Detective Sargeant Al Parker

Al Parker runs the small police force in Laketop, New Zealand, a folksy, backslapping presence who seems to know everyone and everything in town. When Detective Robin Griffin arrives to investigate a missing pregnant girl, he partners with her, all easy charm and local wisdom, insisting he has the place well in hand.

Wenham plays him as pure hospitality, warm handshakes, familiar jokes, the picture of small-town competence, and lets the unease seep in through timing rather than dialogue, a beat held too long, a smile that doesn't reach anywhere useful. You keep almost trusting him, which is the whole, quietly sickening trick of the performance.