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El Caso staff
Jesús
Jesús Expósito
"Anything for a good headline, but also for justice."
Played by: Fernando Guillén Cuervo
A policeman turned journalist, he is the most veteran editor of El Caso. He is still haunted by the murder of his girlfriend Asun (also Miguel Montenegro's sister) at the hands of "The Rosary Killer" a long time ago.
- Cigarette Chomper: Rarely seen without one in his mouth.
- Cowboy Cop: It's implied that he was this during his days in the police force.
- Hardboiled Detective: He tenaciously investigates the cases he later reports about in the newspaper.
- That One Case: He never caught the man who killed his girlfriend and other four girls, which still haunts him, and is entirely sure that Pepe Garcés, the man convicted for the crimes, wasn't guilty.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: Episode 2 features one about Asun's murder.
- We Used to Be Friends: The friendship between Camacho and him went sour when Jesús doubted over Pepe Garcés being "The Rosary Killer", eventually leaving the police.
Clara
Clara López(-Dóriga)
Played by: Verónica Sánchez
- This girl is pure gold.—Rodrigo Sánchez
The new girl at the office. She defends freedom of press, which is not easy in the Francoist Spain... especially considering she is the daughter of Fernando López-Dóriga, the closest associate of Minister of Information Manuel Fraga.
- Ascended Fangirl: She claims that she was a compulsive El Caso reader and received it by mail every week while she studied abroad. Now she works in El Caso.
- Cunning Linguist: She speaks English fluently and has studied Latin as well.
- Embarrassing Last Name: She only signs articles as Clara López since she's aware that her father does not like El Caso... and the fact that she is now working there doesn't help matters.
- In-Series Nickname: "Massiel", after the singer.
- Intrepid Reporter
- Naïve Newcomer
- Sexless Marriage: With Gerardo. Because he's actually gay.
- White Sheep: She works as a journalist at a newspaper with a blatant disregard for the Francoist censorship. As mentioned above, her father's not quite happy about it.
Rodrigo
Rodrigo Sánchez
"I love the smell of a good headline."
Played by: Fernando Cayo
The founder and director of El Caso.
- Catchphrase: "Those typewriters, I don't hear them!", his usual way to tell everyone to get back to work.Rodrigo: Having the presses stopped costs me...!Everyone else: A fortune!Rodrigo: Yes, fuck, a fortune.
- Da Editor: He'll scold his reporters when they screw up, but also deal with the censorship to ensure they can publish their news.
- Hot-Blooded: He's a bit temperamental.
- If It Bleeds, It Leads: He invokes it during an argument with Clara in episode 4, ordering her to take photos of a woman who got burnt in a fire for the newspaper.
- Lovable Coward: You can see him cower each time he has to face an autority figure, but he tries to do what's right.
Margarita
Margarita Moyano
Played by: Blanca Apilánez
A veteran and independent journalist, who walks freely around the office. She spends much time at Bar Lido, which is almost like a second office to her.
- Alliterative Name
- Distinguished Lady's Pipe: A rare female example.
- Hates Being Touched: Less exaggerated than most examples, but she moans or complains every time someone touches or hugs her (which is quite often).
- Homage: The character is based on real El Caso journalist Margarita Landi.
- Team Mom: She adopts this role from time to time, especially with Germán and Clara.
Germán
Germán Castro
Played by: Gorka Lasaosa
- That's Germán, our particular Pedro Carrasco
.—Paloma García
Journalist and semi-professional boxer. He has dangerous contacts in the Madrid underworld.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Despite his boxing prowess and intimidating appearance, he deeply cares about his friends.
- Friend to All Children: He was very warm and caring to little Blas, even taking him to his boxing matches.
- Living a Double Life: He is also used from time to time as a hired muscle receiving on his gym locker money and the name of his next target. He was once tasked with stealing documents from the El Caso office, and it's hinted that one of his gym partners killed Pepe Garcés.
- Speech Impediment: He often stammers.
