Characters / Waking the Dead

This entry contains spoilers for all aired UK episodes and so should be avoided if you are a fan of the show from outside the UK.

Detectives

DSI (Detective Superintendent) Peter Boyd

Played by: Trevor Eve

A textbook example of Rabid Cop, Boyd is just as passionate as he is ruthless in his pursuit of justice. His willingness to bend or outright break rules and tendency to get angryu with and harass the people he interrogates has often brought him trouble. That said, he has a tendency to get angry with pretty much everyone.

Boyd is also somewhat of a Deadpan Snarker, once involved three suspects in a Pub Quiz parody and was also arrested for drink driving. Has a weakness for pretty women.

His son, Luke, missing since the early 1990s, returned in Season 7, but ultimately committed suicide by drugs overdose. The precise impact on Boyd is as yet unclear. It was revealed in Season 8 that the "suicide" was murder, which led to a dramatic cliffhanger as Boyd was given the option to exact revenge. He and Grace are known to bicker Like an Old Married Couple.

• A Father to His Men: Despite his harsh behaviour towards them, Boyd values his team deeply and will always try to help if one of them is in trouble. He loved Mel Silver like a daughter and suffered Heroic BSoD after her death.
• Badass Longcoat: A tough, no-nonsense Detective Superintendent who wears a long coat.
• Brutal Honesty: Boyd never minces his words when it comes to his personal feelings on the teams work, or on the statements provided to him by suspects and witnesses.
• The Casanova: Has a weakness for pretty women.
• The Chessmaster: Is highly intelligent and often uses trickery to catch criminals. Lampshaded by Linda Cummings who tells him that he's not a piece in her game, but her opponent.
• Deadpan Snarker: Often snarks at his team, or at villains.
• Defective Detective: Was once arrested for drink driving.
• Enraged by Idiocy: Prepare for a dressing down at best if Boyd catches you engaging in sloppy police work. Just about every officer working under him feels his wrath at some point in the show.
• Goodis Not Soft: Hell no! A perfect example of this is when he offers a rapist dying of testicular cancer morphine in return for telling him where his victims are buried, then breaks the vial of morphine in front of him.
• Hairtrigger Temper: It doesn't take much to set him off.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Boyd is abrasive, harsh, brutally honest and will not hesitate to butt heads with suspects or his own team if need be. But despite that, he is keenly interested in delivering justice to the victims of violent crime, is extremely loyal and trusting of his team and will always pull through for them in the end.
• Let Off by the Detective: In "Sins" he lets Cathy Reading get off Scott-free with murdering her father, after discovering that he raped and impregnated her.
• Manipulative Bastard: When it came to interrogations, Boyd was a master of getting suspects to say the exact things needed to either incriminate themselves or others. Best shown in "Duty And Honour", where he forces Lomax to watch his treacherous bosses interview and fools said boss into betraying him, making Lomax give him up on the spot.
• Manly Facial Hair: Combines this with Perma-Stubble.
• Married to the Job: Deconstructed over the course of the series. Boyd has little to no work-life balance and is never shown to have friends or family outside the job. However, it soon becomes clear that Boyd suffers from an immense amount of guilt over the disappearance and eventual death of his son Luke, and uses work to fill the void left behind.
• Nice Mean And In Between: Of the Boyd-Spencer-Grace trio that lasted the whole show, he was the mean one. Boyd was extremely harsh and stern with just about everyone and did not suffer fools gladly, happily chewing out anyone who did not measure up to his standards.
• Rabid Cop: He'll do anything to get the job done.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Boyd has no hesitation in bending or in some cases outright breaking the law in order to see justice done, be it illegally accessing a superior officers file when they become a suspect or breaking into someones house to obtain vital evidence. This can occasionally backfire on him, particularly in the Series 8 episode "End Of The Night" where he is not only thrown off the case but nearly thrown out of the force as well.
• Token Good Cop: As revealed in "Black Run", back when he first joined the CID he found himself to be this, with the rest of the officers in the station being nothing more than a gang who extorted and ran rackets through their area, with his DCI Eddie Vine being the most corrupt of them all. Following Boyd's attempts to bring him down through the system failing, Vine took Boyd aside and forced him to accept a protection payment making it clear he would be murdered if he didn't get with the program. Boyd instead burned the money, and, realising that he couldn't stop him through the system, manipulated evidence to incriminate Vine for the murder of his ex-partner (which Vine actually did) leading to him getting life in prison and ensuring Boyd's transfer. These experiences went a long way into shaping Boyd into the officer he is presently. As we see in the episode, the station is still as corrupt as ever even if the majority of their power was destroyed with Vine's arrest.

