Billy Campbell Makes Broadchurch Fans Watch Cardinal on U
Broadchurch viewers now have a new binge option: Cardinal is available to watch in the UK on U, with all four series ready to stream. Billy Campbell leads the detective drama as John Cardinal, a homicide investigator pulled back into a case after a demotion tied to obsession.
The series was adapted from Giles Blunt’s The John Cardinal Crime Series and is set first in a small town in Northern Ontario, then in the fictional town of Algonquin Bay. Sue Deeks, Head of Programme Acquisition, called it “a finely nuanced, atmospheric thriller which is completely gripping from beginning to end.”
Campbell and Vanasse
Billy Campbell plays Detective John Cardinal, while Karine Vanasse plays Detective Lise Delorme. Cardinal and Delorme investigate a series of dark murders, and Delorme has also been told to investigate Cardinal in connection with a federal police corruption probe. That gives the show its pressure point: the central partnership has to function while one half of it is being examined from the inside.
The setup is straightforward but not soft. Cardinal returns to the homicide unit after a demotion, and he was demoted because he became obsessed with a case. That makes the character fit the kind of slow-burn detective work Broadchurch viewers already know how to read: damaged investigators, a closed community and a mystery that keeps widening instead of shrinking.
Three further series
The series runs through three further series after the opening run, and those later chapters add cases involving a woman found with a bullet in her head and no memory of who she is, a complex double murder and a bizarre missing-persons case. The appeal is not just that there is more of it, but that the show keeps changing the shape of the investigation without losing the same two leads.
Broadchurch fans will no doubt enjoy Cardinal because the comparisons are easy to draw between Campbell’s performance and David Tennant’s turn as DI Alec Hardy. The overlap is less about copying one show and more about offering the same kind of dense character work and slow-building mystery in a Canadian setting.
All four series on U
All four series can be streamed on U now, which is the practical takeaway for viewers looking for something in the Broadchurch lane without waiting on a new commission. For the platform, the draw is simple: a completed four-series crime drama with a built-in audience for atmospheric, character-led detective stories.
That makes this less of a recommendation than a ready-made answer for anyone who finished Broadchurch and wanted another series with the same balance of small-town unease and investigator friction. The best move is to start at series one, because Cardinal’s corruption probe, the murder cases and the Delorme partnership are built to compound rather than stand alone.
