Top Telly - ITV series The Fixer

The Fixer premiered on ITV1 with an audience of 6.3 million viewers and overall the six-part series averaged 5 million, making it the network's highest rating new drama in 2008. Kudos’ critically acclaimed series The Fixer returns for a second series as state-sponsored hit man John Mercer continues his work on the dark side of the law.

As Andrew Buchan (The Fixer, Cranford, Party Animals) Tamzin Outhwaite (Hotel Babylon, Walk Away and I Stumble), Jody Latham (Shameless) and Peter Mullan (Children of Men, Boy A, My name is Joe), get set to bring down a new set of criminal targets, the action steps up several gears.

Phil Davis (Whitechapel, Bleak House, Rose and Maloney), David Harewood (Robin Hood, Criminal Justice, Blood Diamond) Mark Benton (The Street, City Lights, Fallen Angel) David Schofield (Waking the Dead, Valkyrie, Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End) and Daniel Caltagirone (Above Suspicion, The Passion) head up an all star guest cast as John Mercer, now more at ease with the tasks set by his paymaster, Lenny Douglas, once more trains his cross hairs on a new set of targets.

Opening with an explosive, highly charged two-parter the underground crime fighters take on the Barber Boys, a gang who are terrorising the streets of South London. However, they quickly realise that the gang’s activities extend way beyond the usual drug dealing and the team soon becomes entangled in the dark world of child trafficking.

As events on the estate become increasingly more precarious, the very existence of the unit comes under threat from a new and much more dangerous foe. Matt Symmonds (Elliot Cowan) is MI6, ambitious, manipulative, and utterly ruthless. A great admirer of the team’s handy work, Symmonds makes no secret of his desire to wrest control of the unit from Lenny who conversely makes no secret of his intense hatred of the young pretender. As the two polar opposites vie for supremacy, it seems as though Symmonds will stop at nothing to bend the team to his purpose.

From the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the world of cage fighting in East London Mercer and his team are now not only fighting for those they are tasked to protect, but for their own very existence. Visceral, emotionally layered and brimming with tension; with the team now caught in the cross hairs of internal political wrangling, their fight to bring justice to the streets is about to get even dirtier.

Peter Fincham Director of Television says: “The Fixer was a gripping first series that had an unmistakable touch of class. I'm delighted that it's coming back - it'll be bigger and better than ever.”

ITV’s The Fixer starring Andrew Buchan and Tamzin Outhwaite

Series about a state-sponsored hit man

Starring Andrew Buchan, Tamzin Outhwaite, Jody Latham, Peter Mullan, Phil Davis and Mark Benton