We're always pleased to see ex-TARDIS dweller Billie Piper. So nearly a year since Penny Dreadful left our screens, the trailer for new film City of Tiny Lights is just what the doctor ordered ("doctor," geddit?).

It stars Rogue One's Riz Ahmed (who recently talked to Anglophenia about #RealHappiness) as jaded private investigator Tommy Akhtar, with Billie playing his old flame, Shelley.

The neon-soaked setting for this tale of crime and intrigue isn't, as you might deduce from the movie's title, L.A., Las Vegas, or even Paris. Nope, it's London, with the grimy underbelly of the British capital being exposed in a way it hasn't been since films like 1980s The Long Good Friday or 2002's Dirty Pretty Things starring Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Or perhaps that should read "rain-soaked":

[caption id="attachment_390022" align="alignnone" width="640"] (Image: Icon Film)[/caption]

Never mind. The depiction of London was, however, a key factor in Billie's decision to be involved in this, her first feature film since Spirit Trap in 2005. As she recently told the Evening Standard: "When I read the script, I fell in love with the fact that it shows London complete with all its many colours and cultures — the real, modern, diverse London I know and love, so often lost in TV dramas and Hollywood movies."

Let's just say, La La Land it ain't. Based on a 2005 novel by Patrick Neate, the film co-stars Cush Jumbo (The Inbetweeners), James Floyd (My Brother the Devil) and Roshan Seth (Gandhi, My Beautiful Laundrette).

So far it doesn't have a U.S. release date, but fingers crossed we get the chance to see it in the coming months. In the meantime, here's Billie and Riz in the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I2z4YPuMZ0

Are you glad to see Ms. Piper back?