DCI Bill Faber

DCI Bill Faber is the detective steering the murder inquiry at the centre of Criminal Justice, a senior policeman used to building cases the way procedure demands. He is methodical and unshowy, more interested in evidence lining up than in dramatics, and he treats the investigation as a job to be closed properly rather than a story to be told.

Denis Lawson plays him with a dry, unforced authority that never tips into cliché-cop weariness — you believe he has done this a hundred times and still cares about doing it right. The writing keeps him procedural rather than heroic, which lets Lawson's quiet control carry the character instead of speeches or bluster.