A DRAMA detailing the original investigation into the disappearance of Swindon woman Sian O’Callaghan will begin next month.

The ITV series will premiere on Monday, September 2, featuring The Hobbit star Martin Freeman as murder squad detective Det Supt Stephen Fulcher.

Directors have focused on the early investigation, following the disappearance of 22-year-old Sian in March 2011. Her body was found five days after she was reported missing.

Taxi driver Christopher Halliwell was jailed in 2012 for the young woman’s murder. And Det Supt Fulcher would later lose his career over a decision to bend police rules and act on Halliwell’s offer to help cops find another victim – rather than take the cabbie into custody.

Martin Freeman told the Guardian this summer: “The biggest tragedy is the women who died and their families but this is an awful thing that happened to him. Fulcher was deemed to be a bad guy by some people.

“I do know he was never fantastic at suffering fools. And that may, or may not, have been instrumental in what happened to him afterwards, since if I rubbed you up the wrong way and you later see an opportunity to kick me in the nuts, you might take it.”