Strike Back (TV series)

Strike Back
The broadcast title of the series since the second series, Project Dawn.
GenreDrama
Spy fiction
Action
Adventure
Written by
Directed by
Starring
Opening theme"Short Change Hero" – The Heavy (Series 2 onwards)
Country of origin
  • United Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons8
No. of episodes76 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Andy Harries
  • Huw Kennair-Jones
  • Daniel Percival
  • Elaine Pyke
  • Tony Saint
  • Frank Spotnitz
Producers
  • Sue De Beauvoir
  • Andrew Benson
  • Michael Casey
  • Chris Clough
  • Trevor Hopkins
  • Bill Shepard
  • Chris Thompson
Production locations
Running time42-48 minutes
Production companyLeft Bank Pictures
Original release
Network
Release5 May 2010 (2010-05-05) –
17 April 2020 (2020-04-17)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Strike Back is a British action thriller television series based on the 2007 novel of the same name by novelist and former Special Air Service soldier Chris Ryan. The series follows the actions of Section 20, a secretive branch of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, aka MI6), who operate several high risk, priority missions around the world. The six-part first series began broadcasting on Sky One on 5 May 2010.

After a second series was commissioned, it was announced that Cinemax would co-produce the franchise. The first episode of the ten-part second series, under the banner title Project Dawn in the United Kingdom, first aired on Cinemax on 12 August 2011. The ten-part third series, under the title Strike Back: Vengeance, began airing on Cinemax on 17 August 2012. On 3 October 2012, Cinemax and Sky commissioned a fourth series, Strike Back: Shadow Warfare, which was broadcast on Cinemax beginning 9 August 2013.[1][2] A ten-episode, fifth series titled Strike Back: Legacy aired in 2015, with the last episode airing on 29 July, and at that point, this was to be final series for the show.

On 8 December 2016, Cinemax and Sky announced they would revive the show for a sixth series, Strike Back: Retribution which debuted on 31 October 2017 on Sky One in the UK,[3] and in the US on Cinemax on 2 February 2018. On 27 March 2018, Strike Back was renewed for a seventh series titled Strike Back: Revolution. Filming commenced in late 2018, with a release date of 25 January 2019 on Cinemax and 28 February 2019 on Sky One.[4] On 27 February 2019, Cinemax renewed the series for an eighth and final series titled Strike Back: Vendetta, which premiered on 14 February 2020.[5][6]

Ratings for Strike Back were relatively high for the original networks. The Sky One premiere was viewed by almost 400,000 viewers (according to overnight figures), tripling the average audience share for the channel's time slot after three months. Project Dawn premiered to over 600,000. The Cinemax premiere saw the network's best ratings since 2005.

  1. ^ Bibel, Sara (3 October 2012). "'Strike Back' Renewed for Season 3 by Cinemax". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on 11 December 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  2. ^ Jeffery, Morgan (3 October 2012). "'Strike Back' renewed for another season". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  3. ^ Elliot, Dave (9 October 2017). "'Strike Back' Season 6 Get's UK premiere date of Tuesday, 31st October at 9pm on Sky 1". GeekTown. Archived from the original on 16 October 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  4. ^ "Strike Back season 7". Digital Spy. 27 March 2018. Archived from the original on 28 March 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  5. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (27 February 2019). "'Strike Back' Renewed For Seventh & Final Season By Cinemax". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 28 February 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  6. ^ "Action Series 'Strike Back' Returns for Its Seventh and Final Season February 14, Exclusively on Cinemax". The Futon Critic. 7 January 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2020.