Suspect (TV series)

Not to be confused with Suspects (TV series) or The Suspect (TV series).

Suspect is a British crime drama television series. Adapted by Matt Baker, it is based on the Danish series Face to Face (Danish: Forhøret), which was created by Christoffer Boe. Suspect premiered on 19 June 2022 on Channel 4.

Suspect
Genre	Crime drama
Based on	Forhøret by Christoffer Boe
Written by	Matt Baker (series 1) Joy Wilkinson & David Allison (series 2)
Directed by	Dries Vos (series 1) Carolina Giammetta (series 2)
Starring	James Nesbitt Sacha Dhawan Anne-Marie Duff Sam Heughan Niamh Algar Richard E. Grant Ben Miller Antonia Thomas Joely Richardson
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	16
Production
Executive producers	Walter Iuzzolino Jo McGrath
Producer	Ed King
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	Eagle Eye Drama Fremantle
Original release
Network	Channel 4
Release	19 June 2022 (2022-06-19) – present

It was commissioned for a second series, with Baker being replaced as writer by Joy Wilkinson and David Allison.^[1][2] That series began broadcast on 17 July 2024.

Premise

Detective Danny Frater, after finding his daughter's body in the mortuary, presumably by suicide, retraces her final days to discover what happened, interviewing a range of her acquaintances. In series 2, a hypnotherapist is visited by a man who says he wants to quit smoking. Under hypnosis he says he kills girls and she must stop him.

Cast

Series 1

• James Nesbitt as Danny Frater
• Sacha Dhawan as Jaisal
• Anne-Marie Duff as Susannah
• Sam Heughan as Ryan
• Niamh Algar as Nicola
• Richard E. Grant as Harry
• Ben Miller as Richard
• Antonia Thomas as Maia
• Joely Richardson as Jackie Sowden
• Imogen King as Christina

Series 2

• Anne-Marie Duff as Dr Susannah Newman
• Dominic Cooper^[3] as Jon Fallow
• Ben Miller as Detective Superintendent Richard Groves
• Tamsin Greig as Natasha Groves
• Vinette Robinson as Louisa McAdams
• Eddie Marsan as Alistair Underwood
• Céline Buckens as Sapphire
• Nicholas Pinnock as Joseph
• Gina McKee as Kate
• Ricky Champ as Carter
• Liam Smith as Clive

Production

The first series was commissioned by Channel 4 in September 2021.^[4] Filming for the series began the following month, and generated slight controversy as customers were turned away while filming was undertaken at a Texaco in Vauxhall during the fuel crisis.^[5]

Episodes

Series 1

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	UK viewers (millions)
1	"Jackie"	Dries Vos	Matt Baker	19 June 2022 (2022-06-19)	N/A
2	"Nicola"	Dries Vos	Matt Baker	19 June 2022 (2022-06-19)	N/A
3	"Maia"	Dries Vos	Matt Baker	19 June 2022 (2022-06-19)	N/A
4	"Jaisal"	Dries Vos	Matt Baker	19 June 2022 (2022-06-19)	N/A
5	"Ryan"	Dries Vos	Matt Baker	19 June 2022 (2022-06-19)	N/A
6	"Harry"	Dries Vos	Matt Baker	19 June 2022 (2022-06-19)	N/A
7	"Susannah"	Dries Vos	Matt Baker	19 June 2022 (2022-06-19)	N/A
8	"Danny"	Dries Vos	Matt Baker	19 June 2022 (2022-06-19)	N/A

Series 2

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	UK viewers (millions)
1	"Jon"	Carolina Giammetta	Joy Wilkinson	17 July 2024 (2024-07-17)	N/A
2	"Richard & Natasha"	Carolina Giammetta	Joy Wilkinson	17 July 2024 (2024-07-17)	N/A
3	"Louisa"	Carolina Giammetta	Joy Wilkinson	18 July 2024 (2024-07-18)	N/A
4	"Alistair"	Carolina Giammetta	Joy Wilkinson	18 July 2024 (2024-07-18)	N/A
5	"Sapphire"	Carolina Giammetta	David Allison	24 July 2024 (2024-07-24)	N/A
6	"Joseph"	Carolina Giammetta	David Allison	24 July 2024 (2024-07-24)	N/A
7	"Kate"	Carolina Giammetta	David Allison	25 July 2024 (2024-07-25)	N/A
8	"Emma & Ben"	Carolina Giammetta	Joy Wilkinson	25 July 2024 (2024-07-25)	N/A

Reception

The critical response to the first series was lukewarm. Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian labelled it an "awfully cartoonish crime series" and awarded it two out of five stars.^[6] Nick Hilton in The Independent awarded also two out of five stars, and wrote, DS Danny Frater is "hitting every cliché possible, from every genre of detective fiction."^[7] Another two stars review was published in i by Rachael Sigee, who criticised "Suspect’s wordy half-hour instalments offered a lot of script but didn’t seem to be saying very much or do enough to make you care about the characters".^[8] On Metacritic the series holds a score of 49, "Mixed or average reviews".