Based on the award-winning bestseller by Margaret Atwood, the show revolves around life in totalitarian dystopia Gilead, in what was formerly the United States. The show has been praised by audiences and critics, and was described as “the most timely show on television” by The Evening Standard.

Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalist regime, where women are treated as property of the state. Elizabeth Moss starred as Offred, a Handmaid in the Commander’s (Joseph Fiennes) household, and one of the few remaining fertile women in a state with a plunging birth rate. Offred belongs to a caste of women forced into sexual servitude in a desperate bid to repopulate a world facing environmental disasters.

The series, which originally aired on Hulu in the US, was Channel 4’s most successful acquisition since Homeland, attracting a consolidated audience of 2.3m viewers each episode.

Speaking for Channel 4, Chief Creative Officer Jay Hunt promised a “dark and thought-provoking second season” of the show which has been “a stand out success for Channel 4.”

A date for the new series has not yet been announced.