Cush Jumbo

The British detective series Criminal Record debuted in 2024 on Apple TV+ and the second season was just launched on April 22. Through June, fans can stream each episode on Wednesdays to follow the adventures of June Lenker.

Cush Jumbo plays the lead part and she is paired with Peter Capaldi as Daniel Hegarty in the riveting crime drama. Both of the esteemed actors also serve as executive producers for the project.

Jumbo has a rich theater background that led her to Broadway in The River. Two spinoffs enriched her television career and increased her fan base: Doctor Who’s Torchwood and The Good Wife’s The Good Fight.

Capaldi captured Doctor Who’s spirit in the twelfth incarnation of the character for four years and he took home multiple trophies for BBC sitcom The Thick of It.

The Scottish actor’s film credits include The Lair of the White Worm, Paddington and The Suicide Squad.

The talented twosome traveled from the UK to the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago to talk about Criminal Record.

JN: (Jerry Nunn) Have either of you been to Chicago before this press junket?

CJ: (Cush Jumbo) I have been to Chicago once before, when I did a film workshop with some high school students. I love the architecture here and I want to come back when I have more time.

PC: (Peter Capaldi) Wasn’t The Good Fight set in Chicago?

CJ: It was set in Cook County, but we shot it in Queens.

JN: How did you two meet in the first place?

PC: We have known each other for about 20 years. We were on a show called Torchwood, which was a spinoff of Doctor Who. Cush was a youngster. She was just a crazy little kid with a dream! [laughs]

I have watched her over the years blossom into this incredible, classical actress and it’s been fabulous to see her growth. She just finished Lady Macbeth with Scottish actor David Tennant, one of the lesser-known Doctor Whos [all laugh].

CJ: We met years before he became a doctor, even though it was in the Doctor Who universe. They always say “don’t meet your heroes,” but when I started doing scenes with him, we became fast friends. At first, I thought he was just humoring me, but he was always nice and kind to me, along with every person on set.

JN: I liked John Barrowman from Torchwood after interviewing him.

CJ: He’s really good, too.

JN: Have either of you worked a fan expo for all of the Doctor Who fans?

CJ: Back when we did Torchwood, I did.

PC: Yes, I have done those before and enjoyed them.

JN: Comparing the first season of Criminal Record to season two, June has a better sense of humor and is making more jokes.

CJ: She has gotten more hardened behind the eyes and there are jokes in there. Season one had June digging into Hegarty’s past case and investigating someone who is accused of a crime they didn’t commit. The audience didn’t get to see who they were until the middle of that season.

This season, a clock is ticking, where there is a threat that both of us are focused on. She knows now that she cannot trust him as far as she can throw him. He is always going to try to be four or five steps ahead, but their common goal is to save London.

PC: They are working on a live case that is changing moment by moment and day by day. Daniel Hegarty might not like June, but he recognizes she’s a good cop and that he needs her for the situation they are in.

He has always respected her as a cop, but he can also begin to see that life has been cruel to her and start to see a bleakness in her eyes, which he has in his. That is where they have a common connection.

The show is about people who happen to be investigators and how they get through each day while putting one foot in front of the other.

JN: Peter, you can be hard to read.

CJ: That worked very well with these characters because it is good that June can never reach Hegarty. It helps her emote more because she is trying to work it out in her brain.

PC: Sometimes Hegarty is not at liberty to tell the truth. As people will see in this season, there are connections and responsibilities that he has and not allowed to talk about.

JN: Is there a possible queer relationship between Cosmo and Billy in season two?

CJ: There is a part with Cosmo Thompson and the idea of masculinity. I was born and bred in London. It has never been a question to me that all kinds of people exist in my city.

In season two, we are not interested in identifying each person’s sexuality. There were conversations about me having short hair in the beginning.

We are dealing with a city that is a melting pot of hundreds of years of different kinds of people coming in and out. The LGBTQ+ community is part of London just like everyone else.

We are always trying to reflect people before themes and we don’t stereotype what they look like. This stirs up all kinds of conversations. I think the Cosmo and Billy relationship is incredibly interesting.

PC: For me, there were some scenes that they did where there was a sweet, melancholic romance happening. It was not in the script and nothing was ever said, but it left me wondering what would happen next.

They are wonderful actors and it was beautiful what they did with their roles. This show doesn’t work unless the other actors come and bring these characters to life. Cosmo wouldn’t have worked unless Dustin Demri-Burns didn’t make us believe there was something dangerous about him. Luther Ford, as Billy Fielding, made us believe that he was a poor soul who had fallen through the cracks in such a way that he needed to be wanted.

The two of them come together to find something and they don’t even name what it is, which I loved.

CJ: That’s a more interesting way to approach it.

JN: I thought I was the only one who saw it that way.

CJ: No, I am right there with you.

JN: Good, everyone is on the same page because it was vague on the show.

PC: It almost became erotic.

CJ: I have never seen anything like that onscreen before. I love that they tapped into that when we were making it.

JN: How was learning the choreography for the fight scenes?

PC: Don’t ask me…

CJ: From the very beginning, I told producers Paul Rutman and Elaine Collins that I wanted to kick butt in the show. I wanted there to be a balance of vulnerability and June sometimes losing a fight.

I loved the opening sequence on the first day, where we got to shoot by the river and there were protesters everywhere. Who doesn’t love to kick in a door?

I got a bit bruised, but it was fun making the combat scenes. JN: Where would you like to see your characters go in Criminal Record season three?

PC: My favorite scene to do was at the end of season two, but the audience has to get there first, so they can see what will blossom in season three.