Jason Watkins and Tala Gouveia play mis-matched crime-fighting duo McDonald & Dodds. Here's all you need to know about TV's newest odd couple...
Everyone loves a TV detective duo and a new crime-fighting partnership bursts onto our screens soon in ITV’s McDonald & Dodds.
Set in the picturesque town of Bath, the crime drama pairs the fiercely ambitious DCI McDonald – actress Tala Gouveia in her first lead role – with the quiet and unassuming DS Dodds, played by BAFTA winner and The Crown star Jason Watkins.
McDonald & Dodds start date: When will it be on ITV?
McDonald & Dodds starts on Sunday March 1 at 8pm with the first of two feature-length mysteries, The Fall of the House of Crockett. The second outing, The Wilderness of Mirrors airs the following week.
McDonald & Dodds plot: What’s in store?
As detectives McDonald & Dodds couldn't be more different. While McDonald has transferred from fighting crime in South London, Dodds has been plodding along in a desk job most of his working life. But he’s thrust back out onto the frontline when – in the first of two feature-length dramas – a homeless man is shot dead in the deserted mansion of prominent, charismatic inventor Max Crockett.
Crockett is a highly regarded member of Bath society and appears to be the head of a close-knit family with three successful daughters, all in loving relationships. But it soon transpires the whole family has something to hide…
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McDonald & Dodds: Who's in it?
Feisty DCI McDonald is played by Cold Feet actress Tala Gouveia in her first lead role. Bringing the wonderfully awkward Dodds to life is Jason Watkins, famous for shows such as Trollied, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries and for once wielding a chainsaw in Line of Duty. But it doesn't sound like Dodds gets up to anything nearly as exciting...
"Dodds is spectacularly dull," Jason says of his character. "He's this guy who’s been stuck behind a desk for 12 years, who people don’t know what to do with, so he’s been put on this investigation by Chief Superintendent John Houseman (Primeval's James Murray) to try and expose him and push him out. Dodds is the analogue in McDonald's digital world and at first they clash."
McDonald & Dodds: Any good guest stars?
There's also an array of top-notch guest stars in this week's first investigation, The Fall of the House of Crockett, with Bounty Hunters' Robert Lindsay playing Lord of the manor Max Crockett.
"McDonald takes an instant dislike to Crockett because she can see he’s someone who’s very powerful and used to getting his own way all the time,' reveals Tala. "But McDonald doesn’t care who you are, where you come from or how much money you have, she just wants to do her job. When Crockett meets them, he immediately acknowledges Dodds as being in charge of the case not her. From then on, he just continues to try and undermine her."
This first drama also stars Game of Thrones' Ellie Kendrick, Sticks and Stones' Susannah Fielding, and Call the Midwife's Jack Ashton.
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What else do we know about McDonald & Dodds?
- Crockett's mansion is in fact Crowe Hall, an opulent Grade II listed building in Bath.
- Dodds likes dipping his chips in butter. Mmm, nice...
