It is said that the thing actors fear most – beyond zombies, flesh-eating viruses, or the natural ageing process – is typecasting. It represents that claustrophobic sense that your agent, casting directors, and the public at large, have put you in a box. And there are few people as firmly in their box as James Nesbitt. From Babylon and Bloodlands to Stay Close and now Suspect (by way of a cameo in Line of Duty), Nesbitt has spent the last decade as television’s favourite sad copper. His characters are all men on the edge, overworked, downtrodden, exhausted – and it’s hard not to feel like the same could be said of Nesbitt himself.
In Suspect, Nesbitt is DS Danny Frater, a not-super-happy policeman who’s pushed to breaking point when he accidentally encounters the corpse of his estranged daughter while examining a Jane Doe at the local mortuary. Joely Richardson’s shifty pathologist recounts the technical details of how the girl died by suicide, but Danny isn’t convinced (“My daughter is dead,” Danny roars, “is that technical enough for you?”). He slips out of the grasp of his police colleagues and goes into full Liam Neeson mode, on the hunt for answers or, failing that, revenge.
