Unforgotten season 4 cast: Who is joining Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar in the ITV cold-case crime drama?

The ITV crime drama Unforgotten returns for a highly anticipated fourth series bringing a new case for DCI Cassie Stuart and DI Sunny Khan to crack.

Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar are back on the case with the discovery of a dismembered body in a scrap metal yard, starting an investigation into the death of Matthew Walsh  - a man last seen in March, 1990.

The team quickly connect Matthew’s death 30 years ago to a drink driving conviction where there were four passengers in the car.

All four have moved on with their lives and set up home in different parts of the country, but Cassie and Sunny’s cold case investigation is about to uncover a world of secrets and lies hiding beanth the surface.

The show’s creator and writer Chris Lang said: “I am so excited to be bringing back the Unforgotten team for a fourth series, as Cassie and Sunny take on perhaps their most challenging case to date. Once again, we have assembled an astonishing cast.”

Unforgotten Season 4 cast and characters

• Nicola Walker - Plays DCI Cassie Stuart
• Sanjeev Bhaskar - Plays DI Sunny Khan
• Peter Egan - Plays Martin Hughes
• Alastair MacKenzie - Plays DCI John Bentley
• Liz White - Plays Fiona Grayson
• Susan Lynch - Plays Elizabeth Baildon
• Andy Nyman  - Plays Dean Barton
• Phaldut Sharma - Plays Ram Sidhu
• Sheila Hancock - Plays Eileen
• Lucy Speed - Plays Marnie Barton
• Clare Calbraith - Plays Anna Sidhu
• Jordan Long - Plays DS Murray Boulting
• Lewis Reeves - Plays DC Jake Collier
• Carolina Main - Plays DS Fran Lingley
• Georgia Mackenzie - Plays Dr Leanne Balcolmbe
• Pippa Nixon - Plays DC Karen Willetts
• Michelle Bonnard - Plays Sal

DCI Cassie Stuart – Played by Nicola Walker 

“When we left Cassie at the end of the last series she felt it necessary to stop, she definitely had what would have been loosely termed ‘a breakdown’ and we were left wondering if she was going to come back,” explains Walker.

“When we meet her this series you realise she doesn’t really want to come back but she is in a terrible position that she will lose a massive amount of her pension pay out on a technicality if she doesn’t come back and complete a certain number of months to comply with her pension.

“It is awful, she is in a complete trap so she agrees to come back so she can access the full amount of her pension because her dad is getting more and more ill and she is looking at the fact that she will probably be financially responsible for her father’s care. So she is completely caught. Her entire career she has very dedicatedly given to the police force. She is angry and feels very betrayed and that’s how she goes into this series’ story.”

Where have you seen Nicola Walker before?

Last Tango in Halifax, The Split, River, Spooks

DI Sunny Khan – Played by Sanjeev Bhaskar

“In the upcoming series Sunny is back with the team, investigating another strange appearance of body parts, as we have begun with every series,” said Bhaskar.

“What is different about this series is that the investigation leads them much closer to home and it effects the way they investigate this case because the ramifications are much bigger. 12 Cast interview Sanjeev Bhaskar continued: “Sunny is also moving in with his girlfriend this series and is trying to find that stability in his home life.

“His home life has been quite chaotic as he put all of the organisation and care into his work life and very little into his personal life and we see him attempting to redress that imbalance this series. This time around there are elements within the story, which certainly were more emotionally challenging, for me, in a way they hadn’t been in previous series.”

Where have you seen Sanjeev Bhaskar before?

Yesterday, Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars at No.42

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Lisa Baildon – Played by Susan Lynch

 “Liz is quite a challenging character, because initially you think she is one thing and then suddenly as time unfolds, you see that she is something entirely different and it is so brilliantly arced,” said Lynch.

“It was this mystery of Liz that initially drew me in. She has a highly responsible job which she is exceptionally good at and she is very happily engaged to the love of her life, Janet (Amanda Douge). So she has found herself in such a happy place in her life and then suddenly, as this drama does, it unfurls each of the characters and you find out that Liz is not who she seems.

"I like complex characters, so for me this was a gift of a part.”

Where have you seen Susan Lynch before?

Save Me, Apple Tree Yard, Happy Valley, Nora

Fiona Grayson – Played by Liz White

“Fiona is one of the suspects in the cold-case murder investigation this series explores. She is one of a group of people who may have known each other a long time ago but have all since dispersed and have no remaining association with each other,” said Liz White.

“She has since created this whole new life for herself, like a lot of the people, but more so Fiona. Fiona and her partner, Geoff, live in the Peak District with their two children. She is a therapist and she and Geoff (Daniel Flynn) are in the process of buying a property to be her new practice.

