''The Responder'' is a British police drama series set in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, written by former

Merseyside Police Merseyside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Merseyside in North West England. The service area is 647 square kilometres with a population of around 1.5 million. As of September 2017 the service has 3,484 police of ...

officer Tony Schumacher, with as leading director and starring Martin Freeman,

Adelayo Adedayo Adelayo Adedayo (; born 18 December 1988) is from Dagenham, Essex. She is a British actress. Her first television appearance was in ''The Bill'', and she made her film debut in ''Sket''. She later starred as the main character, Viva Bennett, in ...

, Ian Hart, and

MyAnna Buring MyAnna Buring (; born 22 September 1979 as Anna Margaretha My Rantapää) is a Swedish actress, known for her roles in ''The Descent'', ''Kill List'', '' The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', ''Ripper Street'', ''The Witc ...

. It aired on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

on 24 January 2022. Schumacher has said that the character has "a lot to do" with him and the struggles he faced as a police officer, but that the storyline is fictional. In late March 2022, the series was renewed for a second season.

Synopsis

Chris Carson is a police officer in a fictional constabulary covering Liverpool, who has been demoted from his position as an

inspector Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. Australia In Australian police forces, the rank of inspector is generally the ne ...

and undertakes a series of night shifts in the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

. Shots of him working are interspersed with scenes at therapy, at home, and with his mother in a nursing lodge. His partner is Rachel Hargreaves, an inexperienced and still idealistic officer who wants to play by the rules. Carl Sweeney is a mid-level drug dealer whose stash of cocaine has been stolen by Casey, a local drug addict. Chris is trying to help Casey and, in doing so, crosses Carl. Other major characters include a naïve local man named Marco, who finds himself out of his depth. Carson is a conflicted and compromised man, with somewhat divided loyalties, a desire to do good, but with a violent streak brought on by childhood trauma exacerbated by his experience in the police. He has been demoted from an inspector and is pursued by the officer responsible as part of a corruption probe, whose motives may not be entirely honest. The effects of the job and Chris' mental state take a toll on his family.

Cast and characters

Main * Martin Freeman as Chris Carson *

as Rachel Hargreaves, a probationary police officer * Warren Brown as Raymond Mullen, a demoted officer with an axe to grind *

as Kate Carson, Chris' wife * Emily Fairn as Casey, a drug addict * Josh Finan as Marco, Casey's friend * Philip S. McGuinness as Ian, Carl's henchman * Mark Womack as Barry, Carl's henchman * Ian Hart as Carl Sweeney, a drug dealer * Rita Tushingham as June Carson, Chris' mother *

Kerrie Hayes Kerrie Hayes (born 13 March 1987)Profiles – Kerrie Hayes – hellom ...

as Ellie Mullen, Raymond's wife and Kate's best friend *

Faye McKeever Faye McKeever (born 18 January 1985) is an English actress. Her notable works include playing Linda in Sky 1 sitcom ''Trollied'', Marie in '' Massive'' and Claire Olssen in ''Little Boy Blue''. Early life McKeever was born on 18 January 1985 i ...

as Jodie Sweeney, Carl's wife * David Bradley as Davey, a local homeless man *

Christine Tremarco Christine Tremarco (born 1977) is a British television actress whose career began in 1992. She is best known for portraying the role of Davina Shackleton in the BBC One school-based drama series '' Waterloo Road'' (2007–2009) and also in BBC ...

as Diane Gallagher, Greg's sister *

Amaka Okafor Sally Amaka Okafor is a British actress. She is known for her work in theatre, and her roles in the film '' Greatest Days'' (2023) as well as the BBC One series ''The Responder'' (2022) and the Netflix series ''Bodies'' (2023). Early life and ...

as Deborah Barnes, Chris' boss *

James Nelson-Joyce James Nelson-Joyce (born 1988 or 1989) is an English actor, known for playing the tough guy or villainous characters, who has had roles in '' Mount Pleasant'' (2016), ''Little Boy Blue'' (2017), ''The Trap'' (2019), '' The Nest'' (2020, ''Time' ...

as Greg Gallagher, a drug lord Recurring * Elizabeth Berrington as Lynne Renfrew, Chris' therapist * Philip Barantini as Steve, Rachel's boyfriend *

Philip Whitchurch Philip Whitchurch (born 30 January 1951) is an English stage, film, and television actor. He is best known for playing Captain William Frederickson in three episodes of the Sharpe series between 1994-1997 and the role of Chief Inspector Philip ...

as Joe, Casey's grandfather * Romi Hyland-Rylands as Tilly Carson, Chris and Kate's daughter Guest * Victor McGuire as Trevor * Dominic Carter as Bernie Wilson * Matthew Cottle as Father Liam Neeson * Dave Hill as Billy * Sylvie Gatrill as Mary * Sonny Walker as Stevo Marsh * James Ledsham as Enno * Connor Dempsey as Kyle * David Ayres as Andy * Kieron Urquhart as Paul * Harry Burke as Liam

Episodes

Release

The series premiered on

on 24 January 2022. It aired in Australia in six episodes on SBS from 16 March 2022. The series was shown by

Canal plus Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

in France. In Australia, the first season aired on SBS TV and SBS On Demand. The first episode was watched 6,164,000 times on iPlayer alone during 2022, making it the third most-viewed individual programme on the platform that year. The original soundtrack, composed by

Matthew Herbert Matthew Herbert (born 1972), also known as Herbert, Doctor Rockit, Radio Boy, Mr. Vertigo, Transformer, and Wishmountain, is a British electronic musician. He often takes sounds from everyday items to produce electronic music. Career Mat ...

, was released by Accidental Editions in March 2022 and includes eighteen tracks.

Reception

Critical response

, review aggregator ''

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 ...

'' gave the series a 100% approval rating, with an average rating of 8.7/10, based on 15 reviews. The critics' consensus reads: "The Responder is unrelentingly dark and inescapably absorbing, with Martin Freeman's hangdog performance carrying the drama". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, 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 arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the series has a weighted average score of 86 out of 100, based on 9 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Responder, The 2022 British television series debuts 2020s British drama television series 2020s British police procedural television series BBC crime drama television shows British detective television series British thriller television series English-language television shows Police corruption in fiction Television shows filmed in England Television shows filmed in Northern Ireland Television shows set in England Television shows shot in Liverpool