ITV's latest thriller Betrayal will air on Sunday and Monday evenings, replacing After the Flood in the schedule. The four-part series stars Shaun Evans as MI5 officer John Hughes and explores trust, secrecy and the personal cost of deception within modern intelligence work.
The drama is written by playwright David Eldridge and directed by BAFTA and Emmy nominee Julian Jarrold. Alongside Evans, the cast includes Romola Garai, Zahra Ahmadi and Nikki Amuka-Bird, with further roles for Gamba Cole, Omid Djalili, Matthew Tennyson, Hayley Tamaddon and Anthony Flanagan.
The synopsis reads: 'At the heart of the story is John Hughes, a mid-career MI5 officer navigating a rapidly evolving intelligence landscape while struggling to keep his personal life intact. On a hunch John meets a British Iranian man with links to the Stockport gangland who claims he has intelligence about a plot on UK soil.' After the informant is killed, John kills the assassin in self-defence and faces an internal investigation while trying to save his marriage and pursue the case.
Betrayal launches on ITV1 and ITVX on Sunday, February 8 at 9pm. The opening episode synopsis states: 'When a meeting with an informant turns fatal, MI5 agent John believes there's a deadly conspiracy. Faced with sceptical colleagues and troubles at home, can John get to the truth?'
Filming took place in Liverpool and Manchester. Shaun Evans said: 'I spend a lot of time in Liverpool because my family are all there, so to be up north was brilliant. They were a really funny, hard-working crew, and to be seeing parts of Liverpool in a way that I hadn't seen them... that was just amazing.' Zahra Ahmadi added: 'I'd never realised what a beautiful city [Liverpool] was. The architecture is stunning, and then of course there's the musical history and the food scene too, which is incredible.'
The series consists of four hour-long episodes broadcast across a fortnight on Monday and Sunday evenings.
