Netflix has announced ‘Criminal‘, a “revolutionary” new procedural drama, which comprises 12 unique stories set in 4 different countries: France, Spain, Germany and the UK.
‘Criminal’ takes place exclusively within the confines of a police interview suite in a stripped down game of cat-and-mouse which focuses on the intense mental conflict between detectives and suspects. Each episode is in the local language, written and directed by talent from their respective countries.
The casting would seem to imply there will be a set of guest stars taking the roles of the accused (or persons being questioned), whilst the law enforcement side will be the regular cast. For the UK, that means David Tennant (‘Doctor Who’, ‘Good Omens’), Hayley Atwell (‘Agent Carter’), Youssef Kerkour (‘Bounty Hunters’, ‘Home’), and Clare-Hope Ashitey (‘Doctor Foster’, ‘Suspects’) are set to guest star. The regular cast includes Nicholas Pinnock (‘Counterpart’, ‘Marcella’), Katherine Kelly (‘Class’, ‘Strike Back’), Lee Ingleby (‘Inspector George Gently’, ‘Line of Duty’), Mark Stanley (‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Dickensian’), Rochenda Sandall (‘Line of Duty’), and Shubham Saraf (‘Bodyguard’).
‘The Wrong Mans’ and ‘Episodes’ director Jim Field Smith will helm the UK portion of the drama and also serves as showrunner for the entire series alongside George Kay (‘Killing Eve’, ‘The Hour’.) Kay and Smith are co-creators & exec producers on the series, and also write the UK section.
The French episodes guest star Nathalie Baye, Jérémie Renier, and Sara Giraudeau, with Margot Bancilhon, Laurent Lucas, Stéphane Jobert, Anne Azoulay, and Mhamed Arezki as series regulars. Frederic Mermoud (‘Spiral’) will direct and also writes the episodes alongside Antonin Martin-Hilbert (‘Nina’, ‘Black Spot’) and Mathieu Missoffe (‘Black Spot’, ‘Profilage’).
The German section is helmed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (‘Borgia’, ‘4 Blocks’) and guest stars Peter Kurth, Christian Berkel, Deniz Arora and Nina Hoss, with Eva Meckbach, Sylvester Groth, Florence Kasumba, Christian Kuchenbuch and Jonathan Berlin taking the regular roles. Bernd Lange (‘Das Verschwinden’) writes the episodes with Sebastian Heeg (‘Blaumacher’) as co-writer.
Lastly, the Spanish part of the drama is directed by Mariano Barroso (‘What the Future Holds’, ‘La línea invisible’), with Carmen Machi, Inma Cuesta, Eduard Fernández, Emma Suárez, and Álvaro Cervantes guest starring. Jorge Bosch, José Ángel Egido, Nuria Mencía, Daniel Chamorro, María Morales, Javi Coll and Milo Taboada take the series regular roles. The episodes are written by Alejandro Hernández (‘El autor’, ‘El día de mañana’) and Manuel Martín Cuenca (‘El autor’, ‘Caníbal’).
The series consists of 12, 45-minute episodes with 3 episodes dedicated to each country. ‘Criminal’ is an Idiotlamp Production for Netflix, and all 12 episodes were filmed at Netflix’s production hub at Ciudad de la Tele in Madrid.
‘Criminal‘ is set to premiere on Netflix UK and worldwide in Autumn 2019.
