LOS ANGELES: Hit US action show 24 returns to TV screens on Monday four years after its last season, with Kiefer Sutherland returning as fugitive counter-terror agent Jack Bauer.

The spy thriller moves to London for its first run-out since the end of season eight in May 2010. The new series, subtitled Live Another Day, runs for 12 episodes, rather than 24 as previously.

Sutherland said he hopes viewers gripped by the show for nearly a decade will still be interested in the real-time action drama, a worldwide hit for broadcaster Fox.

“I’m cautiously optimistic, scared to death, and nervous. All of those things,” he told Fox News ahead of Monday evening’s two-hour premier.