'Dalgliesh' Season 3 Heads Into Production With Bertie Carvel Behind the Camera

It's been nearly two years since Dalgliesh was renewed for two more seasons, a fact that some trades seem to have forgotten in racing to be first to trumpet the show was "renewed" for a third season. But whether you've been impatiently waiting since 2022 or only just discovered it was happening this minute, the fact remains that Dalgliesh is coming back for six more episodes that will adapt three more of P.D. James' stories for Channel 5 and Acorn TV, with Bertie Carvel (The Crown) starring as the titular poet-detective. However, Carvel won't just be in front of the camera for this season; he'll be behind it too, taking on a directing role, his first on the show. (Carvel has been directing since 2016.)

Of James' detective series, Dalgliesh is her most expansive, with 14 novels, 12 of which were adapted for the screen previously by ITV (with Roy Marsden starring as the titular detective) and then the BBC (with Martin Shaw in the lead role). The first two seasons of the Carvel series have covered six stories, all of which were previously adapted: Season 1 included Shroud for a Nightingale, The Black Tower, and A Taste for Death, while Season 2 was comprised of Death of an Expert Witness, A Certain Justice, and The Murder Room. 

Season 3 will continue re-adapting the better-known stories, circling back to one of James' earliest that was skipped over, including her 1962 debut novel, Cover Her Face. The third season will also adapt 1989's Devices & Desires and one of James' later additions, the 2001 novel Death in Holy Orders. 

Here's a rundown of the synopses for the three mysteries:

1. "Death in Holy Orders": Dalgliesh travels to a remote seminary overlooking a windswept lake, where a body has been found gruesomely murdered. Nearly everyone in the seminary has reason to resent the victim, and Dalgliesh and DS Tarrant must unpick a complicated set of motives to find their killer.
2. "Cover Her Face": Dalgliesh investigates a murder in the Essex home of the Mehtas, a staggeringly wealthy family with connections to the British government. With the help of local detective Clive Roscoe, Dalgliesh builds a picture of events in the weeks leading to the crime, confronting a blanket of secrecy among his guarded suspects.
3. "Devices & Desires": Dalgliesh is sent on an urgent mission to investigate a terrorist plot against a nuclear power station on the Kent coast. He is soon drawn into a complex and highly charged hunt for a serial killer, working once more alongside former colleague Kate Miskin, now an acting DCI.

Carvel will be joined once again by returning cast members Carlyss Peer (Sense & Sensibility) as Kate Miskin and Alistair Brammer (Medieval) as Daniel Tarrant. Guest stars for Season 3 include Anton Lesser (Endeavour), Lloyd Owen (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power), Claire Goose (The Bay), Liz White (The Long Shadow), Adam James (Mr Bates vs The Post Office), Richard Lintern (Silent Witness), Ellora Torchia (The Gold), Parth Thakerar (Gangs of London), Soni Razdan (This Way Up) and Josie Walker (Belfast).

Helen Edmundson (The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher) returns as lead writer, with Colette Kane (Department Q) co-writing "Death In Holy Orders" and Kam Odedra (Whitstable Pearl) on "Cover Her Face." Director Roger Goldby (Belgravia: The Next Chapter) helms "Devices & Desires," Geoff Sax (Victoria) returns to helm "Death In Holy Orders," and Carvel directs "Cover Her Face," with Leon McGeown-Fee producing. Carvel, Edmundson, Elaine Pyke, and Willow Grylls serve as executive producers.

Dalgliesh Season 3 does not yet have a release date, but will probably arrive stateside in early 2025.