Marriage in tatters, domestic abuse and a serial killer on the loose: Anna Friel confronts them all as Marcella, the complex copper at the heart of new ITV series

'Maddy's cold and calculating, but also a bit reckless': Laura Carmichael

'Marcella's 39 like me, but she can be hard to like': Anna Friel

During the arresting opening scene of new ITV drama Marcella, the viewer watches as a woman sits shivering in a grimy bath. Her head is covered in blood, and her body in bruises. She's clearly traumatised, but whether she is victim or perpetrator of what has gone before is unclear.

It sets the tone for what lies ahead: a compelling eight-part series centred around a beautiful, driven but complex policewoman - the eponymous Marcella played by Anna Friel - on the trail of a brutal serial killer.

Anna Friel will star as Marcella, the complex copper at the heart of new ITV series. Actor grapples the role of a policewoman on the trail of a brutal serial killer, from the creator of the cult drama The Bridge

Ring any bells? If you're a fan of Scandinavian drama The Bridge, with the gorgeous but humourless detective Saga Noren at its centre, then it probably does. Three series on from when it was first shown in 2012, The Bridge is now broadcast in more than 170 countries and has become something of a phenomenon. 

Now its creator Hans Rosenfeldt has transplanted a slice of his 'Nordic Nasty' to Marcella, a crime drama set in London and written in English, so no need for subtitles. Not, Hans is anxious to emphasise, that Marcella is The Bridge UK. 'I just write in the way I write. I wasn't thinking about bringing Nordic noir to London,' he insists.

Nonetheless, Bridge fans will recognise some of the elements - a gritty urban setting, grey skies and some grim story lines: the serial killings that unfold feature victims suffocated by plastic hoods held on with insulating tape, and the camera does not shy away from the gory details. The central character, though, is cut from a different cloth to her Scandinavian predecessor - a deliberate decision, as Hans explains. 

'We worked on making her the opposite of Saga, because the less comparison you do the quicker you get into the series,' he says. Certainly their domestic situations are not remotely similar: unlike the defiantly solo Saga, Marcella is a wife and mother who had put her career on hold to raise a family. 

'She's 39 like me, and she finds herself at that point where she's not worked for ten years, she's chosen motherhood over her career, and something drives her to go back to work,' says Anna Friel in a break between filming in west London. That 'something' is both the apparent resurgence of an unsolved cold case, the Grove Park Killings, which have haunted her since she left the force, and the abrupt abandonment by her husband Jason (Nicholas Pinnock), who leaves her in the first episode, telling her he no longer loves her. His bombshell results in some violent domestic scenes that show another side to Marcella. 

'I think the question you ask is, “How dark is this woman?”' says Anna. 'It will be hard for the viewers to like her.'

Expect at gritty urban setting, grey skies and some grim story lines: the serial killings that unfold feature victims suffocated by plastic hoods, and the camera does not shy away from the gory details

Marcella, in the tradition of all the best TV detectives, is certainly singular, although Anna insists she wanted to make sure her interpretation felt credible. 'I don't think you ever search for or find something to be different for the sake of it,' she says. 'I went and met quite a few detectives - I met a very glamorous detective inspector called Liz and she turned up all made up and beautiful and I thought, “Who's the actress here? How does that go down in a male environment?” But she just said, “I'm a woman.” She's brilliant, she's solved more cases than anyone, she's amazing.'

Marcella, meanwhile, spends much of filming resolutely unmade up - when we chat Anna's sporting the jeans, jumper and padded jacket that's pretty much her on-set uniform. Then again, she's used to gritty these days, having recently made Odyssey, an American drama in which she played a special ops soldier on a crusade to expose a government cover-up. A brutally physical role, she still has foot injuries from filming. 'I've got Achilles tendonitis from an injury on the set of Odyssey. A man felon me and he was 6ft 5in and I was tied up, so it went crack. I used to run every day, but I can't really run at the minute.'

Anna has become a big name in America after starring in the critically acclaimed fantasy-drama Pushing Daisies, and she now spends six months of the year living and working in LA. She's delighted, though, to make a return to British TV - the forum where she made her name as a teenager in soap opera Brookside. 'It's an incredibly powerful medium,' she says of soap. 'Some actors choose just not to do it, I think each to their own. I'm kind of not a snob about it - wherever I think the work is really good, I go; whatever makes me better.'