Dr. Grace Foley

Played by: Sue Johnston

A Forensic Profiler with 30 years experience, Foley is mother to the team and tends to be used in a "tea and sympathy" role. She also had a brief bout with stomach cancer and she had to leave the unit briefly for the operation. She also became pregnant years ago when falling in love with the head of her first murder case. Saying it didn't end well would be an understatement considering she only found out he was married after she got pregnant, and then he died in a car crash while drunk at the wheel, while Grace miscarried. The loss of her unborn child continues to haunt her.

• Dude, Not Funny!: Due to the dark nature of her job, she has a tendency to crack jokes at inappropriate moments, sometimes resulting in this reaction from others.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Has this relationship with Boyd.
• Nice Girl: Grace was the friendliest member of the team and had a great deal of tact and insight when it came to talking to suspects and witnesses alike. She was also extremely pleasant to anyone who worked with her, frequently providing sympathy for people who end up on the wrong side of Boyd's temper.
• Team Mom: Served as the unofficial mother to the whole team, and frequently supported them during times of crisis. In turn, nearly everyone on Boyd's team including Boyd himself trusts her absolutely.
• Undying Loyalty: Grace is with Boyd through thick and thin and their bond forms the core of the team. Even in the episode where she temporarily leaves after a nasty fight with Boyd she still returns to interview a suspect as a favour and needs little persuading to rejoin permanently. She even risks life and limb to help him with the cases on numerous occasions. In return, Boyd is utterly devoted to her and frequently relies on her expertise to help his crack particularly problematic suspects.

DI Spencer "Spence" Jordan

Played by: Wil Johnson

Frequently involved in Good Cop/Bad Cop stuff with Boyd as the Bad Cop.

He finds out in Season 3 that his father is alive, despite thinking he was dead since he was a child.

At the end of Season 5, he was shot in a CliffHanger ending, but emerged to have fully recovered in Season 6, getting a tattoo around the scar.In Season 8 he transfers out of the unit to CID but still liases with them for "Endgame". In Season 9 he has transferred back into the unit.

• Black and Nerdy: He's black and highly intelligent.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Played the good cop opposite Boyd, frequently being more reasonable and level headed in his approach to suspects and untangling the truth.
• The Lancer: Spencer served as Boyd's right hand man throughout the series, and outside of Grace was his main confidante. The two would frequently tackle suspects together in interviews and Spencer would always accompany Boyd on arrests.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The in-between of the Boyd-Grace-Spencer trio. Spencer was generally more level headed and calm than Boyd, and formed friendships with most people who worked opposite him. But he had an abrasive side and would not hesitate to show it when angered. He also had no patience for lying suspects or shoddy police work and when he's made his mind up about something, he can't be dissuaded with anything other than hard evidence.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: It's hard to describe his relationship with Boyd as anything other than this. The two were sometimes at odds with each other and had some nasty bust ups over the course of the show, with Spencer even leaving the team at one point after feeling sidelined one time too many. However it also becomes clear that the two have a deep respect for one another and will nearly always help each other out when the other is in trouble. Boyd outright saves Spencer's life at the end of "Cold Fusion" and Spencer fights to prove Boyd's innocence in the Series 9 finale "Waterloo".

DC Amelia "Mel" Silver

Played by: Claire Goose

Mel was a feisty young achiever who worked hard to be promoted. She was also best-friends with Frankie. She was adopted as a child and tried to get into contact with her biological mother, but couldnt reveal her true identity as her mother had a new family. She was killed in the fourth season finale after being thrown off a roof and landing on the windscreen of the car Boyd and Grace were driving. Her shocking death shook the team to the core and it took Boyd over two series to come to terms with it. Her Jewish background would prove relevant in the later "Yahrzeit" episode, when an item of jewellery was sent to her last workplace. She'd been working on a case going back to WW2 with an American Mossad agent.

