Freedom Scripted to adapt Denise Mina’s Morrow crime novels with Shetland scribe

Channel 4-backed Freedom Scripted in Scotland has teamed up with the writer of Shetland to create another crime drama called Morrow, based on a series of books by author Denise Mina.

Denise Mina

Shetland’s David Kane will adapt the novels with Glasgow-based Freedom Scripted, which secured investment from the Channel 4 Indie Growth Fund last year to make appointments and expand its business.

The screenwriter and executive producer, who helmed seven seasons of Shetland for the BBC, will develop the five Morrow books into a multi-season series set in Glasgow.

Mina previously worked with Kane on the BBC drama The Field of Blood, which starred Jayd Johnson, Peter Capaldi and David Morrissey and aired between 2011 and 2013.

Morrow will follow detective Alex Morrow, characterised by his Glaswegian ‘no-filter’ directness and an ability to mentally retain the smallest detail from a case, who is formidable at solving crimes but has a troubled personal and family life.

Paired with the far less capable but on-message and true-blue son of a leading cop, Morrow investigates the abduction of a member of a South Asian family.

Morrow, which does not yet have a broadcaster attached, will be exec produced by Mina, Kane and Freedom’s creative director, Mike Ellen, the former BBC, STV and World Productions development producer who founded Freedom in 2018.