Anna, above, on 'Good Morning Britain', has become a big name in America after starring in the critically acclaimed fantasy-drama Pushing Daisies, and she now spends six months of the year living in LA

She wasn't without reservations, she admits, after initially being contacted by Marcella co-creator Nicola Larder, who wanted Anna for the title role from the off. 'She said it's a crime thriller and I thought, “Aargh, is it cops, because I don't know what I could possibly bring?” But she said, “Come and talk to Hans, there's a very different new take on it.”' After that, it was a done deal.

Nor is Anna the only strong female lead. Sinead Cusack plays Sylvie Gibson, the steely head of a large family construction company who just happens to employ Marcella's estranged husband Jason. 'Her character was originally meant to be a man,' explains Sinead. 'And she's certainly quite hard-boiled - I presume you have to be in that business. She's tough on her kids, the people who work for her and the people she has to approach for business deals. But you have to try and find the humanity there.'

Sylvie is on her second marriage, and her husband Stephen, played by Patrick Baladi of The Office and Mistresses fame, is 20 years her junior. It's an unusual dynamic, although Sinead sees it as a relationship of equals - especially since she's made Stephen chairman of the board at her company. 'It feels a fairly vibrant relationship. There are hints that his eye might stray at times, but then don't most eyes?' she smiles.

Sinead, who in real life has been married for 38 years to Jeremy Irons, had never set eyes on Patrick before their first day on set. 'It's funny our business. You walk into the make-up van and meet your husband,' she says. 'So I walked into the make-up van and met Patrick for the first time and I said, “He's my youngest husband by far.” But it's been great.'

Patrick, 44, returns the compliment. 'It was lovely to work with Sinead. She's very sexy, very alluring, and there's enough there for the relationship to be credible.' Although the hinterland of his marriage is not fully explained, Patrick says he wanted to make the relationship real. 'Stephen's no puppet and Sylvie's no fool, so he's obviously got some knowledge and can feed the company, he just happens to be 20 years younger. We don't know where that will lead, or what his place with the family is.'

This ambiguity about the characters and their motivations, he believes, is what makes the series so powerful. 'I would suggest that most of the characters are fairly nuanced. What's so great about the writing is you're never quite sure who's what and actually some of the characters aren't sure what they are or who they are.'

Aside, that is, from Ian Puleston Davies, who plays Peter Cullen, a dyed-in-the-wool baddie. Already serving a sentence in an open prison for the manslaughter of his wife, Cullen is something of an obsession for Marcella, who thinks he's responsible for the Grove Park Killings. With Cullen released on licence three days a week to work in a bakery, she believes he could also be responsible for the latest murders. 'She's a thorn in his side,' Ian says.

Laura Carmichael plays an ambitious psychology student Maddy Stevenson, who's been meeting with the serial killer in the hope that he'll confess to the killings and help make her name

The actor, who will soon be seen in the second of ITV's Maigret adaptations, is perhaps best known from his five years on Coronation Street as Owen Armstrong, a builder with a violent streak. 'I like to think I've cornered the market in psychopaths,' he jokes. 'I've had my fair share of bad guys over the years and long may it continue, it's a ship I enjoy sailing in.'

In Marcella, Cullen's situation has attracted the attention of ambitious psychology student Maddy Stevenson, played by Laura Carmichael, who's been meeting with him in the hope that he'll confess to the killings and help make her name. Cullen, meanwhile, is revelling in the attention. 'Any normal bloke would think he's punching way above his weight. But what's interesting is that Hans has written Peter as someone who could quite feasibly believe a young girl would fall for him, and that's part of the mess,' says Ian. 'He probably feels he exudes this kind of charisma, so why wouldn't a guy in his 40s be found attractive by a young, beautiful lady, and that's how I played him.'

Then again, as Laura points out, Maddy thinks she knows exactly what she's doing. 'She has a cold, calculating side,' she says. 'When we meet her she's writing an essay as part of her Masters on domestic violence that results in death. She's ambitious and smart and also a bit reckless… she thinks this might be an interesting case study.'

Maddy's world is certainly a far cry from the corsets and country houses of Downton Abbey, where Laura played put-upon Lady Edith - although that of course is the point. 'It's modern and it's crime and it's Scandi,' she says. 'It feels like flexing a very different muscle. She's gutsy and not nervous making decisions and that's really fun.'

There's a pragmatic difference too: getting ready on set took 20 minutes as opposed to the two and a half hours required on Downton. That and the lack of corsets. 'It's so comfortable, and I can breathe,' she laughs.

Marcella, Monday, 9pm, ITV.