WITH filming nearly complete, six-part police drama The Level will be shown on ITV in autumn this year.

Named after the iconic Brighton park, the series is laced with references to the city, with much of the show based in Sussex.

It will star Philip Glenister (from Life on Mars), Karla Crome (Misfits), Laura Haddock (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Noel Clarke (Auf Wiedersehen, Pet).

Dubbed a gripping thriller by ITV producers, it follows the double life of Detective Sergeant Nancy Devlin (Karla Crome).

Her exemplary police career masks a covert attachment to shady businessman and drugs trafficker, Frank Le Saux (Philip Glenister), who still lives in Brighton where she grew up.

Inextricably linked to Frank from childhood as the father of her best friend, Hayley (Laura Haddock) and the father figure she herself craved.

Nancy plays a dangerous game to ensure that Frank always remains off the police radar.

She then finds herself at the centre of an investigation which puts her at risk of exposure and sees her stalked by a killer intent on destroying her.

The show needed a fitting backdrop, and from the moment writer Gaby Chiappe put pen to paper, her home city was the only choice.

Producer Jayne Dauncey said: “I think when Gaby was trying to find an atmospheric place to script a thriller, Brighton seemed visually very interesting and a place she knew and I think it works for us because it’s wonderful to have the sea, the sky and to feel like you’re on the edge of everything.

“We’re very much using the seascape and there’s a story line about stuff coming and going, a haulage company and import and export, so we’ll probably be filming towards Newhaven and we’re filming cliffs towards Peacehaven.

“The main house in the story is one of the houses up by Roedean school, where there are some pretty splendid homes.

“The one we’re using has glass on every side, so when you film in it, what you’re seeing is sea, sky, clouds, weather – it’s fabulous."

Talking about the decision to name the series after the city park, she said: “I think because it’s so central and everybody in Brighton knows it.

"It also has a double meaning with, 'are you on The Level' – as in are you honest or is there something else referring to the double life.”

The producer is well versed in what the city has to offer having spent three years travelling to and from the south coast as a parent of a student.

“I’ve been here a few times and my daughter was at the University of Sussex,” she said.

“So she did three years living in Brighton, so I’d come down, clean her house, pack her stuff and go back.

“It’s been brilliant.

“We’ve had a huge amount of help from the council and we’ve found it very film-friendly.

“Especially when we’re asking people if we can take over their houses for three days.

“People are generally just curious and interested to have us.”

The most recent TV show to be filmed in Brighton was the BBC’s Cuffs, which was not offered a second series after a fall in ratings.

Jane said The Level would offer a different flavour to the more family-friendly Cuffs and said she would leave the door open for a second series.

She said: “This is much more of a proper thriller.

“But it’s also a family story.

“Every crime that happens in it, happens out of emotional entanglement.

“It’s not one of those that you find out the killer is a psychotic looney, so it’s quite a lot about dysfunctional families and how it’s quite difficult to escape that past.

“I like my crime with higher stakes.

“Cuffs was an 8pm show, families sit down and it’s real life issues, very recognisable, reasonably identifiable, whereas this is a proper puzzle of who did what and why.”

Filming will finish in early July with the show aired on ITV later this year.