The strand will return for the first of 15 x 60-minute editions next month. An initial run of eight will be followed by seven films later in the year.
Real Crime focuses on big-hitting investigations into high-profile crimes. ITV controller of current affairs and documentaries Jeff Anderson said there were still “limited slots available” in this year's run, and was keen to hear more strong ideas.
“Since the last series, there have been a number of high-profile court cases that would benefit from the long-form documentary approach,” he said.
“We're looking for the stories behind contemporary crimes that captured everyone's attention. We want to bring new information, either in the form of evidence or a key participant talking for the first time, about the planning that went into a crime or of how someone was caught.”
Real Crime originally ran for four years from 1999 and returned for a one-off eight-part series in 2005.
The latest run is earmarked for a post-News at Ten slot, but some of the higher-profile cases are likely to move up to 9pm.
ITV Productions has made two films for the strand, including the opening edition, which tells the story of Clare Bernal, the Harvey Nichols beauty counter assistant shot dead at the store by a stalker in 2005.
Its second doc centres on the 1975 murder of Rochdale schoolgirl Lesley Molseed, whose killer was caught thanks to a DNA breakthrough more than three decades later.
Indies making shows for the strand include Folio, which looks back at the campaign launched by the parents of Sarah Payne, the eight-year-old girl who was murdered in 2000.
Twofour will look at Colin Ireland, who murdered five gay men in the 1980s, while True North will investigate the story of Colin Norris, the nurse recently convicted for the 2002 murder of elderly patients at two Leeds hospitals.
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