A new small-screen detective and his sidekick hit the streets of London in the first pictures from the TV adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s crime novels, which she penned under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

War and Peace actor Tom Burke, 35, stars as private eye Cormoran Strike and Holliday Grainger, 28, as his assistant, Robin Ellacott, in the hotly anticipated BBC1 series.

The cast began shooting the crime drama on Sunday in central London. And images from the first day of filming, released exclusively to the Press Association, show the British stars in character, with Strike, hands in his coat pockets, walking around London and Strike and Ellacott standing outside his favourite pub, The Tottenham.

Rowling, 51, wrote the Strike series of novels under the pen name Robert Galbraith.

The Harry Potter creator caused a sensation when she was unmasked as the true author of The Cuckoo’s Calling, the first book in the series, which was published in 2013.

The author’s cover was blown by a legal firm that had worked for her and the book, which had received critical acclaim but sold just 500 copies, immediately became a bestseller. Rowling went on to publish two more Strike books, and sales of the series rocketed to more than four million copies worldwide.

The Cuckoo’s Calling is being adapted into three hour-long episodes on BBC1, followed by two for The Silkworm and two for Career of Evil.

It is expected that the Strike series will be broadcast next year.