A hit BBC thriller is returning to screens next month in a major win for fans after it ended on a frustrating cliffhanger.

Crime drama Strike will return for a sixth instalment this December, two years after the last series aired.

Adapted from JK Rowling’s popular book series, which was written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, each season is named after the corresponding story it is based on.

The show follows war veteran turned private detective Cormoran Strike, played by Tom Burke, as he works to solve complex cases from his tiny office on Denmark Street in London.

Strike uses his unique insight and experience as a Special Investigation Branch investigator to crack the cases the police couldn’t, helped by his trusty ᴀssistant Robin Ellacott, played by Holliday Grainger.

Fans have already enjoyed five seasons, including The Cuckoo’s Calling, The Silkworm, Career of Evil, Lethal White and Troubled Blood.

Crime drama Strike will return for a sixth instalment this December, two years after the last series aired

The show follows war veteran turned private detective Cormoran Strike, played by Tom Burke, as he works to solve complex cases from his tiny office on Denmark Street in London

Strike uses his unique insight and experience as a Special Investigation Branch investigator to crack the cases the police couldn’t, helped by his trusty ᴀssistant Robin Ellacott (right), played by Holliday Grainger

Now, they will be able to enjoy two more hour-long episodes in the sixth series, The Ink Black Heart, when they air on Monday, December 16 and Tuesday, December 17.

Averaging 8.4 million viewers across its run in 2022, Troubled Blood saw Strike fail to confess his true feelings for Robin as she worked through a tough divorce.

It remains a mystery whether or not a romance will blossom between the crime-busting pair in The Ink Black Heart, but the duo were seen working together again in preview images released last month.

The BBC’s synopsis for the new season reads: ‘When frantic, desperate Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn’t know quite what to make of the situation.

‘The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie’s true idenтιтy.

‘Robin informs Edie that the agency is too busy to take on her case and thinks nothing more of it until a few weeks later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.

‘Robin and her business partner Cormoran Strike become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie’s true idenтιтy.

‘But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches them to their limit.’

Strike: The Ink Black Heart airs on Monday 16 December and Tuesday 17 December at 9pm on BBC1.