Karen Pirie is returning for a series 2, and ITV has confirmed the start date is just around the corner…

The award-winning detective drama will see Scottish actress Lauren Lyle – who recently appeared in The Bombing of Pan Am 103 – reprise her role as the dogged DS Karen Pirie – now a DI. Basically, if you want a crime solving, she’s your best bet (now that Vera‘s retired anyway). The detective is single-handedly making the name Karen cool again.

Filming for season 2 of ITV’s acclaimed drama officially began in June 2024. It sees fearless Karen Pirie reinvestigate the 1984 kidnapping of heiress Catriona Grant and her baby son.

Read on to find out the start date of Karen Pirie series 2 on ITV, and to see the latest pictures from on-set.

What is the start date for Karen Pirie series 2 on ITV?

ITV and World Productions have confirmed that series 2 of the detective drama Karen Pirie will be returning in summer 2025. The cold-case series will land on our screens in July on ITV1 and ITVX. It will follow in October on BritBox in the US and Canada.

Although the channel has not announced an exact date just yet, at least we know we don’t have long to wait!

What else do we know?

ITV and World Productions also released first look pictures at the return of the critically-acclaimed cold-case drama Karen Pirie.

They show actress Lauren Lyle reprising her role as Detective Inspector Karen Pirie, with a “riveting new case to solve”. The three feature-length episodes (two hours each) are based on Val McDermid’s book A Darker Domain. The famous author has written eight Karen Pirie books in total.

We’re told: “Karen has been promoted to Detective Inspector after her bittersweet success in series one. She’s seemingly given the authority she has long been fighting for. However, her bosses assign her an infamous unsolved case just as she’s getting into the swing of her powerful new role. It will put her under intense scrutiny – from her boss, from the media, and ultimately, from sinister forces that would rather the past stayed in the past.”

Karen Pirie investigates the cold case of kidnapped heiress Catriona Grant and her baby son

In series 2, DI Karen Pirie looks into the 1984 cold case of Catriona and Adam Grant. It has so far “confounded investigators and intrigued the public like no other”. An unknown person brutally kidnapped young heiress Catriona and her two year old son Adam at gunpoint. They vanished outside a fish and chip shop in Fife.

The ransom notes that followed stirred up an uncontrollable press storm. But, when the culprits fell silent, the police faltered. Family and friends never saw Catriona and Adam again.

However, now a man’s body has been discovered, with indisputable links to the original kidnap. With the first piece of evidence in decades, Karen must assemble an unbeatable team alongside her sincere and lovable sidekick DC Jason ‘Mint’ Murray (Chris Jenks) and the brilliant – but romantically complicated – DS Phil Parhatka (Zach Wyatt).

James Cosmo portrays Catriona’s father, Sir Broderick Grant, who puts immense pressure on the team, who take on the biggest challenge of their careers to date.

ITV tells us: “As Karen delves deeper into what happened in the autumn of 1984, political grudges and painful secrets reveal themselves, and it soon becomes clear… the past is far from dead.”

How can I watch Karen Pirie?

Karen Pirie will air on ITV1 and STV and be available for streaming on ITVX and STV Player and BritBox in the US and Canada. World Productions are part of ITV Studios.

Series 1 is currently available to watch on ITVX.

Read more: Plot, episodes and start date of ITV drama Trigger Point series 3 where ‘a bomb threat begins sinister vendetta’

Karen Pirie series 2 will start on ITV in July 2o25. Series 1 is available to watch on ITVX.