Adjoa Andoh Starring In ITV Detective Drama ‘Protect And Serve’

EXCLUSIVE: Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh is swapping Shonda Rhimes’ regency wonderland for an ITV detective drama.

Andoh is creating her first drama series, Protect and Serve [working title], with Time scribe Helen Black.

Andoh will play the lead, DI Araba Dadzie, a cop, mother and daughter. Araba is in the squeezed middle of her life, juggling profession, elderly parents and children. She embarks on an investigation into the tragic shooting of a teenage boy, who has been living in a privately-owned children’s care home with his brother since his grandfather fell ill.

Set in Leeds, Protect and Serve comes from Ludwig producer Big Talk Studios and is Andoh’s first TV creation. Nimer Rashed, director of Harlen Coben smashes Run Away and Missing You, will direct with Stella Nwimo producing.

Andoh is best known for playing the sharp-witted Lady Agatha Danbury across four seasons of Netflix’s Bridgerton along with spin-off Queen Charlotte. Season 5 is coming next year. Past credits include Invictus and Fractured. Andoh is creating Protect and Serve with Black, who wrote on hit BBC prison drama Time and penned the same network’s Life and Death in the Warehouse.

“How does a woman juggle an aging father, a chippy student daughter and a non-existent sex life, while investigating murders as a black female cop,” said Andoh. “That’s the lot of DI Araba Dadzie, Senior Investigation Officer on a Homicide and Major Enquiry Team in central Leeds. It’s a job that costs, a job that we the public need, and in spite of the challenges, it’s a job Araba feels called to, much like a priest or a teacher.”

The series will commence filming early 2027 with further casting news coming closer to production. Big Talk boss Kenton Allen is exec producing alongside Andoh and Black. Jenny van der Lande, who is soon exiting Big Talk to launch a BBC Studios-backed label, introduced and developed the drama and executive produces alongside Chris Clough (Mr Bates vs The Post Office). Protect and Serve will be produced in association with, and distributed internationally by, ITV Studios.