A New Zealand company is teaming up with the producers of Downton Abbey to work on a new crime series set in Rotorua.
Provisionally titled 'Bay of Plenty', the series is being developed by New Zealand based Libertine Pictures, along with an international television producer.
The series is being produced for the BBC.
A managing director of Libertine, Richard Fletcher, said the series would be shot primarily in Rotorua and Bay of Plenty, with a New Zealand crew, and a local and international cast.
Mr Fletcher said the series features a London detective who moves to Rotorua with her family, thinking she is moving to paradise.
He said the series will explore the dark side of a small city at the end of the earth.
Libertine's joint managing director Paul Davis said the series was being primarily scripted by Neil Cross, the creator of the British crime drama Luther.
But he said it would provide opportunities for other local writers and Neil Cross would work with a team of New Zealand writers.
Mr Davis said Libertine Pictures really wants to build up its writing talent.