Aníbal
Aníbal de Vicente
"I'll Cervantes that up for you. Four pages. With its epithets and dingbats."
Played by: Daniel Pérez-Prada
Naïve and trustful, he lives in an Opus Dei residence and believes in the existence of aliens. From time to time he tries to insert UFO sighting reports into the newspaper during the briefings.
- Agent Mulder: He is convinced that aliens do exist.
- I Can Change My Beloved: His reasoning for trying to help Reme out.
- Pseudonym: He signs as Antonio Pemán when he reports about something that might upset his Opus Dei roommates.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Which leads to conflict with Germán.
Aparicio
Aparicio Sierra
Played by: Ignacio Mateos
The newspaper's layout designer.
- Fan Boy: Of The Beatles, as you can guess from one of his conversations with Clara about her days in London.
- Those Two Guys: Often seen with Aníbal. He seems to be his best friend in the office.
Paloma
Paloma García
Played by: Teresa Hurtado de Ory
The El Caso secretary, who also has her own section at the paper as a love advisor.
- The Dog Bites Back: She lashes out at Rodrigo for letting his wife coerce him into firing her.
- Nerd Glasses: As seen in the picture.
- Pseudonym: Her section in the paper is called "Letters to Peggy".She's Peggy.
- Sexy Secretary: Rodrigo is crazy over her bones.
- Sleeping with the Boss: She has an affair with Rodrigo. As mentioned, his wife is furious when she finds out.
Authorities
Montenegro
Miguel Montenegro
"It's not that I respect the rules. It's that I think one needs a good reason to break them."
Played by: Francisco Ortiz
- Hey, it's our man in the CIB!—Jesús Expósito
A longtime friend of Jesús, newly promoted to commissioner of the Criminal Investigation Brigade.
- Affectionate Nickname: Jesús calls him "Peluso".
- Alliterative Name
- Friend on the Force: An old friend of Jesús who is a policeman.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: The Good Cop to Camacho's Bad Cop.
- Token Good Cop: Probably the White Sheep of the police force. It's 1966 and the Francoist regime is still in full effect.
Camacho
Antonio "Toño" Camacho
Played by: Antonio Garrido
The Commissioner in Chief of the Criminal Investigation Brigade, and a former friend of Jesús. He actively supports the regime, and won't mind putting his morals aside in order to move up.
- Dirty Cop: He's all too willing to force a confession out of a suspect by any means necessary. Case in point: he once hit a procurer who eventually turned out to be not guilty with a phone book.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: The Bad Cop to Montenegro's Good Cop.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He really is in love with Rebeca and becomes notably distraught when she's kidnapped.
- Rabid Cop
López-Dóriga
Fernando López-Dóriga
"I won't always be here to get you out of trouble. And if you stay in that two-bit rag you will get in it, and deep!"
Played by: Carlos Manuel Díaz
A senior officer at the Ministry of Information, being the Minister's right hand. He is Clara's father... and absolutely loathes the newspaper she works in.
- I Want Grandkids: Actually, he uses this as a way to try and retire Clara from journalism. He tells Gerardo to "do his job and form a family", but promptly adding that it should stop Clara from wanting to "play Reporter Tribulete".
- Media Watchdog: As the second-in-command in the Ministry of Information, he's the second most powerful Media Watchdog in Spain; and apparently he's allowed to personally name censors (he does so when assigning Cabrera to El Caso).
- Number Two: To the Minister of Information himself.
Cabrera
Manuel Cabrera
Played by: Raúl Tejón
An army captain and member of the Ministry of Information, whom López-Dóriga designates as censor of El Caso.
- Armoured Closet Gay: He's Gerardo's lover.
- Hypocrite: Tells Jesús not to "justify degenerates" when writing about homosexual relationships.
- Insistent Terminology: He insists to be called "supervisor" instead of "censor".
- Media Watchdog
- Straight Gay: Other than Clara, who saw him with Gerardo, no one in the El Caso office seems to even suspect that he is homosexual.
