James Nesbitt is a cop who wants to have a quiet word in ‘Suspect’

Sometimes the best drama comes from two people having a conversation. In this case, some fairly intense conversations, as Nesbitt chases answers from a parade of high-profile stars.

There are shocks in store for James Nesbitt in ‘Suspect’. Source: Eagle Eye Drama

It’s no secret that interrogations are often the best part of a police series: coming face to face with a suspect – or just someone who knows something but isn’t talking – and trying to get the truth out of them always makes for high drama.

Now Suspect asks the question, “what if there was a police series that was nothing but interrogations?”

Danny is a world-weary cop with a troubled past. Suspect is a series that doesn’t waste time – each episode is only around 22 minutes – so instead of explaining his background to the viewer they’ve just cast James Nesbitt. He’s made something of a habit of playing this kind of role: right from the start you know where you stand with him.

James Nesbitt on a quest for answers in ‘Suspect’. Source: Eagle Eye Drama

He’s dropped into the local morgue to investigate the corpse of an unidentified female that everyone currently assumes is a suicide. Danny might have a few personal problems and a world-weary attitude, but he’s not the kind of cop that takes things on face value. Unfortunately for him, this case has a twist: when he recognises a necklace taken from the body, he realises the corpse is that of his estranged daughter Christina.

If that set-up sounds a little familiar, chances are you had the good taste to watch the Nordic Noir series Face to Face (available

at SBS On Demand

). A smash-hit in Denmark (there was also a second series focusing on the lead detective’s wife), it gathered plenty of praise both for its gritty storyline and the way the format of a series of one-on-one encounters created a showcase for some of the region’s top actors.

For this UK adaptation, a few things have been changed around. But the one thing it’s hung onto is the idea of pairing off an icon of the crime genre (and after so many classic cop/soldier/'man chasing answers' roles over the past decade, Nesbitt is most definitely that) with a string of big-name actors you wouldn’t expect to see together in the one series.

Joely Richardson as Jackie. Source: Eagle Eye Drama

First we get Joely Richardson as the morgue’s pathologist, who is rapidly confronted with a lot more than she expected as Danny falls apart in front of her – then he locks the doors and picks up a scalpel. He’s got a lot of questions about how his daughter might have been murdered, and he’s not leaving before he gets some answers.

The morgue is only the beginning of his search. Over the next seven episodes he’s bouncing from run-down gym to dodgy strip club, searching through a string of classic noir locations as he tracks down the traces of his daughter’s life, trying to figure out how things could have gone so wrong that someone wanted her dead.

James Nesbitt and Richard E. Grant in Suspect

James Nesbitt and Richard E. Grant – before the conversation gets even more dramatic. Source: Eagle Eye Drama

Each episode sees Danny meeting up with a new someone who he suspects holds a piece of the puzzle. They confront each other (spoiler alert: this isn’t a series about nice friendly chats), and by the end of proceedings he’s hopefully one step closer to finding out what really happened.

Sasha Dhawan as Jaisal. Source: Eagle Eye Drama

On his increasingly desperate quest Danny finds himself face to face with seedy figures like dodgy cop Ryan (Sam Heughan), flamboyant master criminal Jaisal (a series-stealing Sacha Dhawan), Christina’s posh mentor in her dive into the underworld (Richard E. Grant), and later on, Anne-Marie Duff as Christina’s grieving and angry mother. And as each episode is basically a two-hander between them and Nesbitt, the result is as close to an actor’s showcase as crime TV gets. Another familiar face is Ben Miller, who appears as Danny's boss.

Does Danny's ex-police partner Ryan (Sam Heughan) know more than he is letting on? Source: Eagle Eye Drama

Then there’s Nesbitt himself. This kind of tortured cop is his bread and butter, which is the point of having him as the lead: when you’ve got a parade of big names playing big characters, you need consistency on the other side of the table. The other actors can give it their all playing their characters because he’s a safe pair of hands, a steady baseline while they hit the high notes.

But this isn’t just a bunch of actors showing off. Their characters are blustery or loud or sometimes just shattered for a reason, and it’s up to Danny to figure out what that reason is. Each one of the people he meets knows something he doesn’t about his daughter, and that’s something he’s going to make them give up.

He’s trying to put the child he lost back together – and in the process, find the person who took her from him forever.

Season one and the newly arrived season two of Suspect are streaming now

at SBS On Demand