the real place.

“It’s brilliant because it means you get access to places that you might not normally – like Raymond Blanc’s place that we went to in Lethal White – Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons – or no-women allowed gentlemen’s clubs we get access to.”

When is Strike: The Ink Black Heart on?

Strike: The Ink Black Heart is a four-part series starting on BBC One this week. The first episode will be shown on Monday 16 December at 9pm on BBC One, the second episode at the same time on Tuesday 17 December.

Parts three and four will be show the following week at 9pm on Monday 23 December and 9.15pm on Christmas Eve.

All four episodes are also available on BBC iPlayer.