Year of the Rabbit is returning to Channel 4 for a second series

Tough booze-hound detective Rabbit (Matt Berry), his hapless partner Strauss (Freddie Fox) and the country’s first female police officer Mabel (Susan Wokoma) will also be back to fight crime in London’s east end.

• Matt Berry's Year of the Rabbit is a strange but funny beast

Matt Berry said: "I’m looking forward to Inspector Rabbit returning back to our screens to fight crime in the past. This time he’ll deal with all sorts of unearthly forces, including the Royal Family! Victorian London is presently very much where it’s at."

Fiona McDermott, Head of Comedy at Channel 4, added: "Year of the Rabbit is one of the most glorious, gutsy and audacious comedies on TV, made by a fantastic cast and crew who relish every detail. We're thrilled to welcome it back. Here's to more absurd capers in the dark underbelly of Victorian London."

The six new episodes will be written by Matt Berry with Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil (Veep, Black Books) and directed by Andrew Chaplin.
Series one – aired in 2019 – ended with a hint at the show's possible future, with an enigmatic figure (played, in a surprise cameo, by Jemaine Clement) revealing that Rabbit (Matt Berry) and his gang had "caught the attention" of the Queen, who had a special task in mind for them.

The show's chief villainess, Keeley Hawes' scheming Lydia, also escaped justice in the final episode, with Cecil previously telling Digital Spy that there were plans in place to "bring her back at some point in the future".
"We don't yet know how much and in what capacity, because we haven't written it yet," he added. But it's nice to have [that option]. We do kill off quite a lot of people, and we don't want everyone dead!"