Adrian Scarborough returns as Detective Inspector Max Arnold for the second season of ‘The Chelsea Detective,’ and with this four-episode series, audiences will have the chance to dive into different crimes, characters and situations while Arnold leads the charge to crack each case. And as Scarborough notes, this season will certainly keep viewers guessing up until the very end.
To dive a little deeper into the sophomore season of ‘The Chelsea Detective,’ Scarborough sat down to chat more about the show, his character and what sets this series apart.
What drew you to this show and this role in the first place?
I always think it’s interesting for character actors to have the opportunity later in life [to take] a stab at a murder mystery, really. And particularly playing a detective, it seems like the next stage in your career. I read it, and there were enough things that fascinated me about it—I loved the idea that he lived on a houseboat and that he was sort of on an island in the middle of this great big city surrounded by water and trying to find his way, and often sort of swimming against the tide.
And I’ve always been quite interested in Colombo and the more sort of melancholic, shuffling type of detectives. I particularly like John Thaw over here who did a very long-running series, and I sort of thought: If I can just take little essences of my favorites and put them in a mixing bowl and stir them up and see what comes out, maybe at the end of it we’ll have something interesting and something very human and somebody who’s troubled and yet witty, smart and fun.
That’s a great lead-in for my next question—who is Detective Inspector Max Arnold, and what makes him tick?
I think Max is somebody who’s not quite sure of what life is throwing at him. His work life is very clear to him, and he knows exactly where he’s going and what he’s doing—even if some of the crimes that he’s trying to solve prove very difficult… He’s just dogged in his pursuit of the truth and the perpetrator of the crime. But I think in his social life, he’s sort of anything, and in his personal life, I think his marriage to Astrid played by the brilliant Anamaria Marinca has always been slightly troubled and it’s never been the most communicative.
His work has frequently gotten in the way of the two of them communicating on a balanced basis, because I think he’s much more likely to clam up and be quiet and not really talk about what goes on in his professional life. And of course, as we all know, professional and personal frequently collide and if you haven’t got somebody you can talk about it with, then I think life can be quite difficult and quite hard sometimes.
What about his relationship with his new partner this season, Detective Sergeant Layla Walsh, played by Vanessa Emme? And how does it compare to his relationship with his partner from last season?
Well, they’re not too dissimilar actually. I love Vanessa’s company very, very much, we’re complete soulmates. Her stories just always keep me laughing, but she’s a very compassionate, funny and a warm person to be around. And I think professionally, in terms of the character of Layla, she’s incredibly good at her job. One of the things that I’ve always sort of had a problem with in detective shows and police shows is where people are always getting it wrong or doing it wrong, or somebody’s always complaining about somebody else.
I really like the fact that our office functions rather well, and we’re all rather good at what we do. It’s lovely to actually see a very positive side to the job because I think all too frequently these people tread a very difficult tightrope in their lives, and it’s nice to show them in a positive light for once.
And speaking of, you also had the chance to speak with detectives before starting the show. What did you learn from those conversations?
We try and keep it as honest and as real as we possibly can. And we also have somebody on set permanently who’s always there or [on the] phone who we can talk to and who we can call up if we have any issues or any problems—which has been incredibly useful just in terms of how would the police go about interviewing this person in this given situation?
My favorite bit that we discovered, this is before season one, was what they call the golden hour. There’s a golden hour after a crime has been committed where you can gain lots and lots of information, and it really is imperative that you do because after an hour, things start to be less clear. All of those things after the first hour just get harder and harder and harder to deduce and find out.
Do any crimes from the show stand out to you in terms of how your character gets to solve them?
I very much loved episode three in this season, which is ‘The Reliable Witness’ where a psychotherapist’s murder is caught on camera. I just read it and I couldn’t put it down, it kept me guessing right until the end, and sometimes I guess early.
It’s Liz Lake’s episode, and I think she’s done the most brilliant job on it. She just keeps you guessing and you never quite know who might be responsible and what the story is behind it. But also I find that all of the red herrings are really interesting in their own, and I think they’re really human and really fascinating, and you can completely understand why they go down lots of wrong roads, and I really, really like that.
What would you tell people to expect for Season 2 of ‘The Chelsea Detective’ overall?
Lots of surprises and lots of really original storylines that will keep you guessing to the end. The joy of the show, of course, is that you get a new crime every time you sit and watch an episode, and that crime will be solved over the course of a 90-minute or two-hour period. And I love the fact that you get fresh blood every week or every time you sit down to watch an episode.
There are still the same characters and you are following their journey, and you are finding out more and more about their personal lives and all of the interesting things that they get up to in their social time. But at the same time, you’ll get a fantastic, tasty, lovely story, which you’ll never be able to get.
Catch ‘The Chelsea Detective’ Season 2 when it premieres on Acorn TV on Aug. 28,
