When Will 'Unforgotten' Season 4 Air on PBS?

It took a couple of years before the cold case series Unforgotten made its way across the pond. Two seasons of the mystery had already aired overseas before the show arrived on PBS Masterpiece's schedule in 2018. But the series was a surprise hit in the spring of 2018 when PBS aired the first two seasons back to back. The Nicola Walker-led show was already renewed in the U.K. and quickly arrived with Season 3 one year later in April of 2019. But delays in renewing Season 4, followed by the coronavirus pandemic hitting just as the show would have gone into production, left fans bereft in 2020. Now that the show is finally back on U.K. televisions in 2021, how long will we have to wait to see it here?

The bad news is that despite spring being its usual U.S. berth, Unforgotten is not expected to arrive this April. Though some shows do manage quick turn arounds from British TV to American, ITV shows rarely do. Downton Abbey and Victoria, for example, would air in September/October on ITV and then not show up on PBS until after the new year. There are many logistical reasons for this: For one thing, ITV is a commercial broadcast station, so the show has to be re-edited to remove the advert breaks and smooth the transitions.

But the good news is that the series is expected to arrive before the year is out. The Masterpiece website currently has the show listed among the titles coming this fall. Moreover, unlike some tentatively scheduled series for the back half of the year, the latest Unforgotten is already on the air elsewhere (unlike Grantchester or Van Der Valk). That means there's a good chance the series will kick off the Fall season in America, rather than be held back until November or later.