‘Dept. Q’ Boss Previews Matthew Goode’s Cold Case Mystery Series With Team of ‘Misfits’

Ileane Rudolph May 27, 2025, 1:00 pm

Comments

Matthew Goode as Carl Morck — 'Dept. Q' — Jamie Simpson/Netflix

Among his many roles, Matthew Goode has played aristocrats’ husbands, a psychopathic killer, a code breaker, an ageless vampire, and a prosecutor. But he’s never before been a cop — although he did portray a detective’s sibling in a cozy mystery. That changes on Thursday, May 29, when the British actor will star in the new dark, but witty, noirish crime show as bitter and brilliant DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) Carl Morck. The Englishman, who is stuck in Edinburgh, Scotland, a city he doesn’t like because he agreed to care for the son of his Scottish ex-wife, is not a happy man.

Scott Frank, who created, wrote, directed, and produced the quality TV series Godless, The Queen’s Gambit, and Monsieur Spade, is behind this new show based on the popular mystery novels written by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen. “He gave me the rights to the books, maybe a dozen years ago,” says Frank, “and we tried to make it here in America but that didn’t pan out.” When Rob Bullock, from Left Bank, a British production company that produced The Crown and The Night Manager, came to see Frank, he was busy with Gambit.

When he was free and after the writers’ strike ended, they began shooting in Edinburgh (moving the books’ location from Copenhagen). Frank stepped in as showrunner and ended up directing six out of the nine episodes. As for casting, Frank had Goode in mind to play the moody detective from the start.

The series opens with what seems like a trap to lure police to a location where a shooter could easily ambush them. The result: DCI Morck was wounded but recovered, a young police constable was killed outright, and Morck’s severely injured partner, James Hardy (Jamie Sives), was left paralyzed.

Justin Downing/Netflix

When he returns to work, Morck is guilt-ridden for getting Hardy into the situation, which makes him even more unpleasant than usual. Most of the force will be happy that he’s being banished to the basement, a.k.a. the cops’ old locker room” — complete with urinals — as he’s tasked by Det. Chief Superintendent Moira Jacobson (Kate Dickie) to form a cold case unit and find cases that should be reopened.

Against his wishes since he believes the new unit is basically a PR stunt, Morck takes on several assistants. Mysterious Syrian refugee Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov) is a father of two who describes himself as having been “sort of a cop” under the dictator Assad. “He is very calm and pragmatic — most of the time,” shares Frank. Morck is also saddled with the anxiety-driven, overly chatty Detective Constable Rose Dickson (Leah Byrne), who is “very tenacious.” Unofficially, Morck also turns to home-bound Hardy for more help.

“All of them, including Morck,” says Frank, “are barely holding on.” In fact, Morck has been ordered by his boss, “who is both annoyed by him and also respectful of his ability,” to see shrink Dr. Rachel Irving (Kelly Macdonald). Let’s just say that is not an easy sell for the detective.

To start the process, the team of “misfits,” as some call them, choose the thorny case of a civil servant gone missing four years earlier, whom we’ll see in flashbacks is alive but cruelly imprisoned. “She’s left a complicated trail behind her that implicates a lot of different people. She also has her own dark secrets,” Frank notes. They will slowly be discovered over the season.

20 Most Popular British Detective Shows

Despite plenty of darkness and violence, “there’s a lot of humor and sarcasm in the show,” the showrunner makes clear. “It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but you should. It’s pretty emotional at the end of season.”

For Frank, the opportunity to make the series has been “catnip. My favorite shows, my guilty pleasures are British procedurals like Happy Valley, Broadchurch, and Line of Duty, which my wife and I became totally addicted to,” he admits. We’ll see whether Dept. Q makes that list for other British procedural fans.

Dept. Q, Series Premiere, Thursday, May 29, Netflix