Interview: Jason Watkins on McDonald & Dodds Season 2

A hit when it debuted last year to a content-starved, recently locked-down audience, British mystery series McDonald & Dodds is set to return for a second season next week. Thankfully, stars Tala Gouveia (Cold Feet) and Jason Watkins (The Crown, W1A) are set to reprise their roles as the mismatched detective duo at the heart of this delightful entry into the well-trodden, but almost always entertaining, genre.

This second series picks up where the first left off, as DCI McDonald, a smart and ambitious investigator from London, continues her surprisingly effective partnership with the quietly brilliant DS Dodds—a man who prefers the library to the case room. Joining the duo in three new and compelling murder mysteries are a host of interesting characters and sinister suspects, many of whom are played by faces very familiar to British television fans, including Rob Brydon, Rupert Graves, Sarah Parrish and Sharon Rooney.

For those unfamiliar with McDonald & Dodds, there’s a lightness and humour to the series that makes it stand in stark contrast to the darker, bleaker crime fare like Line of Duty and Unforgotten. It’s definitely more Midsomer Murders than Luther. And while we can’t get enough of those more dramatic series, we also can’t help but love this trip to the lighter side of things. It doesn’t hurt that the series is filmed in the historic and picturesque city of Bath—a backdrop more pleasing than the most impressive and photogenic of travelogues.

We got the chance to sit down with BAFTA-winning actor Watkins to talk about the successful series’ second season, what makes the McDonald and Dodds partnership gel and just who, of the cast and crew, would be the best detective in real life. Watch the interview below now: