It’s iPlayer-only airing may have meant that dark BBC Three drama Clique passed a lot of people by, but enough people tuned in last year that the channel has decided to renew the show for a second series.

Jess Brittain, creator, writer and executive producer said: “I’m so excited to return to Holly’s intense, loyal and dangerous world. Clique is a show with female friendship as its heart, but a new clique of unknowable young men is definitely taking us to some new and interesting places.”

The show follows university fresher Holly (Synnove Karlsen) as she navigates the brand new world of corporate ambition, corruption and ever-more complex female relationships. The synopsis for series two reads:

Living in a house share with Louise (Sophia Brown) and some younger, student activists students, Holly is trying to put the past behind her. Nonetheless, she finds herself the subject of intense attention from those around her – from fellow students keen to hear about the events of last year but also from a close-knit, smart and magnetic set of young men.

Led by charismatic, good-looking Jack, the boys’ clique of libertarian, freewheeling renegades has a no-nonsense attitude to what they see as a patronising university administration. When they become embroiled in a campus-wide scandal, Holly is torn between the kinship she feels with them and the unnerving sense that something darker is at play. Do the clique boys represent the provocative fight-back response of fed-up youth, or are their politics hiding a more personal, insidious danger?

“We are thrilled to be welcoming Clique back for a second series,” added Piers Wenger, controller at BBC Drama. “Jess’ forensic exploration of female friendship and ambition struck a huge chord with the BBC Three audience in series one and we were all excited to see her go further in series two as she shifts focus from young women to a clique of young men.”

Clique will resume filming in Spring 2018.