‘Downton Abbey’ star leads new ITV thriller ‘Protection’

ITV has announced a new drama about witness protection starring Siobhan Finneran.

Best known as O’Brien in Downton Abbey, the 57-year-old actress will also be familiar from her roles in Happy Valley, Time, Benidorm, and Unforgiven.

She’ll be leading the cast of Protection, created by acclaimed screenwriter Kris Mrksa (White House Farm, The Slap).

Filming is already underway in Liverpool on the six-part TV thriller, with Nadine Marshall (Sherwood, Trigger Point) and Katherine Kelly from Mr Selfridge also starring.

They’re joined by Barry Ward (Bad Sisters), Chaneil Kular (Sex Education), David Hayman (Sid and Nancy), Nichola Burley (The Gold), and Akiya Henry (Silent Witness).

Protection is being produced by New Pictures, the makers of hits like Des, The Missing, The Long Shadow, and Dalgliesh.

The show is based on an idea by a real-life witness protection specialist who served in the Met for 30 years, looking after a number of high-profile cases and informants, including war criminals, terrorists and criminals of all kinds.

“Protection is a suspenseful conspiracy thriller, but it also explores some complex moral questions, about how far we should be prepared to go in order to serve the greater good,” said writer Kris Mrksa.

“The murky world of witness protection, where hardened criminals are often sheltered, in the hope that they will help bring down other criminals, provides the perfect context for examining these thorny issues,” he added.

Here’s a sneak peek at the series:

We’re promised “the story of a smart, tough cop, out of her depth in a world where nothing is as it seems.”

The official synopsis reads: “Witness protection is often glamorised as keeping innocent witnesses safe from harm but the truth is darker, murkier, and far more complex.

“Many protected people are themselves criminals. It’s a life of moral compromise. It also involves maximum secrecy, false identities, and a world where you can’t trust your own colleagues.”

“Protection is about what happens when the system breaks down. It’s about a police officer, Detective Inspector Liz Nyles (Siobhan Finneran), who finds herself at the heart of such a breach; personally compromised by an affair with a colleague, but determined to fight back, and uncover the true source of corruption within her unit.

“To redeem herself, the reputation of her lover, and to keep her witnesses safe. Even if they don’t always deserve it.

“Navigating the morally-grey, clandestine world of witness protection, Liz’s mission to find the truth will take her deep into the heart of the criminal underbelly and beyond as she becomes more and more torn between caring for her family, her loyalty to her lover and her duty as a police officer.”

This sounds great!

Protection will premiere in the UK on ITV and streaming on ITVX in 2024.

Next up for Siobhan Finneran is The Damned, a tense psychological horror movie filmed in Iceland earlier this year.

The movie follows a 19th-century widow tasked with making an impossible choice when a ship sinks off the coast of her isolated fishing post.

Finneran is also appearing in the BBC’s upcoming Jimmy Savile true crime drama The Reckoning.

The complete Downton Abbey box set is available on DVD on Amazon.