Exclusive:Ian Rankin on doubts over new Rebus TV season and his inspiration to write 'young Rebus' books

Ian Rankin has revealed overseas funding will almost certainly be needed to bring John Rebus back to the nation's TV screens.

Richard Rankin plays detective sergeant John Rebus in the new BBC TV series. Picture: Mark Mainz

However, the author has suggested the new BBC series, which saw Richard Rankin play a much younger version of the character than in the most recent novels, may inspire him to write the first "young Rebus" books in future.

Lucie Shorthouse and Richard Rankin play Siobhan Clarke and John Rebus in the new BBC Scotland series Rebus. Picture: Mark Mainz

The best-selling author, executive producer of the new series, admitted further series of the detective drama were on hold due to a lack of available finance. Rankin suggested the BBC was looking as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States for potential backers.

Rebus was said to be around 40 years of age in this year's TV reboot - the same age as the character in the first novel, Knots & Crosses, which was published in 1987.

Richard Rankin stars in the new series of Rebus, which was based on the novels by Ian Rankin. Picture: BBC

The Rebus books were first adapted for the screen in 2000 when John Hannah and then Ken Stott starred in an STV series, which ran until 2007. The author later announced he had bought back the adaptation rights because he was unhappy with the running time allocated to each story.

Crime writer Ian Rankin outside The Oxford Bar in Edinburgh, which features in his Rebus novels | Scott Louden

It was not until 2017 the possibility of a TV reboot of Rebus emerged when it was announced that producers Eleventh Hour Films had snapped up the rights and were working with Burke.

It took another five years for a new series to be greenlit by Swedish streaming service and entertainment company Viaplay, but was acquired by the BBC before its premiere after the Nordic firm decided to pull out of the UK. And Eleventh Hour was taken over in July by Sony Pictures Television.

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Rankin was asked about the possibility of a new series at an in-conversation event in Edinburgh to promote his new Rebus novel, Midnight and Blue, which sees the main character try to solve a murder behind bars while serving a prison sentence.

He said: “Gregory Burke from the same part of Fife as me. He's interested in the same themes as me, such as toxic masculinity and post-industrial Scotland. I trusted him with my characters' lives, basically.

"He said to me quite early on: 'I want a young, virile Rebus. I don't want your crock. I want a guy who can be physical and threatening, but I want to set it in the present day, so I can talk about present-day issues'.

"I told him 'that's a big ask for an audience who have grown up with Rebus, but I trust you, let's give it a go’. I thought he did an amazing job.

"I couldn't take my eyes off Richard. There was so much happening behind his eyes. I thought he was superb. We would like a second season. Gregory scripted a two-season arc in his head, which is why season one ends on such a cliff-hanger.

"It's now really about the BBC getting co-production money. Nothing seems to get made these days without getting international co-production money. We're looking for money from America, Canada, Australia or wherever. Hopefully we can get it made, because I want to know what happens next."

Rankin said he had thought the previous Rebus book, which saw the character going on trial for murder, would be the last in the series.

However, Rankin added: "People started to nag me, saying they wanted to know what happened next.

"I felt it would be really interesting if Rebus was sent to prison because you'd have an ex-cop in a place where everybody hates him, mistrusts and wants mischief to befall him. He would have put away some of the people in there.

"If this book is the end of the series, I think it's a good ending. I've not got anything else for Rebus to do. He is very old now.

"But the new TV series has given me an inkling that there might be mileage in [writing about] a young Rebus. I was resistant to that for a long time, until I wrote [the] William McIlvanney continuation novel, which was set in 1970s Glasgow.

"There's actually some freedom in doing that, because you don't have to think about technology. These days, you've got to factor in doorbell cameras, iPhones and CCTV everywhere.

“Everything is spying on you all the time. There was none of that in the ‘70s or ‘80s. It's a much simpler world to write about."