MATTHEW GOODE FINDS HIS DARKER SIDE IN CRIME SERIES ‘DEPT. Q’. – DEK – 29th May 2025
Image: Lee Malone.
Matthew Goode began his acting career on the English stage before moving into film and television in the early 2000s. His film credits include Stoker and The Imitation Game but he is perhaps best known for his roles in Downton Abbey, The Good Wife and A Discovery of Witches. This month he takes the lead role in a new Netflix detective drama, Dept. Q, written and directed by Scott Frank. “There’s a lot of humour in it,” says Goode. “It’s very dark, it’s brilliantly written and very intelligent.”
Frank first cast Goode in his 2007 directorial debut, The Lookout, as Kansas bank robber Gary Spargo. “Other directors wouldn’t necessarily have thought of me,” observes Goode, who is often pigeon-holed as the archetypal upper-class Englishman. They kept in touch over the intervening years, while both men made their names in film and, more notably, in television: Frank writing and directing Godless and The Queen’s Gambit, Goode starring in The Crown and A Discovery of Witches. Their rise to fame has coincided with a time when much of the prestige of cinema has been transferred to television. “Ever since Sopranos, everything has started to get way more elevated. It’s in a very healthy state, but also we’re in a very complicated state with streaming and everything else. All the rules are changing.”
Goodes still sees a future for film, however. While acknowledging that cinemas can be offputtingly expensive, Goode hopes the industry can find a way to keep them going, perhaps by focusing on releases by famous directors that become long-anticipated events. He can’t envision not wanting to see films by the likes of Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg on the big screen. “I like going and watching things with other people, as opposed to watching everything in my room – especially in those big old cinemas. I grew up in Exeter where they had the ABC, which was demolished – it had to be about 1,500 seats in there, it was fucking enormous, and quite scary for a five-year-old. It was like going to church.”
“I miss the video shop,” Goode says wistfully. “What used to be great was, you’d go with your friends, and you’d go, ‘Right, let’s get a comedy, let’s get a thriller, let’s get this.’ I’m showing my age, but it would probably be three quid for each film, and then back home you went, and you devoured them. I was never more of a film buff than when I was 17.” Beyond the nostalgia, Goode makes a serious point: that those serendipitous discoveries on the shelves of the video shop supported independent filmmakers, helping them to find their audience and providing them with a steady revenue stream. “Now, I don’t know anyone that makes any money from films.”
“SOME PEOPLE ARE QUITE COMPETITIVE WITH THEIR ACTING. I DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT. IT’S LIKE, YOU COULD BE GREAT ON YOUR OWN, AND MAYBE I CAN BE OK ON MY OWN, BUT TOGETHER, IF EVERYTHING IS TICKING, IT MAKES THE WHOLE THING. EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE GOOD”
Goode admits to being slightly intimidated by the prospect of working with Frank again, in spite of their long-standing friendship. “I guess I was a bit scared, because the first time around I didn’t know everything that he’d been involved in before. He was just this really nice guy called Scott that I met at Disney. But now with Godless and Queen’s Gambit, I’m slightly in awe of Scott, which I think he probably rather enjoys – I’m not going to argue with him on things! Occasionally, he’ll let me get my way, but most of the time I just do what he wants.”
For the second time, Frank cast Goode against type, as acerbic English policeman Carl Morck, alongside the cream of Scottish acting talent: Chloe Pirrie, Jamie Sives, Mark Bonnar, Leah Byrne, Kate Dickie, Shirley Henderson and Kelly Macdonald. “I’ve worked with many great actors, but this is honestly one of my most favourite companies of actors I’ve ever worked with. I’m lucky because I’m quite central to the story, and therefore I get to work with everyone up close and personal, and I just love them.” Although he plays the leading role, Goode says that the success of Dept. Q depends on the generosity and talent of the whole ensemble. “Some people are quite competitive with their acting. I don’t understand that. It’s like, you could be great on your own, and maybe I can be OK on my own, but together, if everything is ticking, it makes the whole thing. Everyone needs to be good.”
