If you love an intense crime show with high stakes and lots of drama, you won't want to miss Netflix's upcoming police procedural Criminal, which will be released on 20 September. The new programme is based entirely in a police interview room, which means it is likely to include some explosive confrontations. With an impressive cast and storylines set in four countries, the 12 part-series is generating a lot of buzz. Find out what to expect with our handy guide to every question you might have about one of autumn's must-see new shows…
The show features detectives solving crimes in four countries
What's Criminal all about?
The show will follow police officers and the suspects they hope to extract a confession from. Each 45 minute-episode will cover a new story in one of four countries across Europe: the UK, France, Germany and Spain. There will be three stories per country, each of which was filmed in the native language for a true international experience.
Who stars in the show?
Doctor Who and Broadchurch actor David Tennant may have indulged his dark side in season one of Netflix's Jessica Jones and as demon Crowley in Amazon's Good Omens, but he's back to his law-abiding ways in Criminal. Here, he stars alongside Line of Duty's Rochenda Sandall, Coronation Street star Katherine Kelly and Avengers actress Hayley Atwell. Full character details have yet to be released, but judging by information we have so far, it looks like Hayley is a potentially suspicious character.
Who else might we recognise?
The overseas stories also contain an impressive amount of acting talent. The French cast includes In Bruges actor Jérémie Renier, and legendary actress Nathalie Baye, who starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me if You Can and popped up recently in Netflix's hit dramedy Call My Agent! Their German counterparts include Babylon Berlin and Goodbye Lenin! star Peter Kurth and Christian Berkel from 2015 remake The Man From U.N.C.L.E, while the Spanish cast includes José Ángel Egido, who played Alfred Hitchcock in 2017's The Ministry of Time and Eduard Fernández, who starred alongside Javier Bardem in Biutiful.
Hayley Atwell plays one of the British crime suspects
How has Netflix described the show?
The streaming service calls Criminal "a stripped-down, cat-and-mouse drama" which "focuses on the intense mental conflict between detectives and suspects".
Who wrote it?
The series showrunners are British TV pros: director and producer Jim Field Smith from The Wrong Mans and Wrecked, and The Hour and Killing Eve’s George Kay. Local talent in each of the show's four locales contributed to the scripts and directed the episodes, including Spiral's Frederic Mermoud in France, Downfall's Oliver Hirschbiegel in Germany and Spanish director and co-executive producer Mariano Barroso.
Where was it filmed?
The programme is hoping it can fool us into thinking its set in four different countries (and we're totally ready to buy into the illusion) but because only inside shots were needed, it was all filmed in one place. Not in the UK, though: Netflix has a production hub in Madrid's Ciudad de la Tele (Television City) where all the episodes were shot.
What else can we deduce?
Netflix has released a teaser trailer, although it doesn't give away much information. It starts with the buzzing noise of a recorder, followed by close-up shots of microphones and a glass of water. Then we see a variety of suspects lining up to have their pictures taken, one of whom is Hayley Atwell, cast against type in casual clothes with wavy pink hair. One suspect throws a chair at the mirrored window of the interrogation room, making detectives jump. A piece of slow, eerie music plays throughout and the show's name appears at the end. It looks like we'll have to wait until Criminal premieres to find out more.
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