M-Net orders new co-production series, Detective Cooper

Australia's Goalpost Pictures and South Africa's Quizzical Pictures are teaming up to co-produce a new detective series for M-Net.

Detective Cooper will be adapted from the award-winning Detective Emmanuel Cooper book A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn.

The story centres on a white detective in apartheid-era South Africa with a dangerous secret: he is, in fact, mixed race.

British/Australian writer James McNamara is creating the series for television in partnership with South African writer Amy Jephta.

"M-Net is excited to partner with Quizzical and Goalpost Pictures on the production of Detective Cooper. Set against the volatile backdrop of the fifties in South Africa, Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper faces multi-layered challenges as he, alongside colleagues Constable Shabalala and Doctor Zweigman, solves mysterious crimes.

"We knew we wanted to be part of this gripping world Nunn created, which is so authentically intriguing and suspenseful; it aligns perfectly with our strategic vision to be Africa's most loved storyteller," says Nkateko Mabaso, M-Net Group Executive: Programming.