''Baghdad Central'' is a British

crime thriller Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

television series set in Iraq and first broadcast in 2020. It was based on the 2014 novel by

Elliott Colla Elliott Colla is an American scholar of the Middle East, specializing in Arabic literature and culture. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University. Career Colla received a B.A. ...

, and adapted by Stephen Butchard. It was directed by Alice Troughton. The executive producer was

Kate Harwood Kate Harwood is a British television producer. She became managing director of the revived Euston Films in summer 2014. Early life Kate graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Drama and Theatre Arts in 1981 before becoming an ...

Plot

The series is set in Iraq in 2003, shortly after the ousting of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

. It centres on a former policeman, Muhsin al-Khafaji ( Waleed Zuaiter), as he tries to find his missing daughter, Sawsan ( Leem Lubany). He is mistakenly arrested and tortured by United States troops but then recruited by a former British policeman, Frank Temple (

Bertie Carvel Robert Hugh Carvel (born 6 September 1977) is a British actor. He has twice won a Laurence Olivier Award: for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his role as Miss Trunchbull in '' Matilda the Musical'', and for Best Actor in a Suppo ...

), to become a police officer in the

Green Zone The Green Zone ( ar, المنطقة الخضراء, translit=al-minṭaqah al-ḫaḍrā) is the most common name for the International Zone of Baghdad. It was a area in the Karkh district of central Baghdad, Iraq, that was the governmental ...

Main cast

* Waleed Zuaiter as Muhsin al-Khafaji *

as Frank Temple *

Clara Khoury Clara may refer to: Organizations * CLARA, Latin American academic computer network organization * Clara.Net, a European ISP * Consolidated Land and Rail Australia, a property development consortium People * Clara (given name), a feminine giv ...

as Professor Zubeida Rashid * Leem Lubany as Sawsan * July Namir as Mrouj *

Tawfeek Barhom Tawfeek Barhom ( ar, توفيق برهوم, he, תאופיק ברהום; born 1990) is a Palestinian actor. He is known for his leading roles in ''A Borrowed Identity'' (2014), '' The Idol'' and '' Wounded Land'' (both 2015), and ''Boy from Heave ...

* Charlotte Spencer *

Corey Stoll Corey Stoll (born March 14, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Congressman Peter Russo on the Netflix political thriller series ''House of Cards'' (2013–2016), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination in 2013 ...

as John Parodi *

Neil Maskell Neil Maskell (born 1976) is an English actor, writer and director who is known for his appearances in British crime and horror films such as '' The Football Factory'' and ''Kill List''. Early life Maskell was born in London. As a youth, he pl ...

as Douglas Evans

Recurring cast

* Fady Elsayed as Ibrahim Jabani

Production

Filming began in September 2018, and took place in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

, including in the cities of

Ouarzazate Ouarzazate (; ar, ورزازات, Warzāzāt, ; ary, وارزازات, Wārzāzāt; shi, label=Berber, ⵡⴰⵔⵣⴰⵣⴰⵜ, Warzazat), nicknamed ''the door of the desert'', is a city and capital of Ouarzazate Province in the region of Dr� ...

, Rabat, Casablanca and Mohammedia.

Broadcast

''Baghdad Central'' was first broadcast on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

in February 2020. In the United States, it has been broadcast on Hulu.

Reception

''Baghdad Central'' has received mostly positive reviews according to aggregator websites, scoring 78 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

and 90 per cent on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

as of May 2020. Zuaiter was a nominee for the leading actor award in the

2021 British Academy Television Awards The 2021 British Academy Television Awards were held on 6 June 2021, to recognise the excellence in British television of 2020. The nominees were announced along with the nominees for the 2021 British Academy Television Craft Awards on 28 April 2 ...

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=tt7411098, title=Baghdad Central 2020 British television series debuts 2020 British television series endings 2020s British crime drama television series 2020s British television miniseries British thriller television series Channel 4 television dramas English-language television shows Iraq War in television Neo-noir television series Television series about missing people Television series based on American novels Television series by Euston Films Television series by Fremantle (company) Television series set in 2003 Television shows filmed in Morocco Television shows set in Iraq