• Damsel in Distress: Had a very bad habit of being captured by the Villain of the Week and used as a hostage. In the pilot episode alone, she's captured and then nearly Buried Alive in a rubbish dump and ultimately killed by The Dragon of a Villain of the Week.
• Naïve Newcomer: In the prequel radio drama The Unforgiven we meet a newly joined Mel Silver, who is nowhere near as savy or as street smart as her TV counterpart. She gradually looses this status over the course of the drama, particularly when she's abducted by the Serial Killer the team are hunting.
• Like a Daughter to Me: Mel served as this for Boyd, who supported her rise through the ranks and was utterly delighted when she achieved the rank of Sergeant. Her death utterly devastates him and he never gets over it even by the end of the series.
• Sacrificial Lion: A brave cop who got thrown off a roof by a disturbed suspect.
• True Companions: Was this with the entire team, but particularly with Boyd and Spencer. Her death nearly destroys the team and she casts a long shadow over all of her subsequent replacements.

DS Stella Goodman

Played by: Félicité du Jeu

Born in the UK to an French mother and English father, her police officer father was killed and she moved to France, spending most of her childhood there.

Entering the Cold Case Squad after Mel Silver's death, she was unwittingly spying on them for her godfather. However, her loyalty is now unquestioned.

Bi-lingual in French and English, Goodman is acknowledged to be the most attractive member of the team by most sources and usually has dyed red hair, but this is not always the case. However, she remains single, although her ownership of a cat is not confirmed one way or the other.

She is a qualified firearms officer.

Stella has been used in a Rabid Cop role, in one case threatening an Algerian suspect with nastiness and claiming she had a relative paralysed in a terrorist attack. Boyd congratulated her on a successful deception- she inferred it that possibly wasn't. She was shot by a suspect and died in the first episode of the eight series.

• Chilly Reception: Was not given the warmest of welcomes by the team at the beginning of her tenure, as Boyd, Spencer and even Grave were still in mourning for Mel Silver and the relationship between Boyd and Spencer had broken down. It took until the very end of the episode for her to be fully accepted as a member of the team.
• Fair Cop: Her attractivness was commented upon by just about everyone she came into contact with. This would sometimes be exploited by both herself and by Boyd to manipulate suspects.
• Fiery Redhead: Had red hair throughout her tenure and possessed a formidable temper, as both Boyd and suspects who annoyed her found out. She even slapped a suspect in the face after they pushed her to breaking point.
• The Mole: Was manipulated into spying on the team by her adoptive father Bill Drake in the series 5 finale, and even tried to destroy evidence acquired by the team after he convinced her it was in the public good. It took a full apology, giving up Bill Drake and helping Boyd rescue Spencer to get the team to forgive her.
• We Used to Be Friends: Throughout series 5 Stella was shown to get on very well with Felix Gibson and often went to her to ask for advice and vent about issues she was having. However after her betrayal of the team resulted in Felix falling victim to a gas attack, Felix was the only member of the team who explictly refused to forgive her and their relationship ended on bad terms.

DS Katrina Howard

Played by: Stacey Roca

Howard appears in the beginning of Season 8, where she helps the team in solving a case. She has a history of insubordination. After Stella dies Katrina is transferred into the team as her replacement, at Boyds request. She doesnt have a major role within the team though, and she doesnt return for Season 9 and isnt even mentioned again. She is replaced by Sarah Cavendish.

DSI (Detective Superintendent) Sarah Cavendish

Played by: Eva Birthistle

Irish born Sarah was a Broken Bird transferred to the unit at the beginning of series nine to replace Katarina Howard. She was moved from Counter-Terroism after an operation she was leading went wrong which led her to become the Scape Goat. Boyd had no say in her transfer. Her Dark and Troubled Past caused problems during cases including her Drowning Her Sorrows. Sarah learned to play by the rules which often put her at odds with Boyd`s way of getting results and resulted in her reporting him and causing his sacking. In a desperate state she tries to make amends and spies on a suspect, discovering his crimes, which leads to her being strangled and her body planted in Boyd`s shed in an attempt to frame him.

