Victoria 2 and JK Rowling’s Strike go head-to-head for favourite Sunday drama

Season two of Victoria and JK Rowling’s crime series Strike will go head-to-head for the title of favourite Sunday night drama when both shows launch tonight.

They will air at precisely 9.05pm, with Strike making its TV debut on BBC One and Daisy Goodwin’s historical drama returning to ITV.

The three-part run of Strike is based on The Cuckoo’s Calling, the first instalment of Rowling’s murder mystery trilogy penned under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Tom Burke plays gruff detective Cormoran Strike and Holliday Grainger takes on the role of his fiery right hand, Robin Ellacott, in Michael Keillor’s adaptation.

Also known for his roles in costume dramas The Musketeers and War & Peace, Burke recently revealed that the trickiest part of playing Strike was the physical aspect of his missing leg.

Commenting on doing justice to the detective’s disability – a result of his time fighting in Afghanistan – he told the Press Association: “That was where one felt one had one’s work cut out.”

Meanwhile, hit period show Victoria will revisit the British queen shortly after the birth of her first child in 1840.

Jenna Coleman will reprise her role as the famous monarch, with Tom Hughes returning as her husband, Prince Albert, as the pair continue their struggle to balance the pressures of their respective royal duties with their roles as husband, wife and parents.

While series one took viewers through Victoria’s coronation and her marriage to Albert, the new eight-part season will cover a five-year stretch and multiple births that required Coleman to don a range of fake bumps and pregnancy suits.

Commenting on the ambitious scenes, she told the Press Association: “I think that’s been a challenge for Daisy, there’s nine children… how do you navigate moving it forward and where do you pitch and place the pregnancies?”

Her ongoing role as the queen also saw the 31-year-old star add playing German operas on the piano to her skillset.

She joked: “Tom can play, which is very frustrating and I’m very far behind but trying to catch up.”