“Ridley,” PBS’s new British detective series premiering Sunday with the first of four 120-minute murder mysteries, gifts Adrian Dunbar with a character he could fine tune.
Dunbar’s Alex Ridley is a retired Detective Inspector, slowly recovering from a nervous breakdown after his wife and daughter were killed in a house fire. He returns to work after 18 months but only as a consultant, a development inspired by real-life retired detectives re-joining police forces in consultancy roles.
“That means,” Dunbar said, “he’ll go outside normal police procedures — because he’s not bound by police procedures.”
Ridley is assisting colleague Carol Farman (Northern Ireland’s Bronagh Waugh) who has been promoted to D.I. He’s also co-owner of a jazz club where he lets off steam at the piano and sings.
For Dunbar, 64, having this above-the-title starring role is one result of a long run, from 2012 to 2021, in one of the BBC-TV’s biggest hits. “Line of Duty,” he said in a phone interview from Italy’s Dolomites where he’s filming a Christmas movie with Danny DeVito, “was a huge hit for me. I’m now experiencing a really wonderful moment in my career and it’s great to get success later on in life. Because you’re really able to enjoy it, to handle it.”
Dunbar had definite notions to insure Alex Ridley stands apart from the many televised detectives. “The first thing was I got a lot of input. So the whole musical element, to have him have a jazz club,” he revealed, “was my idea.
“Also, I wanted to have somewhere for the stories to start that was outside the police station. And when it came to the character, it would be really interesting to play with that backstory. Starting with someone who’s at a really low place is a really good idea.
“We start with someone who’s going back to work just because he needs to get back to work to do something. Because otherwise he’s just going to get depressed with his life because of what’s happened to him.”
But tragedy hasn’t changed who Ridley essentially is. When he confronts a cop and she asks, Can’t he just let it go? He says ‘No’ — because that’s the kind of cop he is. She says, ‘That’s always been your problem.’ He’s not the kind of guy who can bend the rules.
“As he gets back to work, gradually, over time,” Dunbar said, “we can see this person maybe come out of the pain that he’s in. That’s the big thing which will be a big arc across hopefully a number of ‘Ridley’ series.”