Alongside the progress of a cold-case investigation, Dept. Q tracks the evolution of Morck’s relationship with his new assistant, Akram Salim, played by Swedish actor Alexej Manvelov. “He’s a brilliant foil for Morck. Morck doesn’t understand what he’s getting: he’s just this guy who looks after the IT; he’s very thoughtful and clearly very, very smart; he dresses like a geography teacher. So it’s like, who is this guy? We don’t want to give too much away, but we’ll go on this journey where we find out that he was working in Syria. We still don’t quite know what he’s up to. At the end of episode two – it’s one of my favourite bits in the whole series – that’s when you go, ‘Oh, he’s got Morck’s number.’ He’s one of the few people who has.” For their odd-couple dynamic to work on screen, Goode felt that they had to get on in real life. “So, the minute we did our readthrough, I was like, ‘Right, me and you, we’re going to go to a restaurant.’ It was peeing down with rain but we found this little French restaurant. We were in there for five hours – popped in for a steak and had five bottles of red with it. We just clicked straight away.”
Image: Lee Malone.
Dept. Q is based on a book series by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen, with the action moved from Copenhagen to Edinburgh. But Frank also made more profound changes, discouraging Goode from reading the original books so that they could create their own backstory for Morck. “I actually felt very freed by that. We had fantastic long conversations about what his past might have been.” Although we learn early on that he’s undergone a psychologically and physically traumatic event, there is plenty of undisclosed material which Goode used to add depth to his portrayal of a difficult character.
“As long as you’ve worked out the psychological reasons why he is like he is, it doesn’t just become a set piece to be nasty to someone. He’s a brilliant, driven detective, but with all the scars. Like we all do, we’ve all got these scars. You want nuance as an actor – it doesn’t necessarily make it easy, but it definitely gives you something to get your teeth into.” This complexity also extends to Morck’s colleagues, such as the troubled young cadet played by Leah Byrne. “Rose is a cracking example. She’s got more going on than Morck in many ways. And so does Akram, and so does Kate Dickie’s character, Moira. And that’s the great thing: there’s more than just the mystery, we’re learning more and more about these people all the time.” By holding back some of those hidden stories, they aim to leave viewers hungry to discover more about the characters in the future. “I think by the end, by being uncompromisingly unsentimental, we hope to have won the audience over. And we hope that they will love these characters for who they are, and will want to see what comes next.”
Dept. Q is available on Netflix now.
Author: Rachel Goodyear
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Matthew Goode: Into the Shadows with Department Q’s Reluctant Detective – The Rakish Gent – 28th May 2025
Full Look & Shoes – Paul Smith, Timepiece – Gerald Charles Maestro 8.0 Squelette in Rose Gold – Grey, Silk Pocket Square – Stylist’s Own, Socks – London Sock Company
Words – Tajinder Hayer
Photography – Phil Fisk at Flock
Photography Assistance – Pedro Alvarez
Styling & Art Direction – Suzie Street
Styling Assistance – Olivia Grozotis
Grooming – Rachel Singer-Clark at The Only Agency
Executive Productive – Daron Bailey
Location – The View at The Shard
Special thanks to: Bacchus Agency, Kate, Damian and Aaron at The View at The Shard & Premier Personal PR
With Netflix’s Department Q, Matthew Goode steps into his darkest role yet — and delivers a performance that’s as brooding and brilliant as the man himself.
There’s a particular kind of performance that only an actor like Matthew Goode can deliver — one that simmers quietly, full of emotional precision and unexpected edge. In Department Q, Netflix’s gripping new adaptation of the bestselling Nordic noir series, Goode leads as DCI Carl Mørck, a detective exiled to cold cases and haunted by trauma. It’s a brooding, intricately layered role — part psychological study, part slow-burn procedural — and it might just be Goode’s most arresting work to date. Elegant yet fractured, Mørck is a man on the edge, and Goode plays him with quiet fury and total command.
Adapted from Jussi Adler-Olsen’s bestselling Danish crime novels, Department Q relocates the story to Edinburgh, giving the series a distinctly Scottish grit while retaining its Nordic noir spirit. Goode plays Mørck, a detective physically and psychologically scarred after a catastrophic case leaves his partner paralysed and himself nearly killed. Exiled to a forgotten corner of the police force—the titular Department Q—Mørck is assigned to cold cases, the kind that slip through the cracks but fester in silence. It’s a richly atmospheric drama that feels like True Detective and Slow Horseshad a baby in a dark Scandinavian pub, and Goode is utterly magnetic at its centre.
