Ridley series 2 has finally dropped on ITVX with the main cast returning for four new murder cases.

All the main characters from season one, both on the force and in former-detective-turned-police-consultant Alex Ridley’s personal life, are making a comeback (with the exception of jailed arsonist Michael Flannery (Aidan McArdle)).

So here’s a refresher on who’s who on the show, who plays them, and where you’ve seen them before.

That’s plus one new regular character, who’ll be making himself at home at Marling’s jazz club, and another old guest character who’s sticking around a while longer.

Read more: Literally everything you need to know about Ridley series 2

Ridley series 2 cast

Adrian Dunbar stars as ex-detective inspector Alex Ridley

Alex Ridley had quite a career at Copelton District Police Force – 25 years as a detective and seven years in uniform before that.

But Ridley’s life changed 18 months before series 1 opened, when his wife and daughter were murdered in an arson attack that he believed had been started by one of his disgruntled former informants. Ridley struggled to come to terms with the tragedy, and his own culpability. His boss, DCI Paul Goodwin, had no choice but to recommend early retirement on medical grounds.

Ridley then rented a former boathouse and lived alone, listening to jazz on vinyl and fixing up an old boat. He’s also co-owner of Marling’s jazz club, where he sings on stage occasionally.

But those pastimes didn’t fill the gap. So when his old colleague, DI Carol Farman, asked him to help on a case, he jumped at the chance. It was the start of a new regular gig as a freelance consultant to the force (an arrangement that happens in real life too, as experienced retired coppers help plug the gaps in overstretched police forces).

Adrian Dunbar’s key roles

Alex Ridley is played by Adrian Dunbar, making a return to crime drama after his career-defining role as the scourge of bent cops, Superintendent Ted Hasting, Holy-Mother-of-Godding through all six series of Line of Duty.

But the Enniskillen-born actor had a long career before that, with early appearances in films such as My Left Foot (1989) and The Crying Game (1992), in which he played the leader of the IRA group that kidnaps Forest Whitaker’s character.

Guest appearances on TV shows such as Inspector Morse, Cracker and A Touch of Frost, led to a memorable stint as the mysterious “evil” cop Martin Summers in the second series of Ashes to Ashes. Then Line of Duty called.

Bronagh Waugh co-stars as Detective Inspector Carol Farman

Carol nabbed Ridley’s job after he was forced off the force, but she’s not one of those crime show cops with more pride than sense.

As soon as she thought Ridley might be useful on a case, she convinced her boss to let her use him as a resource, and it’s an arrangement that’s continued happily ever since. But Carol occasionally has to remind Ridley that, technically, she’s in charge now.

Copelton born and bred, Carol is loyal, gobby, indiscreet, warm-hearted and fearless. When DI Farman is leading a case, she gives her all – and she expects no less from the team around her.

She’s married, has a son, Jack, and baby daughter Meadow, but Carol leaves all the domestic stuff to wife Geri.

Like Adrian Dunbar, Bronagh Waugh, who plays Carol, is from Northern Ireland. Her first big break came in Hollyoaks Later in 2008, where she played the larger-than-life man-eater Cheryl Brady, a character who was quickly moved over onto the main show. She ended up playing Cheryl on Hollyoaks for 359 episodes from 2009 to 2013, leaving the show when Cheryl shot dead her sex-abuser father and she fled to Ireland.

Since then she’s had leading roles in the Gillian Anderson/Jamie Dornan headlining thriller The Fall (she played Jamie’s character’s wife, Sally, 2013-2016), series three of Unforgotten (2018) and the David Tennant-starring Dennis Nilsen drama Des (2020).

Terence Maynard plays DCI Paul Godwin

DCI Paul Goodwin is Carol’s boss, Ridley’s former boss, and now the guy who employs Ridley on a freelance basis, though he sometimes has to be reminded why he needs the hassle.

At the start of the series, Goodwin had never been entirely comfortable with Ridley, who had always been resolutely immune to his charm offensive. When Ridley was recruited as a consultant, the pair were forced to call an uneasy truce and over time they’ve developed a real respect for each other.

Cambridge graduate Goodwin likes to think of himself as the face of modern policing – smooth, ambitious and approachable, but savvy and media friendly. And it was a role he was born into: his father is a retired assistant chief constable.

Making his first on-screen appearance in 1994,Terence Maynard has been working steadily ever since with guest appearances in all the usual suspects (Silent Witness, The Bill, Casualty, Midsomer Murders, Death In Paradise).

Recent prominent appearances include three episodes of the brilliant Professor T as a conflicted prison officer who kills himself during the Professor’s imprisonment (that was in series three, 2024) and six episodes of Amazon’s The Witcher as court mage Artorius Vigo (2019-2023).

But you’re most likely to remember him from his 2014-2015 stint on Coronation Street as dodgy businessman Tony Stewart (Jason Grimshaw’s dad) who tricked Steve McDonald into selling his half of the Rovers Return.

George Bukhari appears as DC Darren Lakhan

Former soldier Darren is the tech-savvy hardworking DC on Team Copelton. A local lad, Darren passed his detective exams after two years in uniform. He enjoys the job, and the camaraderie. What Darren lacks in academic nous he more than makes up for with hard work. His determination to prove himself means he’ll always go that extra mile.

George Bukhari, who plays Darren, was recently in the second series of ITV1’s After The Flood (2024), starring Sophie Rundle and Jonas Armstrong – Bukhari played Keith Kamali, the boyfriend of Faye McKeever’s Kelly.

