THE cast of a new cop drama set in Brighton is looking forward to tonight's debut hoping "people love it as much as we loved making it".

Filmed in the city and other parts of Sussex over the past year, Cuffs starts tonight at 8pm on BBC One.

The eight-part police drama follows the officers of South Sussex Police as they battle against Brighton and Hove's underworld as well as their own personal demons.

Jacob Ifan, who plays rookie cop PC Jake Vickers, said: "I’m so excited for it to come out and I hope people love it as much as we’ve loved making it".

"Working in Brighton was great. I’d never been to Brighton before. We were by the North Laine, so it’s full of nice restaurants and bars and shops, we were never bored.

"I had friends come down to stay. The nightlife and everything was great and people in Brighton are really nice.

"People call it London-on-sea, which I get because it’s quite cosmopolitan and there is a lot going on, but the people are a lot nicer."

He added: "Brighton is actually a massive character itself within the series, like London in Sherlock, or Louisiana was in True Detective".

Starring alongside him is Ashley Walters, who plays the tough hard-nosed veteran cop PC Ryan Draper, a single dad who is trying to raise his kids while staying a good cop.

He said: "I loved working in Brighton. I’ve always had a relationship with Brighton.

"It’s always been a place that my mum took me, at least twice a year when I was younger, and definitely always in the summer.

"I’ve carried on that tradition. I always bring my kids here every summer. To have the opportunity to work here has been brilliant."

The show was written by Julie Gearey, known for Prisoners’ Wives and Secret Diary of a Call Girl, and has already received good reviews from critics.

Anthony Philipson, director, said: "The scripts, they fly along. I haven't seen a script that was such a page-turner for quite a while, and also one that was so jam-packed full of action, characters, events, scenes and locations.

"The other thing I loved about it was the setting. Setting it in Brighton was a stroke of genius. It's such a visceral and colourful place in such a small, condensed area.

"You have a wide variety of people and places and backdrops, I'm amazed that it's never really been used before as a main location for a drama."

PC Draper and Vickers in action in the Pavilion Gardens.

PLACES TO LOOK OUT FOR

Cuffs was filmed in and around Brighton. Here are 10 places to look out for:

1. The police graduation ceremony in the function room of the Brighton Centre overlooking West Pier.

2. A group of partying stags squaring off against a nudist couple on Brighton Beach.

3. PCs Prager and Moretti deploying a stinger at Stanmer Park.

4. A criminal driving a stolen digger along the coast with the Blind Veterans UK building at Ovingdean in the background.

5. Argus headline boards making a cameo with the story “Giant seagull spotted in Hove”.

6. A hippy chick with dreadlocks arguing with PCs Draper and Vickers in the North Laine calling them “fascist bullies”.

7. PCs Prager, Moretti, Draper and Vickers enjoying lunch in the seaside cafe at Saltdean.

8. PC Vickers getting confused between the A27 and the B27.

9. A grim discovery as officers find a body beneath the Palace Pier.

10. A racist stabbing at an off licence on Lewes Road.