Sarah was one of the youngest Superintendents in the history of the Met having received this level by her early-thirties and a high flyer until the incident.

• The Atoner: Deconstructed. Desperate to earn Boyd's forgiveness after shafting him to the met review board, she resorts to spying on the corrupt Assistant Commisioner Nicholson and places herself in an extremely dangerous situation which results in her being murdered. Grace specifically points out that her desperation made her more willing to take foolish risks.
• Et Tu, Brute?: In her final few episodes, she shafts Boyd to the met review board after Boyd endangered Grace's life during one of the cases, despite bonding with him over the course of the series. It ends their friendship and Sarah dies trying to get Boyd to forgive her.

Forensics

Frankie Wharton

Played by: Holly Aird

An original member of the team. She was The Coroner who was unafraid to speak her mind, usually with Boyd. She brought humor to the team and was good friends with Mel, knowing her before joining the team. After Mel died Frankie was traumatised and chose to leave the unit, returning to research. She was replaced by Felix Gibson in season 5.

Felix Gibson

Played by: Esther Hall

Felix was the pathologist that replaced Frankie for Season 5. By Season 5 she had already been with the team for some time. Felix didn't have the humour that Frankie had but gave the information to the team in a more insightful way. She would regularly gather evidence at crime scenes. In the finale of Season 5 she discovers Stella is the mole on the team but is injured by a gas bomb meant for Spence. She makes a full recovery but doesn't return for Season 5 and her departure is never explained.

Eve Lockhart

Played by: Tara Fitzgerald

Took over from Felix. Eve, The Coroner, was involved in mass grave excavation in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars. She had her own Spin-Off called "The Body Farm" after the end of Waking The Dead. However, It only ran for one series due to poor ratings.

Notable criminals

Linda Cummings / "the Beast"

Played by: Ruth Gemmell

A former model prison guard turned Serial Killer and Diabolical Mastermind.

