Fay Ripley, Damien Molony and Clare-Hope Ashitey will be back for a new season of crime drama Suspects on Channel 5 next year.

Season 3 will begin in January, with guest stars set to include Emmett J. Scanlan (The Fall), Chris Coghill (EastEnders), Jody Latham (Shameless), Ben Peel (Hunger), Ray Fearon (The Hooligan Factory), Lucy Gaskell (Misfits) and Kathryn Drysdale (Benidorm).

Co-created by Paul Marquess (The Bill, Footballers’ Wives), Suspects launched on Channel 5 in February.

The new season of Suspects opens with the return of DS Jack Weston (Damien Molony) after his period of enforced leave. DI Martha Bellamy (Fay Ripley) is pleased to have Jack back, but makes no bones about it: this is his last chance… The team is called to a sixth form college, where a popular art teacher has been found with life-threatening head injuries – who has brutally assaulted her?

The plot thickens when it transpires that this teacher had previously made complaints about being stalked to DC Charlie Steele (Clare-Hope Ashitey). The usually composed Charlie is beside herself – could she have prevented this horrific crime? The pressure’s on Jack to step up to the plate as Charlie’s sergeant, and keep everyone’s focus on the case. Suspicion falls on violent and aggressive college handyman Harry Webster (Ben Peel), who went to prison for killing his wife, and who clashes with Charlie as the investigation unfolds – can she keep her cool under fire? As events come to a head, Jack focuses his scrutiny on college head teacher Rory O’Hanlon (Emmett J. Scanlan), and uncovers a trail of suspicious deaths that makes even Martha’s blood run cold…

Season 3 will also see the team try to get to the bottom of what has happened to a badly-burned girl who has been dumped in the Thames, while an old adversary comes back on Martha’s radar when ruthless property developer Gregor Forrester (Ray Fearon) is accused of an arson attack that leaves a young man fighting for his life.

Are you looking forward to Season 3? Let us know below…