From the mind of…sigh, JK Rowling, dammit…comes this gritty crime drama based on the Cormoran Strike novels she wrote as her male alter ego, Robert Galbraith.
How to watch CB Strike in the UK
CB Strike is now streaming on BBC iplayer and Sky Go, and available to rent or buy from the Google TV Store and the Apple TV Store.
What is CB Strike about?
Our hero is Cormoran Blue Strike, a wounded (he’s down a leg thanks to his deployment to Afghanistan) misanthropic military veteran, former Royal Military Police Special Investigation Branch cop, and illegitimate son of a ’70s rock star (which explains the name, at least). He’s now plying his trade as a private investigator in London, aided by his business partner, Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger). Season one, which adapts Rowling’s novel The Cuckoo’s Calling, sees the pair investigating the supposed suicide of a supermodel, and each subsequent series adapts another book in the cycle. With six seasons produced so far, you’ve got plenty of gritty urban crime to sink your teeth into.
The cast of CB Strike
Tom Burke, recently scene as Praetorian Jack in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, is our man Strike; Holliday Grainger is Robin Ellacott; Kerr Logan is Matthew Cunliffe; Ben Crompton is Shanker; Natasha O’Keeffe is Charlotte Campbell; Killian Scott is DI Eric Wardle; Ann Akin is Vanessa Ekwensi; Sargon Yelda is DI Richard Anstis; Caitlin Innes Edwards is Ilsa Herbert; and Kierston Wareing is Leda Strike, Coromran’s mother.
CB Strike trailer
Why we’re excited about CB Strike
Well, look, if you don’t care to partake of the work of JK Rowling these days, for…whatever reason.. that’s fair enough. If you enjoy hardboiled British crime fiction and the death of the author theory, though? Well, these are pretty good. Burke in particular is doing yeoman work as Strike, Grainger offers refreshing balance as his sidekick. They do exactly what they say on the tin.
