Where do we find Strike and Robin at the beginning of this series?

There is a gap between major cases; they don’t know that they’re about to be on another one. It’s a belated birthday dinner for Robin. Just the two of them. And we see them really the freest with each other that we’ve ever seen – partly because of alcohol.

This builds to a particular moment of spectacular mistiming. And subsequently, for most of the rest of this story, the communication goes back several steps. I was a little worried about that before I’d read Tom’s scripts; the book is incredibly detailed about what they’re both going through, but in a sense it’s very private stuff to each of them.

But Tom Edge, our screenwriter, dealt with that brilliantly, and also with the whole masked ball-ness of the suspects, which is due to the fact that we’re dealing with online presences, more than flesh and blood people.

What do you think the attempted kiss at the beginning of episode one means to them both?

The way Robin talks about it, she thinks, had she kissed Cormoran back, he would’ve regretted it and then would have had to address it in a very awkward way.

I don’t think Strike feels that way about it. He just thinks he’s completely misread the situation, and a lot preceding it – going back years. It’s very human, and everyone’s been there – where you’re never quite sure about how the other person feels and you boomerang between the extremes in guessing. It’s the scariest thing on earth to make that leap of faith hoping that they feel the same way.

Do you think Strike has got to the point where he’s going to have to deal with his inability to commit to relationships?

Well, he is actually dating somebody for the majority of the story. But interestingly she’s become an off-screen character because he never actually tells Robin about the relationship.

Strike is subliminally or deliberately pushing that bit of his life to the periphery – so ‘off screen’ in more ways than one… And of course, there’s a big question mark over why he wouldn’t have told Robin, who of course does find out. Strike’s always been a bit cagey, there have been more moments to play this series where his defences are down now… Maybe less of that military tone in his voice. Something softer.

His health is absolutely catching up with him. And in terms of how he feels about Robin it’s less a case of ‘a man with toothache cannot be in love,’ and more that he’s begun to feel inadequate to the task of a relationship, even the most harmonious relationships can be quite energetically expensive.

There’s a sadness there and a sense of trying to be a realist; that maybe it’s not something he’s got the energy or time for.

Are Strike and Robin able to pick apart what is being said online in this series because they’re so good at being able to decipher people in real life?

It’s a strange puzzle that they’re working out. Mainly to do with who’s online typing when we have a visual. When you’re reading the book it’s almost like a Sudoku, working out who knows what, who is who, and who’s in the dark.

What is your own view about anonymous online personas and how they can be misused?

I do worry because I think there’s that interesting thing that happens when, let’s say, you’re arguing with a loved one and you’re actually in a room together. If neither of you storms off, you inevitably reach a point where words become a bit meaningless.

It’s a vitally important part of relating, because you find you’re just now looking at each other; and seeing something in the other person’s eyes, and you put down your invisible legal brief, and actually go deeper. To me there is no version of that online. It’s relentlessly verbal. You don’t see someone else’s face.

Do you have any moments in your life when you think, “What would Strike do?”

Do you know, I do. The time that I remember, which was pretty mundane really, I was queuing for a visa a few years ago and I realised there was the relatively new rule that you weren’t allowed your mobile phone in the American Embassy.

I couldn’t ask the stranger next to me to hold on to my phone cause we’re all there for the same reason, and I remember thinking “What would Strike do?”

And I went into a cafe across the way and found somewhere to hide my phone in the bathroom. And it was a very cluttered bathroom actually. It had shelves with an abundance of toilet rolls. And I felt so proud. I thought, “Yeah, that’s what Strike would do.”

Strike – The Ink Black Heart is the sixth (4×60) story of the BBC’s hit crime drama adapted from J.K. Rowling’s best-selling crime novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Tom Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Souvenir) as Cormoran Strike and Holliday Grainger (The Capture, Animals) as Robin Ellacott lead a cast of acclaimed British actors including David Westhead (Enola Holmes 2, Bodyguard), Christian McKay (Rivals, Dangerous Liaisons), Emma Fielding (Sanditon, Van der Valk), Tupele Dorgu (The Full Monty, Ridley) and James Nelson-Joyce (Time, Industry) amongst others.

Ruth Sheen (Unforgotten, It’s A Sin) returns as Pat, Strike’s office manager, alongside fellow returning cast members Jack Greenlees (The Trial of Cristine Keeler, Payback) as Sam Barclay, Natasha O’Keeffe (Peaky Blinders, The Wheel of Time) as Charlotte, and Caitlin Innes Edwards (Hanna, Black Mirror: Smithereens) as Isla.

Strike is one of the UK’s most watched dramas, with the most recent instalment: Strike – Troubled Blood – averaging 8.4 million viewers across its run in 2022.

Sue Tully returns to direct, her third time working on the series. Her credits include Strike – Troubled Blood, Too Close, Strike – Lethal White, Line of Duty, Tin Star, The A Word and The Musketeers.

The series is adapted for the screen by writer Tom Edge (Vigil, You Don’t Know Me) who also adapted previous Strike instalments Troubled Blood, The Silkworm, Career of Evil and Lethal White. Jenny van der Lande (Too Close, You Don’t Know Me) is story producer and Alex Rendell returns as producer. Executive producers are J.K. Rowling (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Strike, The Casual Vacancy), Neil Blair (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Midwich Cuckoos) and Ruth Kenley-Letts (Stonehouse, Joan) alongside Nick Lambon for the BBC.

The first episode of Strike: The Ink Black Heart will broadcast on Monday (December 16) at 9pm on BBC One, followed by the second episode the next night at the same time (Tuesday, December 17). The final two episodes will air in the same time slot on Monday (December 23) and Tuesday (December 24).

HBO has North American rights and Warner Bros. is selling the show internationally,