Peter Capaldi: ‘My police thriller is no Line of Duty – we go far deeper’

If there’s one thing TV fans love, it’s a good police procedural – where hard-nosed cops wearing crumpled coats try to bring criminals to justice. 

In the UK, however, the undisputed granddaddy of them all (or should that be Chief Inspector?) is the BBC’s Line of Duty. 

In fact, such is Line of Duty’s influence that most channels (and streaming services) have attempted to duplicate the hit series’ success with mixed results. 

Yet, the second season of Criminal Record just landed on Apple TV Plus, and it’s not looking to replicate the formula that made the AC-12 team the most popular police officers since Colombo.

No, Criminal Record is doing its own thing, or at least that’s what the stars of the show told Metro separates it from the competition.

‘First of all, I think the show tends to deal with hotter issues,’ explained Peter Capaldi, who plays DCI Daniel Hegarty, when asked what his show differs from series like Line of Duty. 

Capaldi isn’t wrong.

Season one of Criminal Record saw Hegarty clash with younger officer DS June Lenker (Cush Jumbo) over institutionalised racism and systemic corruption within the police.

This new series, meanwhile, explores the complicated and extremely timely world of deepfakes and online misinformation while Hegarty and Lenker are forced to team up to solve a murder. 

Unlike other lesser shows, though, which can offer simple solutions to these ‘hot topics’, Criminal Record has no easy answers and is more interested in exploring its flawed heroes. 

‘Secondly, this is no criticism of those shows,’ Capaldi continued. ‘I think we’re allowed the time to explore the characters a little more deeply. 

‘I think there is a real attempt in our show to try to give them layers and make them complicated, so that someone isn’t necessarily just a villain or a hero. There are grey areas, and we like to explore those.’

‘I think also that in procedurals, it’s often tempting not to show the parts of life that won’t take a case forward, but it will take a character forward,’ offered Jumbo. ‘I think we are good at showing that.

‘Just like Peter said, we can make a character that is traditionally bad very complex, and make an audience be confused about why they might like them, even though they should hate them.’ 

Indeed, Hegarty and Lenker’s contemptuous dynamic is one of the show’s more unique selling points. Not since Life on Mars have I seen a more dysfunctional inversion of the classic buddy cop dynamic.

Interestingly, the pair chose not to rehearse to create this warped relationship.

‘Cush brings such depth and emotion to the character,’ Capaldi revealed. ‘I’ll never predict it. I never know what she’s going to do, and I think rehearsal tends to drain that a little bit. So we sort of made a little pact that we wouldn’t rehearse.’

‘The way that Peter has created this “Hegarty mystique” is that [he has this] unpredictable energy,’ agreed Jumbo. 

‘It’s much better for us, for me to feel that for the first time… I’d never like her to be too confident around him, so it works well for us, and it helps us not to be too buddy-buddy with each other.’

This decision not to be ‘buddy-buddy’ was a difficult one, especially for Capaldi, who, despite playing the fearsome and foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker, isn’t used to playing such a buttoned-up role.

‘It’s quite hard really, because it’s not my natural go to place,’ he laughed. ‘I don’t have a poker face. Everyone knows pretty much what I’m thinking when they look at me, all the characters I play are usually out there – my hands wave around, my eyes explode, my eyebrows go up and down. 

‘So it takes me all of my energy to control my face, to try and be still. I’ll be exhausted at the end of the day to have a wipe down because I’ve been sitting quietly.’

The show’s commitment to complexity doesn’t stop at its characters; it’s baked into the show’s foundation, which brings us back to the hotter issues Criminal Record explores. 

‘We’re always trying to make a show that is incredibly exciting to watch and very entertaining, but we cannot ignore the world that we live in,’ Cush explained when I asked if they felt a duty of care when telling stories that could be ripped from today’s paper (preferably Metro). 

‘Paul Ruttman, who writes our show, we’re not even sure how Paul tells the future, but it’s, it’s completely attached to the zeitgeist of what is going on. So, yeah, we definitely feel the responsibility to look after the topics, because they’re real. Some people are really experiencing them.’

‘One of the great things about police shows is that they already have a structure that the audience can buy into, added Capaldi. ‘So we can explore quite complex issues, but we always have a SWAT team, a car chase, and a shootout. 

‘That’s the brilliant thing about cop shows. They will always deliver those entertaining story elements while at the same time allowing you to explore what’s going on in society.’

Criminal Record season two will premiere globally with the first episode on Wednesday, April 22, on Apple TV, followed by one new episode weekly, every Wednesday until June 10, 2026.

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