"Suddenly she finds herself in a situation where they are set to expand their business and she is about to become more prominent in her own right, and that terrifies her. Fiona is living this false reality, apart from the fact she has two children she loves and what seems to be a happy union with her partner.

“She has done a good job re-establishing herself, but the past is still hanging over her head. She always thought she would tell her partner the truth when the time was right but life got in the way a little and it never happened. So when you meet Fiona you meet a woman who is struggling with a lot.”

Where have you seen Liz White before?

Life on Mars, Ackley Bridge, The Halcyon

Ram Sidhu – Played by Phaldut Sharma

“Ram Sidhu is one of the four murder suspects in the new series of Unforgotten and he is quite a sparky character,” said Sharma.

“Ram is a very successful man and there is definitely something of an alpha male in him and sense of bravado in the way he carries himself - broad shoulders, chest out, elbows out - and coupled with that is a certain charm and charisma that he has.

"He enjoys the spotlight; when he is in the room people know about it. He also enjoys status level and with that comes a certain hot-headedness and ambition.

“Ram was born in west London in the 1970s; he is a second-generation immigrant of a Punjabi Sikh family, which is a unique upbringing.

"Being of that ilk myself, second generation, you go into a world where you are looking for an identity and you have your feet in both worlds – first-generation influence of your culture, your family and of traditions and then you have this western culture you are trying to integrate with and Ram probably found he was neither one or the other really. He fell through the cracks.

"So there is an identity crisis going on about where one belongs.”

Where have you seen Phaldut Sharma before?

Hanna, Gravity, Children of Men, EastEnders, The Office, Gavin and Stacey, Casualty

Dean Barton – Played by Andy Nyman

“Dean is a working class man who has self-educated, built up a business and is now affluent and enjoys all that goes with that, such as the nice house and the fancy car, but in a way that is not ostentatious,” said Nyman.

“It is done with a real sense of pride that he has come out of a harsh background and built a new life for himself and his family. He is happily married with two children. One of his children, Jack (Rory Averdieck), has special needs and whilst Dean spends a lot of time with both of his sons he finds trying to get that balance quite difficult and he tends to overcompensate with Jack.

“Within the strange stresses caused by a heavy work life and a potentially difficult family life there is real happiness there. He loves his wife; they share a very happy relationship but a big reason as to why his family life is so important to him is because he came from a very unhappy family.

“That is something Dean struggles with and he is certainly not, when it comes to emotions, a ‘modern’ man and like an awful lot of men he buries things deep down, hoping and pretending that it will stay down there and that it doesn’t impact on his life. He had done things in his youth that he is not proud of but he has since done everything in his life to redress that balance.”

Where have you seen Andy Nyman before?

Ghosts Stories, Peaky Blinders, Hanna, Dead Set, Death at a Funeral

Martin Hughes – Played by Peter Egan

Cassie’s father has early onset dementia and depression in the new series, which is causing difficulties for the detective at home.

Where have you seen Peter Egan before?

Downton Abbey, After Life, Big Breadwinner Hog

DCI John Bentley – Played by Alastair MacKenzie

Cassie’s relationship with DCI Bentley, which began in season three, will continue in the new episodes.

Where have you seen Alastair MacKenzie before?

Monarch of the Glen, Black Mirror, Deep Water, Cold Feet

Eileen – Played by Sheila Hancock

Hancock plays Lisa’s (Susan Lynch) mother and she has a controlling influence over her daughter.

“Liz is very much under her mother’s thumb and it is awful, but there is a turning point which is quite shocking,” said Susan Lynch.

“It was amazing to play those scenes. It is a very fractious relationship. Liz was obviously quite close with her father, they both were, but Liz liked to see herself as her father’s golden child and apple of his eye but her mother disagrees.

“But then her mother basically disagrees with everything that Liz does and says. Chris Lang is such a brilliant writer, the tension between these two women is palpable.”

Where have you seen Sheila Hancock before?

Star of stage, screen and TV, you may have seen Hancock in Delicious, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Endeavour, Bleak House, Doctor Who, Buster, Three Men and a Little Lady, or earlier this year, in Sky One’s A Discovery of Witches.

DC Jake Collier – Played by Lewis Reeves

A key member of the investigating team in season 4.

Where have you seen Lewis Reeves before?

I May Destroy You, Crazyhead, Misfits

Marnie Barton – Played by Lucy Speed

Marnie is the wife of suspect Dean Barton (Andy Nyman).

Where have you seen Lucy Speed before?

EastEnders, The Bill, National Treasure, After Life, Marcella

Anna Sidhu – Played by Clare Calbraith

Anna is the wife of suspect Ram Sidhu (Phaldut Sharma)

Where have you seen Clare Calbraith before?

Baptist, The Alienist, Home Fires, The Shadow Line, Vera