Netflix has announced the Department Q cast for its upcoming adaptation of Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen’s crime novel series.
Matthew Goode (The Offer), Chloe Pirrie (Under The Banner of Heaven), Alexej Manvelov (Jack Ryan), Kelly Macdonald (Line of Duty) and Leah Byrne (Call The Midwife) have been cast in the crime drama thriller, which will follow a former top-shelf detective. Production is currently underway in Edinburgh.
Who’s involved in Department Q?
Department Q is written, executive produced and directed by showrunner Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit). The series will also include Mark Bonnar as Stephen, Shirley Henderson as Clare Marsh, Jamie Sives as DS Hardy and Kate Dickie as Moira. Executive producers are Rob Bullock, Chandni Lakhani and Andy Harries, with Lakhani also serving as a writer alongside Stephen Greenhorn and Colette Kane. It hails from Left Bank Pictures production.
Listed below are the full descriptions for Goode, Pirrie, Manvelov, Macdonald and Byrne’s characters:
- Goode’s DCI Carl Morck is a brilliant but impossible – has his life turned upside down after a violent incident leaves his partner paralysed and an officer dead. Upon his return to work, he is tasked with setting up Department Q – a new cold case department, which is little more than a PR exercise. At first, being sidelined suits Carl; he’s happy to waste his days playing solitaire and skiving. Yet over the course of the series, Carl’s detective instincts are reawakened, and his new department down in the basement becomes an unlikely magnet for the misfits and mavericks of Chief Super, Moira’s police team.
- Pirrie’s Merritt Lingard is a a ruthless and ambitious prosecutor, has quickly risen the ranks in the Crown Office. Merritt had a troubled childhood, raised by her absent father on the Isle of Mull. But after her brother William suffered a severe brain injury, she turned her life around and dedicated her life to him, whilst striving for justice in her role as prosecutor. However, in the wake of the biggest case of her career, Merritt decides she needs to make a change. As a result, Merritt and Carl’s paths collide.
- Manvelov’s Akram Salim was an officer in the Syrian police force when civil war broke out. He decided to flee to Europe with his family. Unable to work as a cop in the UK, he petitions for work at Edinburgh’s police station, becoming Carl’s assistant. Akram keeps his past life in Syria private, but as the series goes on, Carl realises he’s underestimated his new partner.
- Macdonald’s Dr. Rachel Irving is the therapist charged with getting officers back on the front line. She’s smart, and she soon gets the measure of Carl, his trauma and his superiority complex. Intrigued by one another, the two develop a deeper connection across the series.
- Byrne’s Rose was a top police cadet with a promising future in the force. But a mental-health-related breakdown during her first year as a detective constable has left her on shaky ground. Demoted to a desk job, the stigma has followed her ever since. She appeals to Carl in his new department down in the basement for a chance to prove herself once again.
