A prequel is set to roll out next year for a crime series that chalked up a string of honors during its run from 1991-2006 and has been credited with transforming the genre. PBS announced plans for “Prime Suspect: Tennison,” the prequel to its acclaimed “Prime Suspect.”

The original British police procedural starred Helen Mirren as Jane Tennison. The show ran for seven cycles, airing 15 episodes and chalking up Primetime Emmys for Outstanding Miniseries and for Outstanding Actress for Mirren, along with Golden Globes, British BAFTA Awards and a Peabody Award.

It was listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 best TV shows of all time, along with being listed by the British Film Institute as No. 68 on the list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes.

The prequel, slated to air in six parts, stars Stefanie Martini as a younger version of the iconic detective. The project is a co-production of ITV Studios, NoHo Film & Television and Masterpiece for ITV.

PBS describes “Prime Suspect: Tennison” as “a visually stunning, cinematic-style drama, which rewinds to 1970s London where viewers meet Jane (Stefanie Martini, ‘Doctor Thorne’) as an ambitious, single-minded 22-year-old probationary officer, starting out in an environment where chauvinism and rule-bending are the norm.”

Said “Masterpiece” executive producer Rebecca Eaton: “Jane Tennison was adored by ‘Masterpiece’ audiences, who cheered her on as she tried to make it in a man’s world. ‘Prime Suspect: Tennison’ will imagine the events that made Jane the tenacious, difficult, and brilliant detective that she became.”

Stefanie Martini (PBS)