Doctor Foster season 3 with Suranne Jones 'in the works' after 8 years

Having recently been seen on our screens in the likes of Hostage and Frauds, Suranne Jones has been no stranger to the screen as of late – but there's some further potential exciting news in store for her fans.

It's been reported that BBC's Doctor Foster is set to return for an anticipated third instalment, with Jones set to return in the iconic leading role. The first season premiered back in 2015, with season 2 following in 2017, so it's been a whopping eight years since we last saw the series on our screens.

According to a report in The Sun, filming is due to start on Doctor Foster season 3 next year, "with a view to it potentially airing at the end of 2026 or early 2027".

When approached by RadioTimes.com about the reports, the BBC said they would not be commenting on the news.

The series was a standout success for the BBC at the time of airing and went on to become quite a seminal British psychological thriller series, centring on Jones's Gemma Foster who suspects her husband of having an affair.

A successful doctor, Gemma's world starts to unravel as she seeks to find out the truth about her husband Simon, who is played by Dalgliesh's Bertie Carvel.

The second series picked up a couple of years after the events of season 1, with Simon's new life and relationship (with Kate, played by Jodie Comer) continuing to impact Gemma.

While the second season left on a bit of an open-ended note, many fans thought there was still more to be explored in terms of the series, its story and characters.

A spin-off series, Life, did air on the BBC and followed one of the characters from Doctor Foster: Anna Baker, who was played by Victoria Hamilton.

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At the time of the airing of season 2, Jones had said that her busy workload was one of the reasons why she may not be able to take on the task of returning to the world of Doctor Foster. Since 2017, Jones's schedule has only seemingly gotten busier, with the actress having just starred in BBC's Film Club and filming the third season of Vigil.

In 2019, Doctor Foster series creator Mike Bartlett did hint that there was more to explore when it came to Gemma.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com at the time, Bartlett said: "There's something going on with Gemma Foster, I don't know what, I think she's got... there's more capacity to that character than I know. I love that. Do you know what I mean? If I ever went back to her I think I'd find something that I hadn't seen before.

"The same with Kate Parks, Jodie [Comer's] character, in that. And that absolutely I felt in series one with her, that there was more to her than I'd found. And that was why she's more in the second series. And she's brilliant."

On whether he'd want to return to pen a third season, he said at the time: "Only if there's a story that I want to tell, and I feel like it's as important and vital as the other two [seasons].

"I think not just to continue the story, but if there's something that's gonna feel as important and vital, and show us sides to those characters we haven't seen before, then it would be great."

Doctor Foster seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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