The detective returns to Channel 5 next week.

By David Craig

Published: Sunday, 23 April 2023 at 12:00 am

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Bertie Carvel has opened up on the mindset of his titular detective in Dalgliesh season 2, teasing that the character is considering stepping back from his duties.

The series, which returns to Channel 5 next week, unravels cases across 1970s England, based on the mystery novels by late author PD James – with season 2 adapting Death of an Expert Witness, A Certain Justice and The Murder Room.

Ahead of the premiere, Carvel spoke to RadioTimes.com and other press, explaining that a key focus of the episodes is on Dalgliesh potentially passing the torch to a new generation of detectives.

“There’s another big journey in the series,” he began, “which is because, on the one hand, he’s maybe stepping back. There’s a potential ending where he gives it all up.”

Carvel continued: “So part of what’s going on as well is that he’s bringing others on… he sees potential in Kate Miski and he’s got this new guy on the team.

“And so there’s also an element of stepping back and watching how other people do things, and trying to bring them on and bring them forward and give away his power. So that’s going on.”

But just because Dalgliesh is questioning his future, don’t expect him to pursue answers any less aggressively, with Carvel saying that he can’t “help the bloodhound in him” or getting “righteous about pursuit of the truth”.

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It’s not just a big career choice that is causing Dalgliesh to reflect, as the nature of his latest cases will affect him profoundly as an “emotionally porous” individual.

Carvel added: “He’s kind of going back into his past, to the county of his birth. And in doing that he’s also travelling back in time himself and thinking about where he came from and these bigger questions. But that’s happening very quietly.

“And what should he find there? A dead person, obviously… His magic trick as a policeman is to be quite boundaried, but inside he’s incredibly emotionally porous, and so he kind of walks into these situations and finds things that can’t help but feel massively personal.”