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EastEnders actress Charlie Brooks will guest star in Channel 5's Suspects.

The network's original crime drama - which stars Fay Ripley, Damien Molony and Clare-Hope Ashitey - will return to screens with two hour-long specials in the autumn.

Emmerdale's Dominic Power, who played serial killer Cameron Murray, will also guest star in the new episodes.

In The Flesh actor Luke Newberry has also been cast, alongside Claire Cooper (Hollyoaks) and Katie Jarvis (Fish Tank).

Other guest stars for future episodes of the new season are Emmett Scanlan (The Fall, In The Flesh, Hollyoaks), Ben Peel (The Fall), Gillian Kearney (Casualty, Brookside) and Carley Stenson (Hollyoaks).

Devised by Paul Marquess (The Bill, Footballers' Wives), the series was Channel 5's first original drama for eight years. Working without a traditional script, the cast improvise their dialogue and actions based on a detailed plot synopsis.

The second series of Suspects will be comprised of five additional episodes,...

Fans of the television series I’m Alan Partridge will recall a plethora of ideas the failing presenter pitches to the commissioning editor of the BBC. One of which was ‘Swallow ‘ a regional detective series of a maverick, hard-nosed law enforcer who “isn’t afraid to break the law if he thinks it’s necessary”. Well, it seems that Vince Woods’ cop thriller Harrigan is a film not too dissimilar to the aforementioned idea, and one that Alan himself would be proud to have devised.

Set in a bitter winter of 1974 in the North of England, we follow Detective Sergeant Barry Harrigan (Stephen Tompkinson), an uncompromising officer of the law, who returns to his homeland following an unsavoury stint in Asia. Riddled with crime and political unrest, the community is in turmoil, and Harrigan – on the brink of retirement – sets out to straighten this town up once and for all,...

BBC One has announced the cast for its new daytime drama Justice. Bob Pugh, who recently starred in Doctor Who and the film West Is West, has landed the lead role as Patrick Coburn. Patrick is the judge in a local community justice centre but is viewed by the public as either too liberal or too obsessed with power. As well as dealing with various cases, Patrick is forced to defend the centre when it comes under threat from the judicial establishment. Former Peak Practice and Casualty star Gary Mavers has signed up to play Patrick's "right-hand man" Joe Spencer, who tries to get residents to trust the Judge. Meanwhile, Casualty's Gillian Kearney (more)...

LOCARNO -- Be careful what you wish for is a maxim explored smartly by photographer and publisher Rankin and his co-director Chris Cottam in their well measured little fable The Lives of the Saints, set on the criminal streets of northeast London.

When a swift-moving courier known as the Roadrunner (Daon Broni), who delivers everything from drugs to lottery tickets, stumbles over an unwashed and wide-eyed youngster (Sam MacLintock) in the park, the lives of several people start to change in the most unexpected way: Yhey begin to get what they want.

Mixing elements of the supernatural with street crime and aspects of religion, the film, debuting in competition at the Locarno International Film Festival, delivers a tidy punch and with the right support it could find an appreciative mainstream audience.

The Roadrunner, whose relentless need to be on the move is given gentle pause by his encounter with the child, drops him off at the home of Othello (David Leon), a slick young man who is prince to the local crime king Mr. Karva (James Cosmo).

While his live-in girlfriend Tina (Emma Pierson) sees the strange boy as just a kid, Othello interprets the youngster's oblique mutterings as words of prophecy. In writing down the unrelated letters the boy utters, he sees the names of the winners of horse and dog races, and is soon making a fortune in gambling.

The boy's gaze appears to entrance a chosen few including a waitress, Christella (Gillian Kearney), and the local priest, Father Daniel Marc Warren). By appearing to unleash their secret desires, the boy seems to prove that he is a benign oracle or, as some believe, an angel.

But with his riches, Othello grows independent of Karva, a colorful brute of a man, who views his own declining fortune with alarm. He seeks the child in order to return life to what he sees as its natural order, with him as its glowering ruler. So he employs Othello's dim sidekick, Emilio (Bronson Webb), to do his dirty work. Karva and Emilio have hidden wishes too, however, and when the child grants them, the results complicate all their lives.

Rankin and Cottam employ Tony Grisoni's economical screenplay to great effect and the acting is outstanding. MacLintock is well cast as the wondrously calm boy with the haunting eyes and Cosmo makes a lively impression as the larger-than-life crime king. The film's humor is sly and inventive as the granted wishes take darkly comic and ultimately deadly turns.

Director of photography Baz Irvine, production designer Mark Digby and editor Chris Gill deserve praise for their contributions to an entertaining film that pleases with its look and pace as much as its content.

THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS

Dazed Film & TV

Credits:

Directors: Rankin, Chris Cottam

Writer: Tony Grisoni

Producer: Laura Hastings-Smith

Executive producer: Augusto Romano

Director of photography: Baz Irvine

Production designer: Mark Digby

Music: Rob Lane

Editor: Chris Gill.

Cast: Othello: David Leon

The child: Sam MacLintock

Roadrunner: Daon Broni

Mr. Karva: James Cosmo

Tina: Emma Pierson

Emilio: Bronson Webb

Christella: Gillian Kearney

Father Daniel: Marc Warren

Mark Digby: James Holmes

Mad Turk: Peter Rnic

Drunk/Michali: Paddy Fletcher

Granny: Stella Quilley

Maqsood Junior: Raj Ghatak

Maqsood Senior: Reny Senta

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 100 minutes...