“When Scott [Frank] phoned me and asked if I wanted to play Carl, I snapped his bloody arm off,” Goode says, laughing. “I couldn’t believe it. I knew I wasn’t everyone’s go-to for a role like this, but Scott knows I’m quite a dark bastard at heart.”
That darkness is key. Goode imbues Mørck with a weight of experience that feels lived-in, almost burdensome. Behind the suits and the stillness, there’s a tempest. Preparing for the role meant stepping into the minds of those who navigate the darkest corners of human behaviour. “I spoke to people who’d been on murder squads for over fifteen years,” he explains. “They told me horror stories. We owe them more than we realise. The whole show, really, is a kind of love letter to those people.”
Suit & Polo Shirt – Oliver Spencer, Gold & Gold Brooch – Goossens, Timepiece – Gerald Charles Maestro 2.0 Ultra-Thin 39MM Brown, Shoes – Manolo Blahnik
He also sought guidance from a friend who served in Iraq. “He carries a squash ball with him, a specific colour. Helps him regulate. I used that as part of Carl’s texture. His trauma isn’t just psychological—it’s physical, domestic, sensory.”
Goode is known for his range—the rakish romantic in Brideshead Revisited, the slick media mogul in The Offer, the grieving vampire in A Discovery of Witches, the dashing spy in The Imitation Game (a performance that helped earn the film a BAFTA win and Oscar nominations). But Department Qmay be his most transformative turn yet. There’s a lived-in gravitas to Mørck, a performance that feels like it couldn’t have come from a less experienced actor.
“I’m just a journeyman, really,” he says, modestly. “I try and pick things that are a bit different each time and hope I get it right.”
Full Look – Connolly
Full Look & Shoes – Paul Smith, Timepiece – Gerald Charles Maestro 8.0 Squelette in Rose Gold – Grey, Silk Pocket Square – Stylist’s Own, Socks – London Sock Company
Goode’s path to acting wasn’t mapped out. Raised in Devon by a geologist father and a nurse mother, he trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art after completing his studies at the University of Birmingham. “I took out a career development loan to go to drama school. I didn’t have a Plan B,” he shrugs. “It amazes me I’ve been working for twenty years.”
Despite his classical training, he’s refreshingly agnostic about how one becomes an actor. “You don’t have to go to acting school. Look at City of God. That cast was entirely untrained and phenomenal. Life experience makes better actors. I tell my daughter, wait until after university. Live a bit first.”
Department Q is helmed by Scott Frank, best known for The Queen’s Gambit, and designed by frequent Goode collaborator Grant Montgomery. The result is nothing short of breathtaking. “The design of the Department Q building is iconic,” Goode says. “It’s vividly bright, striking—helps when you walk onto a set like that. You’re halfway there already.”
Goode immersed himself deeply in the role, even creating soundscapes to capture the mood and sending them to Frank ahead of production. “He must have thought I was so annoying,” he laughs.
The darkness of the material was balanced by levity on set. Working alongside Shirley Henderson, Kelly Macdonald and Patrick Kennedy, the ensemble brought wit and warmth behind the scenes. “Some days were hard, but you need to laugh,” he says. “Patrick Kennedy in budgie smugglers on the beach—that image will never leave me. And it’s important to make newer cast and crew feel looked after. We had a safe space. You could scream on set if you needed to.”
Suit & Polo Shirt – Oliver Spencer, Gold & Gold Brooch – Goossens, Timepiece – Gerald Charles Maestro 2.0 Ultra-Thin 39MM Brown, Shoes – Manolo Blahnik
Despite a career that spans historical epics, sci-fi thrillers, and prestige dramas, Goode remains endearingly humble. He reflects fondly on his time as Lord Snowdon in The Crown, a role that earned him an Emmy nomination. “Vanessa [Kirby] was chewing through actors at auditions. I thought, she must be a real force, and I was right. We had a ball. It was only a few episodes, but such fun. Matt [Smith] and Claire [Foy] were phenomenal.”
