Where there's HOPE…

Amara Karan on playing a fishout-of-water cop with a secret

- ELAINE REILLY

HOPE STREET

NEW MON-FRI / BBC1 / 2.15PM (SCOT, WED, 3PM) / EPS 1-5 of 10 / DRAMA

What brings a city cop to a quiet Northern Irish coastal town? That’s the question asked by the people of (fictional) Port Devine after DC Leila Hussain (played by Bancroft star Amara Karan) arrives from England to join the area’s police department, kick-starting BBC1’s daytime crime drama Hope Street.

Co-created by Paul Marquess (London Kills), the warm-hearted series – which has already aired in Northern Ireland – follows Leila, the town’s first Muslim officer, as she tries to build relationships and solve an array of unusual crimes.

Here, in an exclusive interview, Amara, 37, tells us more…

What’s your take on Leila?

Leila has come from Nottingham to Port Devine under mysterious circumstances. Inspector Finn O’Hare [Primeval star Ciarán McMenamin] knows why she is there, but he’s not saying anything.

I would describe her as a confident, cosmopolitan Muslim detective, slightly out of her depth in this new environment.