Cooper & Fry

Cooper & Fry bring Stephen Booth’s award-winning crime novels to the screen in a compelling new Channel 5 series that premiered in November 2025. Set against the atmospheric backdrop of England’s Peak District, this four-part drama introduces viewers to two young detectives whose contrasting approaches and personalities create both friction and fascination as they navigate a landscape where ancient folklore, isolated communities, and modern crime intersect in unsettling ways. Produced by Clapperboard Studios, the series stars Robert James-Collier as DC Ben Cooper and Mandip Gill as DS Diane Fry, bringing to life characters who have captivated readers across 18 novels since the series debuted in 2000.

The first series adapts four of Booth’s early novels—Black Dog, Dying to Sin, Blind to the Bones, and Dancing with the Virgins—each as a feature-length episode exploring different facets of Peak District life and death. The opening investigation begins when renovations at a Derbyshire farm unearth a body, setting in motion a mystery that reveals disturbing truths about the local community. As Cooper attempts to teach his new colleague about Edendale folklore, including the legend of a severed head known as ‘Screaming Billy’, a second body appears at the same location—this one missing its head entirely. The case forces both detectives to confront not only a killer but also the shadowy beliefs and long-buried secrets that still hold sway in these ancient hills.

DC Ben Cooper embodies the best qualities of rural policing: deep local knowledge, intuitive understanding of community dynamics, and the ability to read people shaped by generations of Peak District life. As a born-and-bred local, Cooper navigates the complex web of relationships, grudges, and loyalties that define small-town existence. His approach to investigation relies heavily on understanding context and human nature, often picking up on subtle cues that outsiders miss entirely. However, his closeness to the community can also prove problematic, as personal connections occasionally cloud professional judgement and make it difficult to maintain the necessary detachment that serious crime demands.

DS Diane Fry arrives from Leeds as a guarded newcomer with her own reasons for transferring to rural Derbyshire—reasons that remain shrouded in mystery. Her more urban, by-the-book approach to policing initially clashes with Cooper’s intuitive, relationship-based methods. Fresh from city policing, Fry struggles to understand the Peak District’s unique history, its insular sense of community, and the way that centuries-old traditions and superstitions continue to influence contemporary life. Where Cooper sees neighbours and familiar faces, Fry sees potential suspects and evidence chains. Her outsider perspective often proves invaluable in cases where local knowledge creates blind spots, though her inability to read the nuances of rural relationships can lead to misunderstandings and missed opportunities.

The series capitalises on the Peak District’s dramatic landscapes and atmospheric locations, using the region’s natural beauty and isolation to create a distinctive visual identity. The rugged moorlands, limestone gorges, and picturesque villages that draw tourists also harbour darker secrets in Booth’s fictional world. The production emphasises the contrast between the area’s stunning scenery and the grim realities of the crimes being investigated, creating what has been termed ‘rural noir’—a subgenre that exposes the darkness lurking beneath pastoral beauty. Ancient stone circles, abandoned farms, remote footpaths, and labyrinthine cave systems all feature as settings that are simultaneously spectacular and sinister.

The dynamic between Cooper and Fry provides the series’ emotional core. Their partnership, born of professional necessity rather than personal choice, forces both detectives to confront their own limitations and preconceptions. Cooper must learn to question assumptions based on familiarity, whilst Fry gradually discovers that urban policing techniques don’t always translate to rural contexts where relationships matter as much as evidence. As they work together across multiple cases, professional respect slowly develops, though their fundamentally different worldviews ensure that tension remains. The series promises to explore how their personal lives begin to intertwine, hinting at a friendship that transcends their investigative partnership—though the path to that friendship will be complicated by their contrasting personalities and approaches.

With 18 Cooper and Fry novels already published, the series has ample source material for future seasons, should this initial four-episode run prove successful with viewers. Booth’s reputation for atmospheric storytelling, complex plotting, and nuanced character development provides a strong foundation for television adaptation, whilst the Peak District setting offers endless possibilities for visually striking crime drama that distinguishes itself from the urban procedurals that dominate contemporary television.

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