The 6 x 60-minute episode series, created and written by Neil, is produced by Euston Films for BBC One in the UK and Hulu in the US. Hard Sun is available on BBC iPlayer in the UK and permieres in the US on 7 March on Hulu.
Jim Sturgess (One Day, 21) and Agyness Deyn (Sunset Song) play detectives Robert Hicks and Elaine Renko, partners and enemies, who seek to enforce the law and protect their loved ones in a world that every day slips closer to certain destruction.
Robert Hicks (Sturgess) is a family man and a great, committed copper. He’s also profoundly corrupt. Elaine Renko (Deyn) is difficult and damaged… and utterly incorruptible. Hicks and Renko stand on different ends of the social and moral spectrum. They also seriously distrust one other – and for good reason. But they must somehow learn to work together… if they’re going to survive until the end of the world.
“Imagine the world you see when you look out your window… except it’s been given a death sentence,” says Neil.
“This isn’t science fiction. This is the real world. There’s no hero to come save us; no contingency plan.
“We’ve got five years.
“This is the world of Hard Sun… and the world of Elaine Renko and Robert Hicks.
“What’s it like, trying to keep order, trying to enforce the law in a city that, day by day, slips closer to certain destruction?
“How do you get up in the morning? How do you get out of bed and leave your family and go out there, putting your own life at risk?
“And what about the predators? What about the murderers, the rapists, the thieves? What about the psychopaths, the religious nuts, the cult leaders, the serial killers?
“Who among them would fear a prison sentence, in a world like this? Who among them would fear legal consequences? What does a life sentence even mean, any more?
“What’s the point of justice in the face of Armageddon?
“I’ve had Renko and Hicks and their world rattling round my head for a while now. I’m incredibly happy that, like me, they’ve found their home at the BBC. I can’t wait for you to meet them.”
Hard Sun is produced by Euston Films for BBC One. The executive producers are Kate Harwood for Euston Films and Elizabeth Kilgarriff for BBC One.
The first ever Luther movie opened in cinemas on 24 February and premiered on Netflix on 10 March 2023, and became the No. 1 movie on Netflix in its first weekend. In Luther: The Fallen Sun – an epic continuation of the award-winning television saga reimagined for film – a gruesome serial killer is terrorizing London while brilliant but disgraced detective John Luther (Idris Elba) sits behind bars. Haunted by his failure to capture the cyber psychopath who now taunts him, Luther decides to break out of prison to finish the job by any means necessary.
The gripping drama starring Justin Theroux and Melissa George debuted globally on Apple TV+ in April 2021
The four-part series inspired by Neil's novel Burial, coming to ITV on October 26 at 9pm
Luther returned to BBC One in the UK in Season 5 on New Year's Day
Luther returned with a 2-part Special in December 2015.