Goode speaks like a man who still sees acting as a privilege. “I feel like I’m just getting started,” he admits. “With acting, unlike sport, there’s no expiration date. That’s the wonderful thing. I’m just out of the genesis part of my career.”
If there is a thread that unites Goode’s many roles, it’s the sense of interior life he brings to each character. From the emotionally tormented Adrian Veidt in Watchmen to the emotionally unavailable but magnetic Henry Talbot in Downton Abbey, Goode excels at giving his characters moral texture. His DCI Carl Mørck is no exception.
“It’s not a strictly faithful adaptation,” he says of Department Q, “due to the transposition to Edinburgh. But it works. It’s beautiful, nuanced, dark—and also hilarious. If I take myself out of the equation, the actors in this are just doing phenomenal work. It might be my favourite company I’ve ever worked with.”
Goode doesn’t know what comes next—and that’s how he likes it. “The industry is precarious. It always is. I never had a Plan B, but I’m grateful every day I get to do this.”
Suit – Hackett, Polo Shirt – Oliver Spencer, Timepiece – Gerald Charles Maestro 8.0 Squelette in Rose Gold – Grey, Socks – London Sock Company, Shoes – Manolo Blahnik
With Department Q, Matthew Goode proves there’s still much more to discover beneath his elegant surface — a depth, darkness, and emotional acuity that make him one of Britain’s most quietly formidable leading men. As DCI Mørck, he embodies a man undone and rebuilding, haunted but unflinching. It’s the kind of performance that lingers long after the credits roll, and a reminder that, two decades into his career, Matthew Goode is still sharpening his edge.
See Matthew Goode in Department Q on Netflix from 29 May.
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MATTHEW GOODE STEPS INTO THE SHADOWS – Mastermind Paris – 28th May 2025
Known for his supporting performances as dapper gentlemen, Matthew Goode’s latest role in ‘Dept. Q,’ as a brash detective reeling from trauma, reveals new depths to the seasoned actor.
Photography by Scott Trindle
Fashion by Stephanie Waknine
Viewers know actor Matthew Goode from the clean-cut, charming, posh and dashingly handsome characters he has played in films (Match Point, The Imitation Game, Brideshead Revisited) and television series (The Crown,Downton Abbey, A Discovery of Witches).
Now, at 47, Goode is going against type. In Netflix’s Dept. Q (available from May 29), the British actor steps into darker, more fractured territory as Carl Morck, a brash, cantankerous detective marooned in a cold case unit in an Edinburgh basement.
Adapted from the bestselling Danish novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen, the series follows Morck as he wrestles with both bureaucratic inertia and the ghosts of a past investigation that ended in tragedy. But unlike many crime shows, Dept. Q lingers in the aftermath, the psychological wreckage left behind. The show dwells in the moral residue of violence, tracing how trauma metastasizes across all those touched by the crime. What emerges is not a straightforward narrative of justice, but an exploration of memory, guilt and unresolved trauma.
Yet, in classic British fashion, a dry thread of humor runs through it all, just enough to illuminate the shadows. In the role of Morck, Goode makes the transition from dapper supporting role to arresting leading man, bringing depth and understanding to a complex character.
Dept. Q seems like quite a departure from your previous roles. Carl isn’t the charming character people are used to seeing you play.
MATTHEW GOODE He’s quite a lot. It’s meant to be that way. As you discover with a lot of the characters [in the show], they’re all carrying a lot of personal tragedy and weight.
What drew you to this role at this time?
MG I’d known Scott [Frank writer and director] for a long time. This is the second time he’s come to me with a role that I don’t think many other directors would necessarily have thought of me for. The first time, he asked me to play a bank robber in The Look Out, many years ago. This is very different and that’s thrilling. That’s all you want as an actor: to have somebody who has some faith in you and a great story, and when they bestow that honor upon you, that spurs you on to do something good, hopefully.
