Carl Morck was once great police detective but was left badly traumatised after taking a bullet in an ambushed investigation. In the same incident, his long-time friend and colleague James Hardy was left paralysed and a young officer was killed.

Morck was never one to make friends anyway, but his arrogance isn’t muted by being shot. In fact, he is resentful that he has to attend therapy sessions after the incident, and his return to work is less than pleasant.

When the Scottish government decides to create a team to focus on unsolved crimes Morck’s boss Jacobson puts him in charge. She’s been given a substantial budget for it, not that Morck would know, as she’s funnelling it into her own department to solve currently active cases. She leaves him to run the new department alone, in the basement of the station, with nothing but boxes of cold cases for company.

But when others start taking an interest in the department, Morck finds himself leading a ragtag team of police misfits as he homes in on the disappearance of Merritt Lingard – a former Crown Office solicitor who disappeared four years prior.

First launching in May 2025, Dept. Q spent six weeks in Netflix’s Global Top 10. Variety said in their review: “Dept. Q is engrossing because its pace and narrative structure portray the detail and patience needed to bring an investigation full circle.”

Yes! Netflix confirmed Dept. Q will return for a second season in August 2025.

Matthew Goode, who leads the cast, told TUDUM at the time: ““I’d like to thank Netflix for giving us the opportunity to further investigate Dept. Q’s storylines.

“We have a wonderful cast and crew, headed by our resident genius Scott Frank. I cannot wait to read what comes from his magic quill!”

Filming has been scheduled to commence in April 2026, with plans for a release date at some point in 2027.

The main cast for Dept. Q are:

• Matthew Goode (A Discovery of Witches, The Offer) as DCI Carl Morck

• Chloe Pirrie (Industry, Under The Banner of Heaven) as Merritt Lingard

• Jamie Sives (Guilt, Chernobyl) as DI James Hardy

• Alexej Manvelov (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Top Dog) as Akram Salim

• Leah Byrne (Deadwater Fell, Call The Midwife) as DC Rose Dickson

• Steven Miller (Casualty, Shetland) as Sam Haig

• Kelly Macdonald (Line of Duty, Giri/Haji) as Dr Rachel Irving

• Kate Dickie (Game of Thrones, The Day of the Jackal) as Chief Superintendent Moira Jacobson

• Mark Bonnar (Line Of Duty, Unforgotten) as Stephen Burns

• Alison Peebles (Molly and Mack, River City) as Ailsa Jennings

The official rating of Dept. Q in the UK is 15 for the overall series, which means the show has been deemed unsuitable for younger audiences and children.

Reasons for this rating is due to the show containing:

• Non-graphic depictions of sex

• Discussions of a sexual nature

• Some brief nudity (bare behinds and some breast exposure)

• Scenes of violence including use of weaponry and guns

• Graphic depictions of blood and gore

• Discussions and themes of child abuse and trauma

• Depictions of dead and mutilated bodies

• Intense scenes of kidnapping and torture some may find distressing.

Dept. Q is a Netflix series – and from March 2026, Sky is bringing together HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+ and (from July 2026) Hayu all under a single subscription.

That means millions of existing customers will get unrivalled access to unmissable entertainment as part of their Sky TV subscription!

For more information on how Sky TV is getting even better – click here!

You can find out how to activate your Netflix account to your Sky Stream account here.