• Arch-Enemy: She is this to Boyd and considers him hers, after deciding he was the Worthy Opponent she had been looking for.
• Axe-Crazy: Subtle but it’s there.
• Badass Boast: “I know my endgame before I make my first move.”
• Boxed Crook: In Endgame, she's a prisoner in a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane.
• Butch Lesbian: Is shown to be in a sexual relationship with a woman in prison and was a prison guard. As Grace points out, her personality profile more matches that of a male serial killer than a female one, going out and killing or masterminding murders on her own rather than as an accomplice.
• Captain Ersatz: Of Moriarty and Hannibal Lecter, in the sense of being a criminal mastermind and the arch-enemy of the hero. Her final episode is basically one big homage to Silence of the Lambs.
• Cold Ham: Exudes a powerful presence, being able to dominate every scene she's in whilst never even raising her voice.
• Consulting a Convicted Killer: Is on the receiving end of this in Endgame.
• The Chessmaster: A metaphorical and literal example, viewing people as pawns in her games and even using a literal chessboard as a Visual Metaphor for her plans in both episodes in which she appears.
• Criminal Mind Games: She's driven by a love of complex games, and even manipulates people from her cell.
• Deadpan Snarker: Matches Boyd in this department, as another way of emphasising her status as his Evil Counterpart.
• Depraved Bisexual: Is in a relationship with a woman in her final episode, but there's a lot of subtext between her and Peter.
• Diabolical Mastermind: She bludgeoned her boss, Governor Reading (who was actually an even worse person than her) to death, then secretly murdered one former inmate a year for seven years, while also manipulating Penny Cain into becoming an Angel of Mercy, leading to 13 more murders and following the police reinvestigating Reading's death, Linda had a doctor assigned to the case abducted by one of her former prisoners, and that's in her first episode alone!
• Disney Villain Death: Falls to her death from the top of a building.
• The Dreaded: Even hardened inmates are terrified of her in her role as a prison guard, and a prisoner, referring to her as "the Beast."
• Evil Brit: With the series being set in Britain, this is a given, but she definitely has the accent and the vibe.
• Evil Genius: Is one of the most evil criminals the team face and probably the most intelligent.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Is a pretty attractive woman and a psychopathic serial killer.
• Faux Affably Evil: Is unfailingly courteous and charming, even when threatening to murder you or someone you love.
• Forthe Evulz: Her entire raison de'tre, to the point that Heath Ledger's Joker would likely be impressed.
• Go Out with a Smile: Gives her trademark Psychotic Smirk before her Disney Villain Death.
• Hannibal Lecture: She's fond of these and could probably give the Trope Namer a run for his money.
• Indirect Serial Killer: Generally prefers to get others like Penny Cain and Michael Kelleher to commit murders on her behalf but isn't afraid of getting her own hands dirty.
• It Amused Me: Her main motive.
• It's All About Me: Only cares for her own power and intellectual stimulation.
• Karma Houdini: She falls to her death with a mocking grin after outwitting Peter.
• Knight of Cerebus: Sins, her debut episode is one of the darkest episodes of an already dark series and when she makes her reappearance in Endgame, the stakes are higher than ever, and everyone in the team is terrified by her involvement.
• Kick the Dog: If dogs were footballs, she'd be Marta Vieira da Silva.
• Manipulative Bitch: Her entire shtick. She uses others like pawns on a chessboard to achieve her goals, only rarely killing people personally.
• Narcissist: Calling her self-aggrandizing would be an understatement.
• Psycho Lesbian: Is in a sexual relationship with a female patient in the asylum where she's interned after being caught and manipulates her into thinking that another patient wants to attack and hurt Linda, causing her girlfriend to attack the other patient in order to protect her.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Tends to get very giddy off her malevolence, and her evil plans are all just intellectual games for her personal amusement.
• Psychotic Smirk: Her default expression after her true nature is revealed.
• Sadist: Of the emotional kind.
• Sadistic Choice: Tries to force Peter to murder Penny Cain by threatening to kill Grace if he doesn't.
• Smart People Play Chess: It's part of her whole Magnificent Bitch status.
• Smart People Speak the Queen's English: Dangerously intelligent and with an RP accent.
• Smug Smiler: Gives a mocking smile whenever everything's going according to plan, which is usually the case for her.
• The Sociopath: A pretty textbook high-functioning example, completely devoid in the smallest ounce of empathy or remorse, viewing other people purely as toys and means to an end, manipulative, easily bored and constantly craving intellectual stimulation, highly intelligent, grandiose, completely fearless, charismatic and able to present a charming facade.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Never raises her voice once.
• Tom the Dark Lord: Linda Cummings is a very normal-sounding name for an Evil Genius. Then again "Cummings" does rhyme with "cunning".
• The Unfettered: To Jim Moriarty-like proportions, to the point that you find yourself wondering if she might have been an inspiration. There are no lengths she won't go to to achieve her goals.
• Villainous Cheekbones: Being played by Ruth Gemmell, she has high, sharp, graceful cheekbones.
• Wicked Cultured: Well-spoken, well-educated and a metaphorical and literal chessmaster.
• Worthy Opponent: Has this opinion of Boyd.
• You Killed My Father: Reveals that she got Penny Cain to murder Boyd's son.

Adam Duke / "the Shepherd"

Played by: Laurence Penry-Jones

A shadowy religious figure who recruits mentally-ill young women to commit murders on his behalf. He's ultimately revealed to be Adam Duke, a Millionaire Playboy out to beat the rap for murdering his father after he tried to throw him out of the house for cheating on his wife with his mentally-ill lover Faye Harding on the kitchen table.

