Dept. Q: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

DCI Carl Morck is a brilliant cop but a terrible colleague. His razor-sharp sarcasm has made him no friends in 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 Department 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.

Series details

• Title: Dept. Q
• Format: Scripted
• Language: English
• Genres: Drama, Crime, Thriller
• Premiere date: 2025-05-29
• Status in TVmaze: Running
• Web channel listed by TVmaze: Netflix
• Typical episode runtime: 55 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 8.1/10
• TVMaze ID: 68408
• IMDb ID: tt27995114
• TVDB ID: 445802

Cast and credited roles

• Matthew Goode — DCI Carl Morck
• Chloe Pirrie — Merritt Lingard
• Alexej Manvelov — Akram Salim
• Leah Byrne — DC Rose Dickson
• Jamie Sives — DCI James Hardy
• Kelly Macdonald — Rachel Irving
• Mark Bonnar — Stephen Burns
• Alison Peebles — Female Captor
• Kate Dickie — DCS Moira Jacobson
• Shirley Henderson — Claire Marsh
• Aisling Franciosi — Kimmie
• Greg Wise — Derek Powell

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2025-05-29; final listed air date 2025-05-29; episode order: 9.
• Season 2: episode order: 9.

Source and licence

Adapted from Dept. Q on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.