NEW YORK April 22 (UPI) — The Good Fight and Vera alum Cush Jumbo says her Criminal Record police detective June Lenker is stronger and wiser in Season 2 of the Apple TV drama, which kicks off Tuesday.
“She’s more ballsy, more resilient. She’s risen up the ranks a little bit,” Jumbo, 40, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
Set in contemporary London, the series follows rivals Lenker and Daniel Hegarty (Doctor Who icon Peter Capaldi) as they are forced to work together again on a new homicide case after acrimoniously parting ways at the end of Season 1.
“As far as she was concerned, she was never going to see him again. If there was a Christmas party, she was not going to it. I think that by virtue of the shocking murder that happens to young Rohaan in the first episode, she’s in a place in her mind where any opportunity to solve that murder, she will take,” the actress said.
“She doesn’t realize that’s going to come in the form of Hegarty and, even though she knows she can’t trust him and she thinks she knows this beast quite well now, the opportunity to do something good, will always outweigh, for June, having to work with anybody, especially him.”
The dynamic shifts quite a bit between the colleagues this time around and June has no trouble standing up to Hegarty.
“She’s a bit less fearful with him. She’s definitely less respectful in his presence, which is very enjoyable to do,” Jumbo laughed. “Feels like I’ve got my slight own back from Season 1, at times, because she’s not afraid of him. But he’s still very unpredictable.”
This season introduces Luca Pasqualino as J.P., Hegarty’s current police partner who works as a buffer between Hegarty and Lenker.
“He really brought something quite real and charming, but really ‘lived-in’ about that character. But, also, J.P. was seeing June unlike anyone else saw her. She really doesn’t seem to exist sometimes, as a woman, in that space,” Jumbo said.
“Because this season so heavily leans into men, in many ways, she’s really on her own as a female, in a good way for the story, but she’s losing herself. She’s losing herself at home. She’s losing herself at work and it’s somebody that sees her, which is always like a bit of a balm for all the chafing that she has to do with Hegarty.”
J.P. also brings out a side of Lenker audiences haven’t seen before.
“Which is what I’m always interested in,” Jumbo said. “Cracking open a little door that we haven’t seen in somebody before makes a season more interesting.”
The cast for Season 2 also includes Dustin Demri-Burns, Luther Ford, Lyndsey Marshal, Peter Sullivan, Shaun Dooley, Stephen Campbell Moore and Charlie Creed-Miles.
In addition to starring in Criminal Record, Jumbo can be heard narrating the new full-cast recordings of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books on Audible.
She said she enjoyed going from the emotional and physical intensity of her cop show to the quiet and comfort of the recording studio.
“I’m such a physical actor. I danced for years as a kid. I love playing parts where they’ll consistently be like, ‘Please let the stunt person do it,’ and I’m like, ‘Sure, but can I try?'” Jumbo explained.
“I just don’t know how often you really do get to do this stuff,” she added. “So, I love to do it and I love to feel what June would be feeling. So, I love doing all the stunt sequences. I really have always enjoyed radio and audio books and there is something really beautiful about sitting in a completely dark booth with just your own voice and the voices of other people.”
The actress described herself as “a massive fan of Stephen Fry,” who had recorded earlier versions of the fantasy novels.
“I felt really honored to be asked to record the books after him,” she recalled.
“So, it was super enjoyable and I have an eight-year-old son and we are listening to the books and we are both enjoying because, as you can imagine, there’s not a lot of Criminal Record that my son can watch,” Jumbo added. “So, it’s been lovely for him to actually work out what I do for once.”
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