‘Art Detectives’: Stephen Moyer & Nina Singh Talk New Partnership, Failing at Romance & More

Kate Hahn June 5, 2025, 11:00 am

Nina Singh as Malik, Stephen Moyer as Palmer — 'Art Detectives' Season 1 Episode 1 — Peter Marley / AcornTV

Stephen Moyer, who entranced American TV audiences as the seductive, morally tormented vampire Bill Compton for seven seasons on the HBO horror hit True Blood, is back in the coffin game, at least for a minute. During TV Insider’s exclusive visit to the set of his new Acorn TV mystery series, Art Detectives, the scene being shot called for the actor to snoop around a massive green marble sarcophagus at Belfast’s Ulster Museum, which was doubling for a London auction house.

Moyer plays art-loving Detective Inspector Mick Palmer who, in the June 9 back-to-back episode premiere, hires an ambitious young partner, Detective Constable Shazia Malik (Nina Singh, The Lazarus Project). They investigate cases connected to art and antiques for the Heritage Crime Unit, which is based on a real department within the British Police Force. In the scene we observed, which takes place in the finale, they’re puzzling over how an 18^th Century Chinese vase worth $2 million pounds was stolen from a highly secured vault. Then, a dead body turns up. In this version of the glamorous art world, murder is always in the picture.

“It’s not necessarily that they’ve been called because there’s a murder. They’re there because of a case of fraud or art theft and stumble upon things. Through good detective work, they find a body,” says Moyer, who starred in Fox superhero drama The Gifted and has done multiple film and TV projects, including a recent guest role on his True Blood castmate Carrie Preston‘s CBS hit Elsbeth. The actor executive produces Art Detectives and took a deep dive into developing his character, whose backstory takes on greater significance as the series unfolds. As a child, Palmer lost his mother and was shuffled off to the side by his art forger dad. The boy took refuge in drawing and became obsessed with a Noirish comic book detective.

Like a classic PI, Palmer works solo until he is called to a stately Yorkshire country manse — he excitedly calls it, “The perfect example of a Victorian Italianate palazzo, it’s like a doll’s house on steroids” — to investigate a murder connected to paintings on loan from the National Gallery. It’s where he meets Malik, a copper on the case who’s underappreciated by her boss. “Mick sees in her an ambitious, young, kindred spirit, and asks her to join him,” Moyer says of their father-daughter-ish relationship. “And it’s the first time that he’s let anybody in. He’s always been a lone wolf.”

Nina Singh as Malik, Stephen Moyer as Palmer — 'Art Detectives' Season 1 Episode 6

Peter Marley / AcornTV

The invitation opens a new world for Malik, who’s at first mystified by Palmer. “He keeps sniffing paintings! He’s able to tell whether it’s an old painting or not by the varnish and how it smells. She’s never been in this art world. She’s like, what is this guy up to?” says Singh.

She sharpens her senses in cases involving glittering Viking gold, scratchy old reel-to-reel tapes, and rare wine, not to mention a bludgeoning, a drowning, and a poisoning. Despite the body count, this series leans more towards cozy than chilling. It delivers all the comforts of a classic British light mystery and, Singh says, “doesn’t take itself too seriously.” There are musty mansions and fusty feuds. You can feel the chill coming from the mossy autumnal countryside — and from the mossy autumnal aristocrats, who are overconfident in their ability to outsmart lowly cops. (Influencers get their comeuppances, too!) The detectives request plenty of CCTV and snap on endless blue evidence-handling gloves, which Singh reveals is tougher than it appears. “You’re trying to look at the crime scene, and you get your thumb into the hole for the little finger, and you’re just like, ‘Oh God, it is hard to look like a pro!’” They debrief in frilly-curtained tearooms and wooden-beamed pubs. It’s beyond delightful.

Like all good detective pairings, Palmer and Malik work because their differing personalities complement each other and make them stronger together. He is the wise senior sleuth, befuddled only when Malik’s enthusiastic darting into danger throws him off balance (in one scene, literally, when she leaves him wobbling after he’s just stepped into a rowboat). Also, “She drives like a lunatic, which scares Mick,” says Moyer, whose character doesn’t drive, a holdover from more trauma in his past. She also takes on the “bad cop” role, something that’s a relief to Palmer. Says Singh, “She’s very headstrong, confident, and goes full steam ahead. It’s been really fun. There’s stunt work.” The actress then joyfully explains “clotheslining,” in which you knock a person out by hitting them in the neck with an outstretched arm.

Palmer on the other hand, is more likely to trip someone into a confession. He has a quiet, established authority and deep knowledge of art. But like an Old Master painting, if you look at Palmer closely, you find some cracks. “What I like about Mick is he’s kind of broken, but nobody sees it,” Moyer told us. “But it is in there, and we sort of pick away at it. The audience will get to see little elements of fragility.”

First Look: 'True Bloods' Stephen Moyer Turns to Crime Solving in 'Art Detectives' on Acorn TV

He’s particularly vulnerable when it comes to his romantic feelings for museum curator Rosa (Sarah Alexander, Coupling). “He’s an excellent detective. He’s absolutely rubbish around women,” Moyer says. In one touching scene, Palmer sits outside alone at dusk in a public square after a day of art detecting, eating his preferred cheese sandwich dinner (the man loves fine art, but fine dining is not his thing), and leaves Rosa an overlong but very sweet voicemail. Cluelessness about the opposite sex plagues Malik, too. A copper she meets on a case asks her out for a drink. She thinks it’s to chat about work. “He really has to spell it out to her,” Singh says.

But mostly, the detectives rely on each other — even more so when Palmer’s growing personal troubles intrude on the job. The cause is his father, that notorious forger Ron (Larry Lamb, EastEnders). “His dad is actually a thief, the absolute antithesis of everything Mick stands for within his world of art. When he’s with his dad, he wants his dad desperately to love him and be there for him. But his dad is always using him,” Moyer says. The actor had always wanted to work with Lamb again after the two remained friends after they did Deadline Beirut (2002). He texted him to see if he’d be interested in the role — a level of easy communication that Mick Palmer would envy.

When Palmer begins to act less like himself, Malik is concerned there’s something seriously wrong in her partner’s life. “There’s loads she doesn’t know still about him,” Singh says. “So, it is not really until Episode 6 that she confronts him about something and she’s like, ‘What is going on?’” She gets her answer, and it leads to these loveable detectives, now very much bonded, chasing a mystery that’s much more personal than anything they have pursued before. Says Singh, “There’s so many surprises that you can’t guess what’s going to happen next. You have to be suspicious of everybody.”

Art Detectives, Series Premiere (two episodes), Monday, June 9, Acorn TV