ITV renews original dramas

UK broadcaster ITV has ordered new seasons of four dramas, including crime thriller Vera and medical series Monroe.

Vera (4×120′), produced by the channel’s production arm ITV Studios (ITVS), will return to screens next year.

The show averaged 6.6 million viewers when the first season aired earlier this year.

The second season will be executive-produced by Kate Bartlett, ITVS’s creative director of drama, and ITVS senior executive Kate Lewis.

Scott & Bailey, about a female detective duo, will get eight new episodes, which go into production in October for transmission in 2012.

The Red Production Company show follows the personal and professional lives of the two Manchester police officers as they track down killers.

Co-creator Sally Wainwright and Nicola Shindler, director of Red Production, are executive producers.

Thirdly, Mammoth Screen’s medical drama Monroe will get a second six-episode season in 2012. The drama is exec-produced by Mammoth Screen’s Michele Buck and Damien Timmer, and writer Peter Bowker.

Finally, ITV1 has ordered two new episodes of Hat Trick Productions’ police drama Case Sensitive. The two-part story will be executive-produced for Hat Trick by Mark Redhead.

All four dramas were commissioned by Sally Haynes, ITV’s controller of drama commissioning, and Laura Mackie, director of drama commissioning.

Vera and Monroe are distributed internationally by ITV Studios Global Entertainment, which will take both shows to Mipcom in October.

ITV has previously ordered new episodes of Kidnap & Ransom, about an international hostage negotiator, from Projector Pictures and TalkbackThames. It also commissioned Hat Trick to make a film based on Victorian detective Jack Whicher.

In related news, diginet ITV3 will broadcast a new documentary series as part of a season to celebrate The Crime Thriller Awards 2011.

The A to Z of Crime will begin on September 1, running alongside 6×60′ documentaries that will feature five of the authors nominated for prizes at the awards ceremony, which takes place on October 7.