Rotorua will be the backdrop to a major New Zealand crime series being co-developed for the BBC by the producers of Downton Abbey.

Tentatively titled ‘Bay of Plenty' the series is billed as a 'darkly eccentric crime drama” created by Libertine Pictures creative director and multi-award winning film and TV writer Neil Cross.

Rotorua will be the dark, moody and foreboding backdrop for a new TV series being developed for the BBC. Photo: Meg Lipscombe

‘Bay of Plenty' will follow a London police detective who moves to Rotorua with her husband and children, with the notion she is moving to paradise.

Shot primarily in Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty the show is being developed as eight, one-hour long episodes.

It will feature a mix of New Zealand and international actors, plus an all Kiwi crew, and filming is expected to get underway during the latter half of 2015.

The show is being co-developed by ‘Downton Abbey' producer Carnival Films and Neil's New Zealand based production company Libertine Pictures.

Libertine joint managing director Richard Fletcher says while Neil is British, he has lived here for a number of years and is passionate about doing a New Zealand project.

He says ‘Bay of Plenty' will be in the tradition of shows like Twin Peaks and Fargo, with the series exploring the beauty, eeriness and dark underbelly of a small city at the end of the earth.

'Viewers can expect the kind of darkness that characterises Neil's work but with a quirky humour too,” says Richard.

The project will be financed by international licence fees and the Government's New Zealand Screen Production Grant.

It is the first major Kiwi TV production to be announced since the launch of the incentive scheme in April and will bring 'significant investment to the local and national economy,” adds Richard.

He says: 'The vast majority of the cast will be New Zealanders and it will employ many people from the New Zealand television and film industry and from the Bay of Plenty region.”

'This will give a team of New Zealand writers the chance to work with some of the world's best in television development and will provide exciting opportunities for New Zealand's behind the camera talent.”

Neil is the creator and sole writer of the multi-award winning BBC crime thriller ‘Luther' and in 2013 worked with Mexican director Guillermo del Toro on the international hit film ‘Mama'.

He was also lead scriptwriter for the acclaimed Series 6 and 7 of BBC spy drama Spooks and recently scripted two episodes of Dr Who.

Libertine Pictures creative director and multi-award winning film and TV writer Neil Cross. Photo: Supplied