General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Criminal Record (2024 TV series)

Criminal Record is a British crime thriller television series created by Paul Rutman for Apple TV+, starring Peter Capaldi as Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Hegarty and Cush Jumbo as Detective Sergeant June Lenker, two London detectives drawn into conflict over an old murder case. Its eight-episode first season premiered globally on January 10, 2024, with the first two episodes released that day and new episodes weekly through February 23.¹ A second eight-episode season premiered on April 22, 2026, and ran weekly through June 10, 2026.²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Eight-episode crime thriller per season; episodes run about 50 minutes; rated TV-MA; region of origin the United Kingdom¹^•³
Season 1 premiere	January 10, 2024, with two episodes, then weekly through February 23¹
Lead roles	Peter Capaldi as DCI Daniel Hegarty; Cush Jumbo as DS June Lenker¹
Production	Tod Productions and STV Studios for Apple TV+; executive producers Elaine Collins, Paul Rutman, Capaldi and Jumbo¹
Season 1 directors	Jim Loach and Shaun James Grant¹
Season 2	Premiered April 22, 2026; finale June 10, 2026; directed by Ben A. Williams and Joelle Mae David²
Central theme	Policing, institutional failure and race in contemporary London¹

Spoilers

Premise and season 1

The series is set in contemporary London and, in Apple's description, explores "the impossibility of policing when the truth is up for grabs."² In season one, an anonymous phone call draws two detectives into a confrontation over an old murder case: June Lenker, a young woman early in her career, and Daniel Hegarty, a well-connected officer determined to protect his legacy.¹ The show touches on issues of race, institutional failure and the search for common ground in a polarized Britain.¹

The central case. More than a decade before the story begins, Hegarty arrested Errol Mathis (Tom Moutchi), who confessed to killing his partner Adelaide Burrows and is serving a 24-year prison sentence. Lenker is asked to review an anonymous 999 call in which a woman says her violent partner confessed to killing his ex, and her investigation forces the case back into the open, putting her on a collision course with Hegarty and his colleagues, nicknamed the 62s.⁴

The season one cast also includes Charlie Creed-Miles, Dionne Brown, Shaun Dooley, Stephen Campbell Moore, Zoë Wanamaker, Rasaq Kukoyi, Maisie Ayres, Aysha Kala, BAFTA TV Award winner Cathy Tyson and Tom Moutchi.¹

Season 2

Apple TV+ renewed the series, and the second season premiered globally on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, with new episodes weekly through Wednesday, June 10.² In season two, a young man is stabbed to death at a political rally, and the rival officers Lenker and Hegarty are forced into an uneasy alliance; what begins as a murder hunt escalates into an undercover operation to foil a far-right bomb plot in the heart of London.²

Dustin Demri-Burns, Luca Pasqualino, Luther Ford, Lyndsey Marshal and Peter Sullivan join the cast in season two, alongside returning ensemble members including Shaun Dooley, Stephen Campbell Moore and Charlie Creed-Miles.² Season two is directed by Ben A. Williams and Joelle Mae David, replacing the first season's directors.²

Production

Criminal Record was created by BAFTA Award nominee Paul Rutman, whose earlier credits include Vera and Indian Summers. Tod Productions and STV Studios make the series for Apple TV+, with Elaine Collins, a BAFTA Scotland Award recipient, along with Rutman, Capaldi, and Jumbo as executive producers; the two stars also hold executive producer roles.¹ Tod Productions has described a long-running exclusive co-development and co-production relationship with STV Studios, under which it was in production on the second series through 2025.⁵

Themes and reception

Critics identified the clash between the two leads as the show's core. The A.V. Club's review described the series as speaking to a United Kingdom reckoning with the conduct of its largest police force, noting that London's real Metropolitan Police was found in 2023 to be institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic, and that the show draws heavily on that reality.⁴ The Upcoming's review praised the way the script weaves themes of prejudice and institutional racism into the drama, and singled out the performances of Jumbo and Capaldi as the series' main draw.⁶ Metacritic aggregated 22 critic reviews for the first season.⁷ Reviewers of the second season were similarly focused on the leads; The Guardian's review called Capaldi "just devastating" in the role.⁸

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026