Updated 3.52pm: A new BBC crime series is going to set in in Rotorua.

The producers of Downton Abbey, Carnival has teamed up with Libertine Pictures and screenwriter Neil Cross to create the crime drama temporarily named Bay of Plenty.

Managing Director of Libertine Richard Fletcher says the series will be primarily shot in the Bay of Plenty with a New Zealand crew and an international cast.

He says the storyline is based around a London detective who relocates to Rotorua with her family.

Filming of the new series will start halfway through next year.

Rotorua's diverse landscape is one of the reasons it's been chosen as the backdrop for a new BBC crime series.

Libertine joint managing director Paul Davis says screenwriter Neil Cross felt Rotorua would provide the perfect locations for the crime series he's got in mind.

"He was looking for something that was very atmospheric and mysterious, and Rotorua offers that with the geothermal areas, the lakes, the bush, the city itself."