• Abusive Parents: He isn’t one but he has one in the form of his father, Gary Duke, who was emotionally and potentially physically abusive to him his entire life.
• The Bad Guy Wins: He gets away with everything in the end.
• Berserk Button: Trying to take his house from him seems to be his. He murders his father for trying to throw him out and starts contemplating killing Faye when she tells him she doesn’t want them to live there because it's where he had sex with his fiancee, Briony.
• Big Fancy House: Lives in one of these with his wealthy father and after killing him, inherits the house. It was one his main motives as he seems to have a kind of Freudian attachment to the house.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He’s unemployed and in his thirties, living with his disappointed father but comes up with a brilliant plan which he carries out without a hitch, making him one of the series’ deadliest and most cunning adversaries.
• The Casanova: He’s established as a serial womaniser early in the episode, flirting with attractive waitress Faye Harding in front of the equally beautiful Briony.
• The Chessmaster: After murdering his father for trying to throw him out of the house, he makes his psychotic lover, Faye, take the rap and under the alias of the Shepherd, gets in contact with various mentally ill women whom he brainwashes into committing murder so that it looks like Faye was one of them and she can get a conditional release, whilst setting up Matt Carney as the Shepherd. Bonus points for being taught how to play Chess by his father as a kid.
• Chess Motifs: Has a chessboard in his house for him to practice on himself with, foreshadowing how he manipulates everyone else like pieces on a chessboard.
• Consummate Liar: Pretends to be visiting Faye in hospital because he’s in love with her when really he’s doing it to meet other mentally ill women for him to brainwash and later murders Faye to keep her quiet.
• Creepy Child: In the flashback of him playing Chess with his Dad, he gives this vibe.
• Deadpan Snarker: He gets one moment of this while Boyd and the team are searching his house for Faye: “I would help if I knew what you were looking for.”
• Determinator: Goes so far as to throw a pan of boiling water in his face to make himself look like a victim, and later to non-fatally stab himself. He certainly has high levels of endurance, that’s for sure.
• Diabolical Mastermind: In his role as the Shepherd, he manipulates mentally ill women into committing murders in order to cover his own tracks.
• The Dog Bites Back: After years of emotional abuse from his father, he stabs him in the neck when his father tries to throw him out of the house.
• The Dreaded: Greatly feared by the people who know him as the Shepherd.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He’s pale, with long brown hair and a face that barely moves, in addition to being a Diabolical Mastermind who murdered his father and stepmother and commits other murders via his proxies.
• Even Evil Has Standards: It seems he wouldn’t hurt a child, given that the fact that he rescues the infant Joshua Bloom from the house fire his sister started on his orders.
• Evil Genius: Lampshaded by Boyd, who points out that the reason he made his plan so complex is to emphasise his genius.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Has a baritone voice and when he speaks over the phone using a voice distorter, it sounds even deeper. Funnily enough, the script indicates that his phone voice was meant to be a Creepy High-Pitched Voice, ala Red John.
• Failed a Spot Check: He forgot to pour away Faye’s glass of champagne before letting the police into the house, tipping off Boyd that he has company.
• Faux Affably Evil: Comes across as polite, charming and willing to help in every scene in which he appears but is actually the murderer.
• Freudian Excuse: Very Freudian. His mother is absent and the script says that she died giving birth to him. He was raised by a womanising workaholic who raised him to be as ruthless as he was and had unreasonably high expectations for him.
• A Glass of Chianti: A glass of champagne actually. He and Faye are sipping bubbly in the house he inherited from the father he murdered and planning their future before the police arrive to look for Faye. As they search the house for her, he smugly looks on, sipping his drink.
• A God Am I: Chooses the title of “Shepherd” to go about his plans, from “the Lord is thy Shepherd” and when he tells one of his proxies to commit murder, he says that God is telling her to do it.
• The Hedonist: Seems to have spent his life before murdering his father partying and womanising rather than trying to find gainful employment, much to his father’s chagrin and when he’s successfully carried out his plan, he celebrates with champagne in the daytime with his girlfriend.
• Hero Killer: By proxy. One of his minions kills Mel.
• Idle Rich: Is rich and unemployed, leaving him with plenty of time to form his evil schemes.
• In the Blood: His father, Gary Duke, seems to have been a narcissistic sociopath as well, if his actions in life are anything to go by, seducing his colonel’s wife in the army and then killing his colonel, emotionally abusing his son and beating him and trying to throw him out of the house just for having sex with his psychotic ex on the kitchen table. Gary must have really liked that kitchen table.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Seen as this by his high-achieving father because of his wastrel lifestyle and halfhearted and failed attempts at gaining employment. He proves to be even more ruthless than Gary.
