To celebrate the release of the anticipated new Netflix thriller, Dept Q, which debuts today, we had the pleasure of chatting to some of its cast and director to find out more.
DCI Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) is a brilliant cop but a terrible colleague. His razor-sharp sarcasm has made him no friends in the Edinburgh Police. After a shooting that leaves a young PC dead, and his partner paralysed, he finds himself exiled to the basement and the sole member of Dept. Q; a newly formed cold case unit. The department is a PR stunt, there to distract the public from the failures of an under-resourced, failing police force that is glad to see the back of him. But more by accident than design, Carl starts to build a gang of waifs and strays who have everything to prove. So, when the stone-cold trail of a prominent civil servant who disappeared several years ago starts to heat up, Carl is back doing what he does best – rattling cages and refusing to take no for an answer.
Chatting first to Goode, Leah Byrne (Rose) and Alexej Mavelov (Akram), we talk about the lure of the show and its “binge-worthy” quality, the uniqueness of the story and the characters at the heart of it, working with Scott Frank on the show, how they bonded during filming and much more in between.
Next, we chat to Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit) about why the show and the original series of books spoke to him as a filmmaker, relocating the show to Edinburgh and why the impact of many British crime dramas were key to making it work, the new dimensions of television and why so many filmmakers are drawn to it and casting Matthew Goode, finally, in a lead role.
You can watch the interviews below:
Dept. Q streams on Netflix from May 29th.
