Matthew Barry has brought The Last Detective into view with the 's first look at the Tenby-set crime drama. The series now shifts from a working title to a public-facing launch, with a cast led by Mark Lewis-Jones and Steffan Rhodri and a setting that puts Wales at the centre of the pitch.
Barry said he was “beyond excited to be re- teaming with Quay Street and the to bring The Last Detectives to the screen.” He also called it “a story about finding friendship and meaning in later life, through the lens of a thrilling police procedural,” which neatly captures the show’s split identity: part character drama, part murder investigation.
Tenby and the first look
The first look arrives after the series was previously called Old Town Murders, a shift that gives the project a cleaner commercial identity. It stars Mark Lewis-Jones, Steffan Rhodri, Bethan-Mary James, Jordan Davies, Julie Graham and Catherine Ayers, with DI Glyn Walsh and DS Sion Dearden fronting the investigations alongside DC Remy Jones, DC Neil Miller and forensic biologist Pamela Thomas.
That ensemble matters because this is not being sold as a one-lead vehicle. The production is built around a team structure, which is the right fit for a procedural and gives the a wider set of characters to market around the first images and any later rollout.
Quay Street and Wales
Nicola Shindler is producing through Quay Street Productions, and the series is Matthew Barry's first project with Quay Street and the since Men Up. That earlier single drama starred Rhodri and Lewis Jones and centred on the discovery of Viagra, so Barry is returning to familiar territory: male friendship, life-stage shifts and a subject that can carry both sensitivity and audience curiosity.
The production also received Welsh Government support via Creative Wales and was filmed in Tenby, Cardiff and along the South Wales Coastline. On the business side, that combination signals a regionally rooted series with institutional backing, which usually helps a new drama look bigger than a standalone commission.
Later life, murder cases
Barry's own framing creates the most interesting friction in the project. “It’s a story about finding friendship and meaning in later life, through the lens of a thrilling police procedural,” he said, while also adding, “I can’t wait for audiences to fall in love with Sion, Glyn and the stunning backdrop of Tenby.”
That is a broader sell than a standard detective format. The series is being presented as a thriller about later-life friendship, but it is also being marketed as a police procedural centred on murder cases, and the first look suggests the wants both audiences at once: viewers drawn by character work, and viewers who want the mechanics of an investigation.
For now, the practical takeaway is simple: the title, cast and setting are public, the creative team is in place, and the first images put Tenby at the centre of the campaign. What the has not yet put on the board is when The Last Detective will air, which leaves the release schedule as the story’s next real commercial question.
