The 'Dept. Q' Interiors Are More Significant Than You Might Think

Elle

6 days ago

If you're watching Dept. Q, the latest police drama on Netflix, then you're probably trying to figure out solicitor Merritt Lingard's fate or wondering what season 2 will entail. Or, like us, you could be so fixated on the interiors that you're too distracted to concentrate on the crimes in question.
At first glance the interiors are dark, cold and gritty—like the basement urinals where Detective Carl Morck (played by Matthew Goode) and his micro-team have to set up office. But look closer, and the interiors are stylized, atmospheric, and likely to inspire your home decor. Plus, they have their own main character energy and play a big part in creating the edginess of the drama.
While the Netflix show is based on a series of crime books by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen set in Copenhagen, Dept. Q has moved its setting to the Scottish city Edinburgh, with the show's creator Scott Frank describing it as 'the perfect combination between the modern and the medieval.' These are our top interiors moments in Dept. Q and why they matter.
In the opening episode of the series, we go into Carl's boss, Moira Jacobson's office at the Edinburgh Police HQ. While the force might be in need of some cash, we couldn't stop staring at the carpet! With a fitting tartan nod, the green-and-red square pattern has a '70s-style template that complements the vertical wood paneling and mid-century furniture.
And we haven't even gotten to the bare concrete pillars and floor-to-ceiling Crittall windows. While you know the carpet gives off stale 'grandparent house' cigarette smoke, it's also giving us good Mad Men vibes.
It doesn't look like much when Carl is shown down to his new office quarters for Dept. Q–it is, after all, the police HQ's old toilet/shower/changing room/gym. But it's the basement space, named 'Q,' that gives the department, and the show, its name.
'Where's this office?' asks Carl. 'Q?' he replies as Jacobson hands him the labeled keys. 'Where's that?' he asks. 'Downstairs,' she replies. 'But the offices are numbered downstairs, Moira,' retorts Carl. 'I meant downstairs downstairs,' she replies.
It's amazing what some lighting can do to the space, which starts off piled full of discarded chairs and old case note boxes. Especially for the Claridge's green and bottle brown rectangular wall tiles which perfectly offset the geometric floor and ceiling pendant lights.
In a later episode, when DC Rose Dickson (Leah Byrne) joins the department, it gets positively atmospheric and you could easily forget about the urinals and the discarded gym weights, that Carl can't lift, around the corner.
We're particularly into Merritt's house by the sea, although if we were receiving mysterious death threats, we really wouldn't want to be living in a building with so much glass. Filmed in Dirleton in East Lothian, the actual house was an old World War II radar station which had been renovated and then sold. Dept.Q's supervising location manager Hugh Gourlay has said, 'We ended up painting it to give it a more austere flavor. It has that feeling of Merritt's coldness.'
There's also a coolness to the interiors with the stainless steel kitchen, the bare concrete floors, and white-washed walls. Again, the lighting, in the form of up-lit wall fittings and large arc floor lamps, creates the eerie atmosphere that gives that bad-person-lurking-outside feel, as does the open plan design. Draw the curtains Merritt!
The care home where Merritt's brother William ends up—which Carl and his anorak-wearing, far more charismatic sidekick Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov) visit in episode 2—is set outside of Edinburgh in Midlothian. It was shot at Vogrie House, Pathhead, an old mansion that was made to 'look like a clinic, institutional but richer than it is,' according to location manager Gourlay.
Indeed it looks more like an ambassador's residence than a care home with mahogany furnishings, plush velvet armchairs and a sweeping grand staircase. The luxe mansion feel begs the question: What part does the suspiciously glamorous Dr. Fiona Wallace (Michelle Duncan), who is now in charge of William's care, have in all of this? And also, who is paying for him to be there?