The Tower

The Tower is a British police procedural television series based on Kate London's Metropolitan trilogy book series. Set in London, it stars Gemma Whelan as police officer Sarah Collins, initially from the fictional DSI department. The first series follows the aftermath of the deaths of a veteran Metropolitan Police officer and a young Libyan girl who fell together from the roof of a London tower block. When Constable Lizzie Adama—one of the only witnesses—disappears soon after, Collins' investigation becomes two-pronged: what happened on the roof, and finding Adama. Although the series is set in southeast London, it was mostly filmed in the northwest of England, particularly Liverpool and Manchester. The first series of The Tower was broadcast over three 50-minute episodes in November 2021. Patrick Harbinson acted as both screenwriter and executive producer. The show received generally favourable reviews, with positive comparisons being made by critics to fellow police corruption drama Line of Duty; Whelan's acting was considered a highlight. Criticisms were also made, particularly of the sound engineering, which was accused of muffling the spoken dialogue on occasion. Cast Gemma Whelan as DS Sarah Collins Tahirah Sharif as Lizzie Adama Jimmy Akingbola as DC Steve Bradshaw Emmett J. Scanlan as Inspector Kieran Shaw Lola Elsokari as Farah Mehenni Nick Holder as PC Hadley Matthews Karl Davies as Detective Chief Inspector Tim Baillie Nabil Elouahabi as Younes Mehenni Laurie Delaney as Mary Shaw Camilla Beeput as Julie Woodson Michael Karim as PC Arif Johar Harriet Webb as DC Alice Parker Rex Parry as Ben Stoddard Niamh Cusack as Claire Mills Cast background Gemma Whelan is probably best known as her character Yara Greyjoy in the HBO series Game of Thrones; Collins is her first primetime lead character. Tahirah Sharif was previously seen in The Haunting of Bly Manor and played minor characters in soaps such as Waterloo Road and Casualty. Jimmy Akingbola had roles in Kate & Koji and Holby City, Emmett J. Scanlan and Nick Holder were both in Peaky Blinders, while Nabil Elouhabi has had parts in Deep State, His Dark Materials and Only Fools and Horses. Karl Davies had previously appeared in Kingdom, Emmerdale, Happy Valley, Brief Encounters, and Chernobyl, while The Tower was Lola Elsokari's and Rex Parry's first television roles.