'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.