Carl seems like a very layered character…
MG Yes, he’s got an awful lot to him. It’s difficult to talk about it because I don’t want to give anything away. But I was absolutely over the moon. And then, also, I remember early on in preproduction, Scott’s like, ‘Oh have I got a stable of race horses for you,’ and I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He goes, ‘The actors I’ve got around you, you better bring something because they’re going to kick your ass otherwise.’ And he’s right. One of the things I’m most proud of, or that Scott should be most proud of, is populating this show with five of the best actresses I’ve ever worked with, they’re all so strong. I’m talking about Chloe Pirrie, Kelly Macdonald, Leah Byrne, Shirley Henderson and Kate Dickie. They’re amazing. And then Mark Bonnar and Jamie Sives, who I’ve loved for years, and Alexej Manvelov, who plays Akram, who, let me tell you, is a little drop of heaven.
These are actors whom we haven’t seen in leading roles, but they’re recognisable from so many shows and films.
MG Yeah, I think that sums up all of us really. I mean, I’m not someone who does massively big roles, so I think that’s one of the reasons it’s so strong. We’ve all been doing it for so long and we don’t necessarily get this great material, so we’re straight off to the races, really. That experience really shines through.
At the end of the second episode, your character has a panic attack. How do you prepare for those emotionally heightened scenes?
MG When you’re doing longform television, it’s a bit like sports psychology: you can’t get too caught up with where your end is going to be. If you start thinking about where the ball is going to end up, it will end up in the woods. It’s a huge amount of homework and you have to stay on top of your lines, especially if there’s going to be the occasional rewrite. But I suppose, for me, I took a lot of long baths. That was part of my process.
One of the things that was very interesting about the planning of it all was the fact that the character is originally Danish and in Copenhagen, but I’m English and I’m in Scotland. So Scott and I had some interesting chats about what the character’s socio-political background would have been like growing up. With any project I do, I like to create secrets and things from one’s own past that no other character knows, because that’s just kind of fun.
How did you navigate holding the emotional weight of what Carl has been through? Do you have a process of releasing this at the end of the day?
MG They were long days. If my call time was 6 – I burnt out after about three months so I had to change this – I was getting up at 4, running a bath – and the water was never hot enough for my liking – going through the lines, going through the next day’s lines, and trying to stay four or five days ahead. And then, if I was good, I would treat myself. I was watching Ken Burns’ Baseball. I had heard about this documentary, it’s hours long – it’s amazing, by the way. So my treat would be getting half an hour of that. Then, if I came home at 8:30 at night, I’d spend an hour and a half doing my homework, watching a tiny bit of sport and then getting in bed. It’s metronomically hard work, longform TV, when you’re at the center of it. But, as Billie Jean King once said, ‘Pressure is privilege.’
The series highlights the consequences of crime. Did working on Dept. Q reveal anything to you about the link between trauma and the body?
MG That’s very interesting. It’s more to do, as you say, with the long-term effects. I’ve had friends who have worked on the murder squad. Some of their stories were absolutely harrowing, and it’s stuff that doesn’t go away: recurring nightmares and all these kinds of things, because of just how stressful that kind of job is. Really, what you come away from watching this show with is that there are people out there literally putting their lives on the line. Obviously this is not based on a true story, but those people out there exist. It sort of makes you go, ‘Thank god.’
I’ve only seen the first two episodes but there seems to be a real camaraderie between Carl and Akram. How did you build that dynamic?
MG I find if you’ve got great respect and camaraderie and proper friendship in real life then magic can happen on the screen. Because there’s trust that’s created. On the second day after the read-through, I was like, ‘What are you doing?’ He [Alexej Manvelov] was just going over lines, so I said, ‘Why don’t you come meet me at this French restaurant and we’ll go over lines together and we’ll hang out?’ We went for lunch and we were still there in the evening. We might have had four or five bottles of wine but we were just laughing hysterically and that’s what’s so great. We’re both very different to our characters, but he’s the perfect foil for Carl. This is a dark show – not in the horror way, more in the [sense of a] thriller – but there’s also a lot of humor. A lot of that also comes from the strength of the female characters, I mean Leah Byrne really blew my mind.
