Suranne Jones leads cast of Five Days

Suranne Jones leads cast of Five Days
Suranne Jones leads cast of Five Days (Image credit: Alma Robinson/EMPICS Entertainment)

Former Coronation Street star Suranne Jones will lead an all-star cast in the BBC1 crime drama Five Days. Suranne, best known for playing Steve McDonald's feisty wife Karen in the ITV1 soap, plays DC Laurie Franklin, who tries to find a link between a suicide and an abandoned newborn baby. The mystery unfolds over five days in urban Yorkshire. Suranne played Karen in the Coronation Street for four years until she left in 2004. She went on to star in the ITV1 dramas Harley Street and Unforgiven. Written by Gwyneth Hughes, Five Days also stars ex-Hollyoaks actor Chris Fountain, and Full Monty star Hugo Speer. The first series of Five Days garnered a BAFTA nomination when it was shown in 2007. Kate Harwood, BBC Controller Drama Series & Serials, said: "Once again Gwyneth has delivered a tense emotional drama about a rich range of characters which will leave viewers desperate to find out what happens next in a complex story of mystery and moment." Five Days is currently in production for transmission in 2010.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.