DCI Carl Morck is beyond grumpy. The kind of grumpy you really wish you could get away with, but politeness means you can’t. He is the lead of a new department in the Edinburgh police called Department Q, set up to solve closed cases to throw some positive light on the force. And also to keep a difficult cop quiet and out of reach of other officers by stationing him in the gloomy basement that seems to have once been a large bathroom.

With the help of Syrian asylum seeker Akram Salim (Alexej Manvolov) whose past is never made clear, Morck – brilliantly played by a Matthew Goode more often seen in period dramas (Brideshead, Downton) – re-opens the case of a missing public prosecutor who disappeared from a ferry while visiting her island home with her non-verbal brother.

In nine episodes, Dept Q goes over the old ground of missing Meritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie) in addition to working through Morck’s troubled relationship with his stepson and easing his guilt after his arrogance led to the fatal shooting of an officer at a crime scene in addition to his own injury, resulting in his period of extended leave from the force. And no-one seems too pleased to have him back.

Joined by his partner and only friend, who was left partially immobile after the same shooting, DCI James Harvey (Jamie Sives), with whom biting banter is exchanged, and a cadet recovering from a breakdown DC Rose Dickson (Leah Byrne), Morck quickly outwits the officers investigating the shooting while narrowing down the increasingly convoluted story behind Meritt’s disappearance. 

Based on one of a series of Danish crime novels, we are led through the corridors of justice, to rundown Scottish estates, the wild beauty of Meritt’s island home and even a hyperbaric chamber in a gripping, slowish burn show that allows the viewer to get to know the characters too. The mental, emotional and physical suffering people are capable of, and capable of inflicting, can be breathtaking.

Dept Q is not always a comfortable watch but certainly more than worth it. The main cast have reportedly expressed the wish for a second season. Let’s hope Netflix gives them one (and posts on social media would indicate they will).