It feels necessary to have moments of humour in the darkness, especially given our current state of the world. But that dark humor is also quite a British and Australian thing…
MG Yes, completely, we excel at gallows humor. Also, Jamie Sives, who was literally my partner in crime in this, is so funny. I’m very protective around this… It’s the first time I’ve really wanted to call it an ensemble or, like, a company. I feel like that for the first time since I did theatre, which was a fucking long time ago. That’s why I’m desperate for a recommission, because there are many more books. I want to see what Scott can do with the script, and challenge these actors and myself, obviously, even further. I miss them. I normally don’t like watching myself, and I still don’t like watching myself, but I love watching what the team did. I’m so fond of them.
Carl’s look is a departure from the clean-cut style of your previous roles. Was there any sense of freedom in this, or were you hesitant, knowing so many people would see you looking very different?
MG My wife didn’t like it…
The beard?
MG Yes, because it’s a bit ticklish on her nose, so that wasn’t great for her. However, yeah it was freeing. To get to behave and say those kinds of lines and hopefully bring a character that’s very three-dimensional, that’s very blocked, very aggressive and also strangely brilliant. There’s a kindness to him. But yeah, I did feel free, and yet at the same time, after seven months… There is a little bit of osmosis that happens. There was a short-temperedness that would seep in a little bit. I was quite glad, as was my family, to take a bit of time off afterwards.
That short-temperedness or reactivity is quite typical in people with PTSD so it makes sense it would be quite difficult to get rid of.
MG Absolutely. But, it does get to you a bit. I think also, when you’re the lead in something, which is a wonderful thing, but it fucks you up after nine months. You get to the end – I was ill at the end, I actually had to re-voice because I lost my voice.
How did you get started in acting? I read that your parents weren’t in the industry.
MG Not professionally, no. My mum was pretty amazing. She galvanised our local village and directed amateur dramatics. So I grew up watching amateur theatre. My dad also played at folk clubs, he was a musician – well, he was a geologist but he loved to play folk music. So I suppose I inherited it. I played a lot of sports at school and that was my main focus, but I studied drama. Even by the end of my second year I didn’t know what I wanted to be. But our flatmate got into a show, and he wasn’t even studying drama, he was studying English. So I thought, okay maybe I’ve got a shot. I went and auditioned at Webber Douglas and got in. I couldn’t afford it, I had to get a career development loan. My parents helped me out with rent – contrary to popular opinion, I’m not manor-born [laughs]. Luckily it all worked out. But the fear never stops.
How do you navigate that fear?
MG You’ve done it before, and the fear is about the unknown, so better to have humility, I think, so long as it doesn’t turn itself into self-sabotage, which it has done occasionally. Then sometimes, such as The Offer, it was after the pandemic and I was just about to get into a financial pickle, probably, and then this gift came. And it scared me, it scared me a lot. I didn’t have an option, I mean how could I turn this down? It’s such a great part and Dexter [Fletcher, producer] convinced me. Because I didn’t see myself as being able to do that part at all. I always take a bit of convincing.
Who is your Mastermind?
MG That’s an impossible question. Right now, it’s Scott Frank. But I have many. Ken Burns is a Mastermind and I love him because he’s my treat when I’m working. It depends what genre, because then there’s literature and that opens up a whole can of worms. I still haven’t read a novel that is as affecting and as brilliant as A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. I fucking love that book, it’s some of the best prose I’ve ever read.
Dept Q. is is released on Netflix on May 29. Grooming by Sven Bayerbach. In the first image, Matthew wears a hoodie by Celine Homme, T-shirt by Hanes, vintage jeans from Contemporary Wardrobe Collection and watch by Omega.
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Stars of sport to unite in Madrid for 2025 Laureus World Sports Awards – Laureus Website press release – 9th April 2025 [Extract]
The most prestigious honours event on the sporting calendar is back for a second successive year at the iconic Palacio de Cibeles in the Spanish capital, with the world’s best sportsmen and women competing for The Laureus, the statuette which signifies the ultimate recognition from the world of elite sport – athletes are nominated by a panel of global media and the winners decided by the 69 sporting legends of the Laureus World Sports Academy.
