Department Q: Down in the basement

0 0 September 01, 2025 Edit this post

by Chris Riley

Good news. Dept. Q has just been renewed for a second season.

If you haven't seen it yet, take a tip like me and give it a look, you won't be disappointed.

Set in Edinburgh, the Scottish crime series, is based on the books by Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen.

In the first episode we join a group of three policemen called to investigate the discovery of a body in a house.

Macabrely the victim is seated in his lounge room with a knife protruding from the top of his head.

As they move in to investigate, DCI Carl Morck, DI James Hardy, and PC Anderson are ambushed by a masked gunman who shoots all three.

Anderson (Angus Yellowlees) is killed instantly, Hardy (Jamie Sives) is left paralysed and athough he recovers Morck is traumatised.

He's bitter, twisted and openly antagonistic towards the unlucky therapist who he is required to see as part of his return to work.

At the same time he has to deal with a rebellious teenage son, who's skipping school, playing video games and getting naked with his girlfriend.

Morck (Matthew Goode) is fuming because protocol sees him excluded from the search for the gunmen who attacked them, the job going to what he regards as the incompetent B team.

Hang on, weren't Morcks the name of the frightening, underground-dwelling creatures from H. G. Wells' novel The Time Machine.

No, they were Morlocks -- but maybe Adler-Olsen had them in mind when he named the always angry detective who is shunned by co-workers.

But, all is not lost, when Morck is offered the post as head of a new cold case unit called Department Q.

There's just one catch, he has a staff of one, himself, no office furniture and certainly no PCs.

And, guess what, his new digs are located deep in the basement of the police building -- make that underground.

Morck is joined by a former Syrian police officer, Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov), currently working in a clerical role, but who wants to get back into the job.

He's a man of few words, but one who is obviously familiar with the concept of physical violence.

Rounding out the team is young constable Rose Dickson (Leah Byrne) who is recovering from a breakdown.

The injured Harding also begins to provide support from his hospital room.

As their first case the band of misfits decide to look into the disappearance of solicitor Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie) who vanished from a ferry four years ago.

Is she still alive? Probably not, but the more they poke around the more it becomes clear that it could well be a possibility.

Maybe she is being held captive somewhere?

Before her disappearance Merritt lived with her non-verbal brother William (Tom Bulpett), who is cared for during the day by housekeeper Claire Marsh (Shirley Henderson).

After Merritt and and Liam Taylor (Patrick Kennedy) fail to convict a man named Graham Finch (Douglas Russell) of murdering his wife, Merritt begins to receive death threats.

Dept. Q was created by Scott Frank and Chandni Lakhani, premiering in May this year.

It had been adapted previously as five Danish movies starring Nikolai Lie Kaas and Ulrich Thomsen in the role of Carl Morck.

Frank is best known for the movies Logan (2017), The Lookout (2007) and Out of Sight (1998).

But let's not forget the excellent Queen's Gambit television series.

Although Dept. Q is set in Scotland, some of the terms used in the show are not Scottish.

For example, both 'arson' and 'burglary' are mentioned, but in Scotland they are called 'wilful fire raising' and 'theft by housebreaking'.

A warrant is a 'data protection' form.

Just saying.

Matthew Goode is intense and brooding as Morck, Manvellov remains amazingly nonchalant, while Chloe Pirrie does such a good job as the feeble solicitor Merritt that we wished she'd just stay missing.

For no other reason than the 1975 Ford Escort that Morck drives (with a total lack of respect), but the show reminds us of Life On Mars.

You can catch the first season of Dept Q on Netflix. Looking forward to the second season.