‘They're polar opposites!'

Stars Tala Gouveia and Jason Watkins chat to us about playing TV’s latest unlikely crime-fighting duo in their new series

- Victoria Wilson

Move over, Cagney and Lacey, Scott and Bailey, and Endeavour and Thursday. There’s a brand-new detective duo about to join your ranks, as ITV launches its much-anticipated new crime drama McDonald & Dodds.

Set in the picturesque city of Bath, the story pairs the fiercely ambitious DCI Lauren McDonald (played by Cold Feet’s Tala Gouveia) with the quiet and unassuming DS Dodds (Hold the Sunset and The Crown star Jason Watkins) – who seemingly have nothing in common.

While McDonald has just transferred from fighting crime on the streets of south London, Dodds, who was born and bred in Bath, has been plodding along in a desk job for most of his working life.

But he’s thrust back onto the front line when, in the first of two feature-length cases, a homeless man is shot dead in the deserted mansion of inventor Max Crockett (My Family’s Robert Lindsay).

TV Times was invited to Bath’s Crowe Hall, the Grade II-listed building that doubles for Crockett’s manor, where during a break in filming Jason and Tala tell us about TV’s latest odd couple…

How would you describe McDonald and Dodds’ relationship?

Tala: They’re polar opposites. From the outset, McDonald finds Dodds quite frustrating. She’s an impatient person, always on the front foot. She wants to make things happen, whereas Dodds is just slow. They’re very much ‘old school versus new school’.