Father Sanchís
Manuel Sanchís
Played by: Jorge Roelas
A priest and exorcist sent to the El Caso office when they request ecclesiastical censorship to get rid of Cabrera.
- Media Watchdog: Takes more of a Moral Guardian-like approach to it than Cabrera, since he is a representative of the Church.
- Smarter Than You Look: When El Caso looks for an ecclesiastical censor, they do it thinking that they'll be able to publish practically anything. They were wrong.Father Sanchís: So you brought me here to be able to publish this about these individuals' "Last Tango".
Rodrigo: Father, I won't lie to you. Two people are dead. Their families have the right to know what happened to them, publishing this article is of human interest.
Father Sanchís: Don't come to me with this "human" poppycock! What you want is to sell newspapers. So don't try to fool me as if I were a simple military censor.
Others
Laura
Laura López-Dóriga
Played by: María Casal
Clara's aunt and main confidant. She's a renowned theater actress with an ahead-of-her-time mindset.
- Consummate Liar: She fools everyone with the whole Satanic rite thing on Episode 3. It turns out that she borrowed an animal skull from a fan of hers (a butcher) to set up the ruse. It was a strategy to get people talking about her, since she knew El Caso would publish it and her latest play was not going too well. But then again, you don't get to be called a "theater diva" without knowing some acting, right?
- Cool Old Lady
- Loony Fan: It's implied she's had to deal with a few of these.
- Pseudonym: She's more often referred to by her stage name, Laura Pontón.
Rebeca
Rebeca Martín
Played by: Natalia Verbeke
A childhood friend of Jesús and Camacho, whose broken friendship she keeps (fruitlessly) trying to mend. She's a doctor who works with the police both in the identification of victims and with alive witnesses involved.
- The Coroner
- Love Triangle: With Camacho and Jesús.
- The Smurfette Principle: It's hinted that she's the only female doctor in her hospital. Justified since female doctors really were a rarity in the 1960s Spain.
Gerardo
Gerardo de Zabaleta
Played by: Marc Clotet
Clara's husband, a diplomatic who hides a big secret.
- Armoured Closet Gay: Yes, that's his big secret.
- Bus Crash: He disappears in the third-to-last episode, and isn't heard of again until the series finale... when he dies in a train crash.
- Gayngst: He is ashamed of his homosexuality and visits a psychiatrist who offers him a 'cure' for it.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Five episodes into the series, he had already been reassigned twice: on episode 2 he was sent to the Spanish embassy in Rabat, returning three episodes later to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Nice Guy: It's hinted that he actually loves Clara his own way, and puts serious effort into salvaging their marriage.
- Straight Gay: He passes off as a straight man the first time he is introduced... although one of the El Caso journalists claims that he walks like "he got a stick up his ass".
Asun
Asunción Montenegro
Miguel Montenegro's sister and Jesús's girlfriend, who was murdered by "The Rosary Killer" years ago.
- The Lost Lenore: She was Jesús's first love and she was murdered by a Serial Killer whom he is still trying to catch.
- Posthumous Character: She's been long dead by the start of the series; all we see of her is in flashbacks, dreams and pictures.
The Rosary Killer
The mysterious lead villain of the show. He killed Jesús' girlfriend (and at least four other girls) many years ago. He is currently in the San José mental asylum, but he can easily go in and out of it when he pleases because he has the key to the back door (and the doctors don't know it).
- Big Bad: He has started again to play mind games with Jesús.
- The Faceless: He doesn't really cover his face, but it's not shown on screen. He is identified by a tattoo of the Virgin Mary in his forearm.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: His motif.
- Serial Killer: He has five victims attributed.
- The Villain Knows Where You Live: On episode 2, Clara has to give him a necklace so that he opens the back door for her. Two episodes later, he goes to her house and gives it back.
- The Voiceless: He has not uttered a word yet as of episode 4.
