Better BBC One: What is the Leeds-based TV thriller series about and who is in the cast? Here is everything you need to know about the BBC One show

Filming is already underway in Leeds for BBC One’s new thriller miniseries Better and the casting has been announced.

The thriller BBC One show is a bold and surprising redemption story produced by the content studio SISTER and is set and shot in Leeds.

Jonathan and Sam said: “We’re delirious and feel incredibly fortunate to have assembled - with SISTER and the BBC - such a gifted group of people to tell this story in the great city of Leeds, with a wealth of local Yorkshire talent on and off camera.

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“This incredible cast are exciting us every day, pushing the show’s exploration of morality and redemption to ever more thrilling, surprising, and yet darkly funny places. With any luck, we’ve got enough brilliant people to make ourselves look good.”

The new BBC One thriller series is being filmed in Leeds. (Pic credit: Jonathan Gawthorpe)The new BBC One thriller series is being filmed in Leeds. (Pic credit: Jonathan Gawthorpe)
The new BBC One thriller series is being filmed in Leeds. (Pic credit: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

Nawfal Faizullah, from BBC Drama, said: “Jonathan and Sam have created an iconic character in Lou Slack, and we are delighted that Leila Farzad is bringing her to life, alongside her brilliant partner in crime, Andrew Buchan.

“We’re excited to be working with SISTER again and we can’t wait for audiences to be hooked by this thrilling story of redemption.”

Here is everything you need to know about the BBC One thriller series Better.

What is the plot of BBC One’s Better?

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Created by Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent, Better is the story of a woman’s challenging combat towards redemption to reclaim the honour and honesty she handed over to a man in many previous years.

It is a fast-moving, fascinating, edge-of-your-seat thriller, shot through with wit and humour which delves into the complicated and empowered bonds of loyalty and family, set in a world where everyone has their own interpretation of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

The miniseries examines the power of human conscience and the need for redemption, as well as the ties that bind, the ties that define and the ties that break.

The cast of the BBC One’s Better

Leila Farzad as DI Lou Slack

This character is confident, quick-witted and wry. She was always destined to be a detective, just like her father, she is a legendary detective in the same Yorkshire force. While to her peers, she can do no wrong, Lou’s success actually lies on a foundation of deceit and corruption.

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Leila Farzad’s previous credits include I Hate Suzie and Avenue 5.

“Better is a brilliant fresh take on the morality tale. I am excited to have the opportunity to play Lou Slack, the vehicle through which we explore the multivalent layers of good and bad,” she said.

“A complex, flawed yet utterly human character. I feel very lucky to be a part of such a wonderful show with an incredibly talented team attached to it.”

Andrew Buchan as Col McHugh

This charming and charismatic Irish businessman has a presence that commands any room he walks into. He is successful in business and also a property developer. To those who know him well, he is a highly disciplined and coldly ruthless head of a powerful citywide drug trafficking gang.

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Andrew has previously starred in Broadchurch, The Honourable Woman and ABC Murders.

The rest of the cast are as follows:

- Samuel Edward-Cook (Peaky Blinders) as Ceri, Lou’s husband

- Zak Ford-Williams (Wolfe) as Owen, Lou and Ceri’s smart, imaginative and sensitive teenage son

- Ceallach Spellman (Cold Feet) as Donal, Col’s son, a broken young man who fails to live up to his father’s expectations

- Carolin Stoltz (Liar) as Alma, Col’s wife

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- Anton Lesser (Killing Eve, The Trial of Christine Keeler) as Vernon, an former detective who knew Lou’s dad

- Olivia Nakintu (Vera) as D.C. Esther Okoye, Lou’s closest colleague on the force

The show is executive produced by Mona Qureshi and Nawfal Faizullah for the BBC and Jane Featherstone (This Is Going To Hurt, Chernobyl, The Split), Chris Fry (Landscapers, Giri/Haji, Humans), Lucy Dyke (The Split, Black Mirror, Eric), Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent for SISTER in association with Northern Sister.

Jonathan Brough (The End, Rosehaven) serves as lead director.

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