A few years back he also had a recurring role in the BBC’s acclaimed autism drama The A Word, playing coffee shop worker Terry (2016-2017). And he can also be seen as Jonjo, the boyfriend of Ruth Madeley’s character Rosie Lyons, in Russell T Davies’s BBC near-future drama Years and Years.

Georgie Glen plays Dr Wendy Newstone

Dr Wendy Newstone is the chief forensics officer and police pathologist at the Copelton Force.

On first impressions, she’s a conservative, home counties sort: respectable, private and slightly prim. But Wendy is so much more than that: one of the leading Crime Scene Investigators in the country, with a first-class brain.

She has a morbid fascination with forensic science and is happiest when she’s cutting up cadavers. She’ll reel off the gruesome details of a murder as if she was sharing a cake recipe.

Georgie Glen is a very familiar face from Call The Midwife, as dour GP receptionist Millicent Higgins since 2018.

She also recently played the eccentric Mrs Baggot in the BBC’s Daisy May Cooper sitcom Am I Being Unreasonable? (2022-2025).

Julie Graham returns as Annie Marling

Annie Marling is manager of Marling’s jazz club, which she co-owns with Ridley. Long divorced, with a couple of grown-up kids, Annie was best friends with Ridley’s wife, Kate, and godmother to their daughter Ella.

When Annie decided to open Marling’s it was Ridley and Kate who put up money to invest in it. After Kate and Ella’s murder, Annie and Ridley grew closer through grief, and a shared love of jazz music. She’s the only person Ridley ever really confides in, and she isn’t afraid to share some home truths.

Julie Graham is a very familiar face on UK television, with prominent roles in shows such as Taggart (1986), At Home with the Braithwaites (2000–2003), William and Mary (2003–2005), Bonekickers (2008), Survivors (2008-2011), Doc Martin (2011), The Bletchley Circle (2013) and Doctor Who (2020).

Most recently Julie Graham had a major role in the BBC’s Sean Bean-starring prestige crime drama This City Is Ours (2025), playing the fearsome matriarch of the central Phelan family, Elaine.

She was on the other side of the law in early series of Shetland, playing Procurator Fiscal (a legal role specific to Scotland) Rhona Kelly (2014-2022).

A while back she also had a major role in the much-loved sitcom Benidorm, playing Sheron Dawson in series eight to ten (2016-2018).

Bhavna Limbachia plays Geri Farman-Hoyle

Geri is Carol’s wife, and while she has a career of her own – as a part-time lecturer in Social Sciences at Salford University – she handles all homemaking duties, including looking out for son, Jack, and new daughter, Meadow. A bit of an activist, she’s as likely to spend her weekends on marches as perusing a local market.

Bhavna Limbachia’s three most famous roles pre-Ridley are as  JJ’s cousin Meena (and eventual member of Vinnie’s gang) in later episodes of Brassic (2022-2024), Coronation Street’s Rana Habeeb (2016 – 2019) and Alia Khan, the youngest daughter in the Khan clan in Citizen Khan (2012-2016).

Tareq Al-Jeddal is back as Jack Farman

Jack is Carol and Geri’s teenage son. Biologically, he’s Carol’s son, not that it really bothers him – he’s cool with having two mums. Occasionally all three of them are aware of the lack of a father figure in his life, which is why Jack has a special bond with Ridley – they often spend time together repairing Ridley’s boat, Ella Kate.

Tareq has made previous appearances on Coronation Street as a bully called Chris who targeted Max Turner (eight episodes, 2022), ITV medical drama Maternal (2023) and Vera (2024). He also appeared as “spotty assistant” in an episode of Brassic that also featured his Ridley mum, Bhavna Limbachia (2024).

John Michie plays new recurring character Harry Bentham

Jewellery shop owner Harry Bentham is romancing Annie in the Ridley series 2 cast.

Ridley also knows of Bentham’s reputation as a wheeler dealer, so when a smash and grab gang robs one of his shops, there’s question mark over whether it could have been an insurance scam. But the police can’t nail anything on him.

John Michie, who plays Harry Bentham, is another former resident of Coronation Street, where he played bad boy Karl Munro from 2011-2013 (he burnt down the Rovers Return and unplugged Sunita Alahan from her life support machine).

Before that he appeared in 13 series of Taggart (1998-2010) as notorious ladies man, alcoholic and gambler DI Robbie Ross. After that he had a memorable stint as neurosurgeon Guy Self on Holby City (2013-2016, with a few guest appearances after that).

He recently appeared in the cast of ITV cop drama stablemate Karen Pirie series 2.

Suzanne Packer guest stars as Dr Samantha Larsson

Psychotherapist Dr Samantha Larson actually turned up in the final episode of Ridley series 1, The Numbered Days, in which she was running a clinic that treated one of the murder suspects. She and Ridley didn’t see to eye-to-eye about keeping her patients’ medical records a secret.

But it was nothing personal from her side – she was just acting professionally. So at the end of that episode, sensing that Ridley had some unresolved issues of his own, she offered him her services should he ever decide he needed professional help.

As series two opens, we see him taking her up on that offer.

Suzanne Packer is very familiar to TV viewers from her long stint on Casualty as ward sister Tess Bateman (2003-2021). She also played Chief Inspector Layla Davies in both series of the S4C crime series Bang (2017-2020) and Carol in series five of the Sky One Ruth Jones comedy Stella (2016).

Other guest appearances include Death in Paradise (2018), a Jodie Whittaker Doctor Who episode (2018), The ABC
Murders (2018) and Silent Witness (2023).

Ridley series 2 is airing on ITV1 on Sunday nights from 8pm, August 10.