‘Dalgliesh’ Gets Season 3 On Acorn TV & Channel 5 With Bertie Carvel Making Directorial Debut
EXCLUSIVE: A third season of Acorn TV and Channel 5 detective drama Dalgliesh has begun filming in Northern Ireland.
Produced by New Pictures (The Long Shadow) for Acorn and C5 in association with All3Media International, the third run will include lead actor Bertie Carvel making his directorial debut.
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Another three P.D. James novels will be adapted for the season over two hour-long episodes each, in which Commander Dalgliesh is seen with Margaret Thatcher on the cusp of power in the UK. In the first book, Death in Holy Orders, Dalgliesh travels to a remote seminary overlooking a windswept lake, where a body has been found gruesomely murdered. Nearly everyone in the seminary has reason to resent the victim, and Dalgliesh and DS Tarrant must unpick a complicated set of motives to find their killer.
In the second, Cover Her Face, Dalgliesh investigates a murder in the Essex home of the Mehtas, a staggeringly wealthy family with connections to the British government. With the help of local detective Clive Roscoe, Dalgliesh builds a picture of events in the weeks leading to the crime, confronting a blanket of secrecy among his guarded suspects.
In the third, Devices and Desires, Dalgliesh is sent on an urgent mission to investigate a terrorist plot against a nuclear power station on the Kent coast. He is soon drawn into a complex and highly charged hunt for a serial killer, working once more alongside former colleague Kate Miskin, now an acting DCI.
Carlyss Peer and Alistair Brammer both return to the series with guest stars including Anton Lesser (Endeavour), Lloyd Owen (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power), Claire Goose (Silverpoint), Liz White (The Long Shadow), Adam James (Mr Bates vs The Post Office), Richard Lintern (Silent Witness), Ellora Torchia (The Gold), Parth Thakerar (Gangs of London), Soni Razdan (War) and Josie Walker (Belfast).
Screenwriter and playwright Helen Edmundson (The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, An Inspector Calls, Small Island) returns as lead writer and executive producer, with Colette Kane (Temple, Moving On, Department Q) joining as writer for Death In Holy Orders and Kam Odedra (Lupin, Hijack, Whitstable Pearl) on Cover Her Face.
Carvel directs Cover Her Face, Geoff Sax (Us, Endeavour, Victoria) returns to direct Death In Holy Orders and Roger Goldby (Belgravia: The Next Chapter, Finding Alice, The Durrells) directs Devices and Desires. Leon McGeown-Fee (London Kills, Hope Street) will produce the series with Elaine Pyke, Willow Grylls and Bertie Carvel serving as executive producers for New Pictures. Additional funding comes from Northern Ireland Screen.
“I’m thrilled to return to Dalgliesh; this time behind, as well as in front of, the camera, directing a bold adaptation of PD James’ first ever Dalgliesh novel, Cover Her Face,” said Carvel. “It’s a story with powerful and unsettling contemporary resonance and it’s my privilege to direct an exemplary ensemble cast who are giving knockout performances.”
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