ITV is adding another transatlantic crime drama to its slate as ‘The Murder Line’ heads to ITV1 and ITVX this April. The six-part thriller, known as ‘The Borderline’ in the US and Canada, brings together a heavyweight cast led by Stephen Amell (Arrow), Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting), and Hamza Haq (Transplant), for a morally murky story set in a deceptively quiet border town.
At its heart, ‘The Murder Line’ follows officer Henry Roland, a cop from the wrong side of the tracks who crosses the line of duty in an attempt to protect his childhood best friend. That decision sets off a chain reaction. When his carefully laid plan backfires, Henry’s life begins to unravel, pulling him into a collision course with suspicious colleagues, ruthless criminals, and the very community he is supposed to protect.
Set against the backdrop of a riverside town in the Thousand Islands region, where Lake Ontario gives way to the St. Lawrence River and the Canada-US border cuts straight through daily life, the drama leans heavily into questions of loyalty and identity. Henry discovers evidence linking missing illegal substances to his best friend Tommy Hawley, played by Haq, with whom he shares a dark secret. As he scrambles to shield Tommy, a formidable British crime family led by matriarch May Ferguson, played by Driver, is also hunting both the drugs and the man tied to them.
Creator Graeme Stewart has described the central theme as an exploration of “what defines you as a person, beyond just the people that you surround yourself with in your everyday life,” adding that it also speaks to “the place that you come from, and the history that you share with certain people from certain backgrounds in the area that you grew up in.” That tension between past and present becomes the engine driving the series.
The ensemble cast also includes Tamara Podemski, Katia Edith Wood, Jeremy Watson, Kate Corbett, Anna Douglas, Thomas Craig, Christopher Heyerdahl, and Diego Klattenhoff, creating a dense web of characters where, by design, there are no easy heroes and very few clean hands.
‘The Murder Line’ does not yet have a confirmed premiere date but will air on ITV1 and ITVX in April 2026. If you want to keep track of this or any other shows, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date. Visit Never Miss.
Login to Geektown