He said: “The best athletes in the world are coming to Madrid for the 25th anniversary Laureus World Sports Awards – but I’m not sure any of them will be as excited as I am to be a part of the greatest show in sports.“The sportswomen and men we will celebrate and honour do not need a script and they do not wait for direction. The stars of our show wrote their own stories in 2024.”
…
In addition to celebrating the sporting success of 2025, the Laureus World Sports Awards are also a platform to showcase Laureus Sport for Good, which uses the power of sport to end violence, discrimination and inequality, showing how sport can change the world. Today Laureus supports more than 300 programmes in over 50 countries, working to transform society and improve the lives of young people. Since its inception in 2000, Laureus Sport for Good has used the power of sport to improve the lives of more than six-and-a-half million children and young adults.
The impact of the Awards is a key element to both the planning and delivery of the 2025 event. Working closely with both Host Partners, Madrid City Council and the Regional Government of Madrid, Laureus will bring the expertise and support of Laureus Sport for Good to leave a lasting legacy for the young people of the city and region of Madrid.
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A must-watch for Slow Horses fans: meet Netflix’s new Scandi crime series Department Q – Good Housekeeping.com – 3rd March 2025
A Slow Horses-style drama is coming and we’ve got all the inside details.
Slow Horses fans take note: Netflix is bringing us a new must-watch Scandi crime drama – and it sounds somewhat similar to the Apple+ smash hit. Department Q is set to introduce us to a new team of misfits relegated to the basement and tasked with solving crimes. See what we mean?
An adaptation of the novels of the same name by Danish author, Jussi Adler-Olsen, the series revolves around Carl Morck, a former top-rated detective in Edinburgh who, following an attack that left his partner paralysed and another policeman dead, is tasked with setting up Department Q. Cue the arrival of a team of misfits and mavericks.
Here’s everything we know about the upcoming series, including the plot, cast – and if it’s actually any good…
What is Department Q about?
An adaptation of the novels of the same name from Danish author, Jussi Adler-Olsen, Department Q is a bit like the Netflix version of Apple TV+’s Slow Horses. Downton Abbey’s Matthew Goode plays DCI Carl Morck, who has his life turned upside down after a violent incident leaves his partner paralysed and an officer dead.
When he returns to work, he’s tasked with setting up Department Q – a new cold case department which, according to the official synopsis, “is little more than a PR exercise”. Initially, Carl doesn’t mind being sidelined, enjoying his days playing solitaire and skiving. But over the course of the series, his detective instincts are reawakened, and his new basement department becomes an unlikely magnet for the misfits and mavericks of Chief Super, Moira’s (played by Kate Dickie) police team.
The cast also includes Line of Duty’s Kelly MacDonald, who plays Dr Rachel Irving, the therapist charged with getting officers back on the front line. She quickly gets the measure of Carl, his trauma and his superiority complex and the pair develop a deep connection across the series.
Who’s starring in Department Q?
- Matthew Goode (The King’s Man, Downton Abbey)
- Chloe Pirrie (Under The Banner of Heaven, The Queen’s Gambit)
- Alexej Manvelov (Jack Ryan, Top Dog)
- Kelly Macdonald (Line of Duty, Operation Mincemeat)
- Leah Byrne (Call The Midwife, Nightsleeper)
- Mark Bonnar (Napoleon, Guilt)
- Shirley Henderson (Harry Potter, Bridget Jones)
- Jamie Sives (Guilt, Crime)
- Kate Dickie (Inside Man, The Witch)
Is Department Q any good?
Let’s just say we have a very good feeling about this one. We know that Adler-Olsen’s books are extremely popular and the series has already spawned a Danish Nordic noir film series, The Keeper of Lost Causes, The Absent One and A Conspiracy of Faith, which has been described as “flat-out superb”.
There’s also the rather major fact that Scott Frank, best known as the series creator behind Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit (the hit show about an orphaned girl’s rise to chess stardom) is behind this series. If that’s anything to go by, we’re onto something pretty brilliant here.
How can I watch Department Q?
While Netflix hasn’t released an official release date just yet, we do know that it will be released on the streamer at some point this year. As soon as we have a confirmed date, we’ll let you know.