Ian Rankin warns fans that new 'full-blooded’ Rebus TV reboot is not an 'easy watch'

Richard Rankin will play recently-demoted detective

Ian Rankin has warned his fans that the new TV adaptation of his John Rebus novel will not be an “easy watch” due to its graphic scenes.

The best-selling author has described the rebooted series, which will see Outlander star Richard Rankin take on the lead role, as “visceral” and “full-blooded.”

And the writer said the new BBC show, written by award-winning Scottish playwright and screenwriter Gregory Burke, featured violence that is “literally in-your-face.”

Richard Rankin plays John Rebus in the forthcoming BBC TV series. Picture: Mark Mainz/BBC/PA Wire

However the author said he was “so happy” with the format of the new show, which will see a single story unfold over a six-part series, in contrast with previous adaptations starring Ken Stott and John Hannah.

Described as “a major reimagining” of the character, the new series is set in modern-day Edinburgh, with a 40-year-old Rebus recently-divorced and recently-demoted.

The TV show is expected to be launched on the BBC next month, ahead of the publication of Rankin’s latest Rebus novel, Midnight & Blue.

Rebus will also appear on stage in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen in the autumn in a revival of the play A Game Called Malice, which is at an intimate Edinburgh dinner party where a murder mystery game turns deadly.

Richard Rankin plays John Rebus in the forthcoming BBC TV series. Picture: John Devlin

Discussing the forthcoming TV series at a fundraising event for the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, Rankin said: "I don’t think the character and Edinburgh and the themes I write about were particularly well-served by the previous set-up, where it was a single storyline over 45 minutes to an hour.

"I just thought there was no room for the characters to develop, and the themes and the city to breathe properly. I'm just so happy that the BBC have taken it on and we’re going to get a big, full-blooded Rebus.

"It’s not going to be an easy watch. It’s visceral in the way that some of the early books were visceral. The violence is literally in-your-face.

"But I think it’s a great story. Gregory Burke is a phenomenal writer. He is phenomenal on what we might call the crisis of masculinity, especially as it relates to working-class Scottish men.

Richard Rankin plays John Rebus in the forthcoming BBC TV series. Picture: John Devlin

"That kind of facade and the bravado you get from the working-class Scottish male – he likes to dig down beneath that and show the frailties that lie just below.”

The series, which will feature a host of familiar characters, will see Lucie Shorthouse play Rebus’s new colleague, detective constable Siobhan Clarke, Caroline Lee-Johnson play his boss, detective inspector Gill Templer, Stuart Bowman play underworld figure Ger Cafferty and Noof Ousellam play powerful businessman Darryl Christie.

However the Rebus reboot will feature a much more prominent role for Rebus's brother, Michael, a former soldier drawn into criminality by financial problems, who will be played by Brian Ferguson.

Asked if he regretted dropping any characters from his Rebus novels, Rankin said: “That’s an interesting one.

Fife-born writers Gregory Burke and Ian Rankin are joining forces to create the new TV adaptation of the Rebus novels. Picture: Robert Perry

"In the early books, Rebus has a brother, Michael, who is a very troubled soul. I kind of let go of him and just lost interest in him.

"But I felt that there was more I could have done with him as a character. For the forthcoming TV adaptation, Gregory Burke picked up on that straight away. He said: ‘These two brothers are really interesting characters. They’re like magnets – they keep bouncing off each other.’ So Michael is going to play a big role.”

More than 30 million Rebus books have been sold since his debut in Knots & Crosses in 1987.

Due to be published in October, Midnight & Blue will be the 25th Rebus story, which Rankin admitted was "difficult" to write.

He said: "I thought naively when I was younger that it would get easier, that it would be a bit like stripping a car engine, but writing a book ain’t like that.

"You can be your harshest critic. You want each book to be better than the book before and different from the book before, but your publishers and your readers don't want it to be that different.

Screenwriter Gregory Burke is working on the new TV adaptation of Sir Ian Rankin's best-selling John Rebus novels. Picture: Ian Gavan/Getty Images

"I can go for months and months without writing. Then the panic sets in because there’s a deadline looming, the adrenaline gets going and I start to write very quickly. I write every single day because I don’t want to forget what's going on. It's not planned or plotted, it’s just in my head. I need to write quickly before I lose it.

“When I start writing a book, it's got quite a linear plot and it's quite straightforward. But the plot starts to chuck stuff at me and it gets incredibly complex. By the end of the process, I'm barely hanging on to this convoluted story, hoping it's going to make sense at the end. The latest one, which isn't quite finished yet, I found difficult for various reasons.

"My books are getting shorter as I get older. I’ve said that I don’t like reading long books. I’m always afraid I’ll die before I finish them. It's the same with writing. My wife is always very relieved when I get past about page 200. She says: ‘If you pop your clogs now I’m sure somebody else could finish it.’"It's not getting any easier, but it probably shouldn't. If it gets easier it’s a sign that you're not testing yourself hard enough.”