• Indirect Serial Killer: Murdered his father himself but carries out the rest of his murders via proxies, until he kills Faye that is. After stabbing his father, he sent Faye to kill Lindsay Duke but Faye couldn't do it and Lindsay died from a heart attack after grabbing the electric fence.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: See Inadequate Inheritor above. Not living up to his abusive father’s expectations left him with feelings of low self-esteem which he overcame by becoming the grandiose god complex ridden egomaniac that he is at the time of the show.
• Ironic Echo: His father’s motto was “You’re only as strong as your weakest link” and he believed that Gary saw him as his weakest link, leading to him murdering him when he attempted to kick him out of the house. He later decides that Faye is his weakest link and disposes of her, remembering what Gary said to him over a game of chess. He also may have seen his father as his weakest link because he was the only person with the power to push him around.
• It's All About Me: Everything he does over the course of the episode is to avoid going to gaol for the murder of his father and stepmother, Lindsay, and there’s no-one, not even his own doting girlfriend whom he isn’t willing to throw under the bus to get away with murder.
• Karma Houdini: Faye is the only person who can identify him as the Shepherd and he fatally stabs her before pretending that it was self-defence, leaving Boyd powerless to arrest him.
• Knight of Cerebus: Not that the show was ever exactly lighthearted to being with but he causes the death of one of the main characters, resulting in it developing a sadder tone and leaving the team traumatised.
• Leitmotif: A very grand, haunting one which plays whenever the main characters are discussing “the Shepherd” or his plans are unfolding onscreen.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He has long brown hair and is described in the script as “delicately handsome.”
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: In addition to screwing Faye on his Dad's kitchen table, Faye says they made love in every room in the house, including in his parents' bedroom. She's schizophrenic so she may have imagined it because she admits to having difficulty differentiating between her hallucinations and reality.
• Manipulative Bastard: When his abusive father tries to throw him out of the house, he fatally stabs him in the neck then sends his girlfriend to kill his stepmother, then convinces her to take the rap for both killings so that she will go to a home on account of her mental illness, sparing both of them gaol. Then he throws a pan of boiling water in his face to make it look like she attacked him to, before assuming the identity of the Shepherd and manipulating various mentally ill women into committing murders in order to make it look like Faye was one of his disciples and that his parents’ killings were random. Then when Faye is released on the grounds of diminished responsibility, he kills her too to cover his tracks.
• Meaningful Name: “Adam” was the name of the first man so given his father’s personality, he most likely named his first son after God’s first creation out of narcissism. He’s nearly driven out of his home by his father, like Adam being driven out of Eden by God. His surname is Duke, and by the end of his storyline, he’s got what he wanted, inheriting his Dad’s Big Fancy House, making him a metaphorical lord of the manor, like a Duke.
• Millionaire Playboy: Had an attractive fiance and a lover on the sly and while his family's net worth is never stated, the fact that his Dad is (or was) a corporate exec with a mansion and a swimming pool suggests that it's in the seven digits.
• Mind Rape: How he gains control of his victims.
• My Greatest Failure: He claims to see letting Faye into the house as his, because she was mentally ill, obsessed, and being sane and well-educated, he should have known not to let her in, and his mistake led to his father and stepmother being murdered, resulting in him seeing himself as his father’s “weakest link”. Subverted: He’s lying and he killed his father.
• Narcissist: Before his true identity is revealed, he’s profiled as one of these by Grace. He has a huge God complex, taking on the name “the Shepherd”, as in the Lord is thy Shepherd to manipulate women into committing killings on his behalf, and he murdered his father so that he took take his house and inherit his fortune, thereby usurping his father’s power, which is described as grandiose and Machiavellian by Boyd.
• Oedipus Complex: He murders his father to take his power. His mother is absent so thankfully this is a version that lacks the sexual component.
• Overlord Jr.: Son of a ruthless corporate exec whom he murders and whose house, fortune and presumably business he inherits.
• Psycho Knife Nut: Stabbed his father and lover with a carving knife and stabbed himself non-fatally with the same knife he used to kill Faye to make it look like self-defence.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Boyd notes that he and Faye go about their plan “very childishly.”
