An anonymous phone call draws two brilliant detectives into a confrontation over an old murder case – one a young woman in the early stages of her career, the other a well-connected man determined to protect his legacy.

CRIMINAL RECORD is a new Apple TV+ series from the UK. It’s a crime thriller series with eight episodes and most fans of British crime will know that they tend to be brilliant. Intelligent, surprising, and very character-driven.

This new Apple TV+ crime thriller is no exception. Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi star in and executive produce the series. It’s full of cliffhangers and twists as well as a critical look at law enforcement and racism. You’ll want to watch this one!

In Criminal Record, we learn firsthand how having a criminal record will put you at the top of any suspect’s list forever after. The story seemingly begins in one place, but we’re quickly brought back to another older case.

It all starts when an anonymous 999 phone call [the UK equivalent of 911] is sent to a detective to follow up on. Before long, she manages to link it to another older murder case and this is when it all starts going to hell. For her, that is.

This old murder case results in the confrontation of two brilliant detectives. One is a young woman, who is just getting started with her detective career. The other is a well-connected older detective, who is hellbound on protecting his legacy.

He was the one who solved the old murder case, she is the one questioning if the right man is behind bars. This is the kind of series that focuses on the desperate need to find common ground in a polarized Britain.

Issues such as race, institutional failure, and the importance of understanding the difference, are at the very heart of Criminal Record.

The eight-part series stars Critics Choice Award nominee Cush Jumbo (The Good Wife) as Detective Sergeant June Lenker and Academy Award winner Peter Capaldi (The Devil’s Hour) as Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Hegarty.

For the record, Peter Capaldi won an Oscar as writer-director of the short film Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1993). I was very puzzled by the Academy Award-moniker as I thought it was for acting, so I figured maybe you were as well.

In any case, I loved Cush Jumbo in Criminal Record, which was a relief. I was not crazy about her in the Netflix series Stay Close. Clearly, that had more to do with the series than the actor. Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who) is just as scary and intriguing as ever!

In other key roles, we see Charlie Creed-Miles, Shaun Dooley (The Stranger), Stephen Campbell Moore (The One), Zoë Wanamaker (Shadow and Bone), Rasaq Kukoyi (His House), Aysha Kala (The Undeclared War)

Finally, Tom Moutchi (Famalam) plays the role of Errol Mathis. He’s the man serving a sentence for murder, which he may or may not have actually committed. Also, the iconic Cathy Tyson plays his mother who keeps fighting for him.

Watch the Criminal Record series on Apple TV+
Paul Rutman is the creator of Criminal Record and it’s quite a hard-hitting story he’s bringing us here. Topics such as racism and corruption within law enforcement are no joke. However, they are also not just fiction, so it makes sense to focus on both.

Shaun James Grant (The Devil’s Hour) and Jim Loach (The Tower) each directed four episodes of the new series. Creator Paul Rutman previously created the mini-series Next of Kin (2018) and worked on the iconic UK crime mystery series Vera and Marple.

Criminal Record will premiere on Apple TV+ with the first two episodes on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. Following this, we will be getting new episodes weekly with the finale coming out on February 21, 2024.

Criminal Record premieres on Apple TV+ on January 10, 2024.