• The Red Baron: Is known as “the Shepherd” by his minions, as that’s the name he tells them to call him by.
• Self-Made Orphan: His mother is already dead, he fatally stabbed his father in the neck and sent his lover to murder his stepmother.
• Slasher Smile: Sports one of these as Boyd looks away at Faye’s dead body in the swimming pool, having got away with murder.
• Smart People Play Chess: Has a chessboard in his house with which he plays against himself, Is shown being taught how to play Chess by his father as a boy and over the course of his story line, manipulates everyone else like pieces on a chessboard.
• Smart People Speak the Queen's English: Having presumably been privately educated, he speaks with an upper crust English accent in contrast with his father’s Northern accent, although his flashback shows his child self speaking with the same accent as his father. He also probably rivals Linda Cummings as one of the team’s most potent and cunning enemies.
• Smug Smiler: Gives a smug smile having killed Faye and telling Boyd “She’s got nothing to say.”
• The Sociopath: Profiled in the episode in which he appears as "Grandiose, Machiavellian and narcissistic", murdered his father for his house and compels others to commit murder on his behalf without a shred of empathy or remorse, just to avoid going to gaol, even killing his lover in the end. He has no regard for anyone but himself.
• The Stoic: Nobody can call the guy a wimp. He threw boiling water in his face to make himself look like a victim of Faye Harding and later stabbed himself for the same reason!
• The Un-Favourite: He was his father’s only child but his father considered him a disappointment.
• The Unfettered: Stabbed his father to death, had his stepmother killed, threw boiling water in his face to make himself look like a victim, had other people murdered just to cover his tracks, murdered his girlfriend and stabbed himself to make it look like self-defence, there are no lengths Adam won’t go to in order to win.
• Villain of the Week: Albeit one with a lasting effect.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Started off as one of these, until he made up his mind that he would never have his father’s respect.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Not only does he get off Scott-free at the end of his two-parter, but although the team are traumatised by Mel's death for the rest of the series, he's never brought up again, despite being indirectly responsible for her death, nor does he ever reappear. And with the series cancellation in 2011, it doesn't look like he ever will.
• Whole-Plot Reference: His plan is the same as Franklin Clarke’s in The ABC Murders: Commit a series of seemingly unconnected murders in order to make a specific murder look like the work of a random madman.
• Wicked Cultured: Speaks the Queen English, comes from a wealthy family, has a Big Fancy House, knows The Bible and drinks champagne.
• Would Hit a Girl: Would STAB a girl!
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Seems to be the case, given that he rescued Joshua Bloom from the fire he got his sister Natasha to start, as no other reason is given in the episode.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Twice! The first when he threw boiling water in his own face to make it look like Faye attacked him, and the second when he stabbed himself, again to make it look like Faye attacked him.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Initially intends to have Faye move into his mansion to be his “Queen” but decides she’s a loose end because as she’s his accomplice, she’s the only other person who knows his entire plan. He also thinks that she might be difficult to control as she wants to move out of the country while he wants to live in the mansion he inherited from his father as a means of consolidating his victory. When she leaves her champagne on the Sitting Room table, tipping off Boyd that he is there, he makes up his mind that she’s a liability and fatally stabs her before framing it as self-defence. His father taught him “You’re only as strong as your weakest link” and he saw Faye as his weakest link.

Mr. Irani

Played by: Paul Bhattacharjee

A powerful Indian businessman.

• Berserk Button: Having his plans even slightly thwarted will send him into a murderous rage.
• Blackmail: Forced the brother of one of the victims of his fraudulent medicines to take the fall for one of his murders by threatening to kill his family if he didn't.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Tortured a police officer.
• Cop Killer: And killed him.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Deals fake medicine internationally.
• Greed: His entire driving force.
• Drugs Are Bad: They're how he made his empire and he aims to establish a base in London.
• He Knows Too Much: His goal in the episode in which he appears is to silence anyone who has information on his illicit dealings.
• Leave No Witnesses: He's willing to kill any number of people to protect his profits.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: As a wealthy businessman, he always wears a suit.
• The Sociopath: A high-functioning version, like Linda Cummings and Adam Duke.
• Would Hit a Girl: Strangles the widow of one of his victims to death.
• Would Hurt a Child: Doesn't care that his counterfeit medicine caused the deaths of thirty children in Gujarat.

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