Cush Jumbo makes determined women convincing by showing what it costs them to keep going. Her work in Criminal Record is a strong reason to watch: she makes a detective's resolve and her vulnerability equally clear.
Fi1m perspective
When Cush Jumbo's June Lenker challenges Peter Capaldi's Hegarty in Criminal Record (2024), she does not make determination look comfortable. There is strain in the performance, but no suggestion that Lenker can simply decide the disagreement is not worth pursuing. Jumbo makes her persistence believable without turning her into someone untouched by the consequences. It is strong work in a familiar police thriller, and a good reason to stay with the series.
Detectives and lawyers recur in her screen work, from DC Bethany Whelan in Vera (2012) to Lucca Quinn in The Good Wife (2015–2016) and The Good Fight (2017–2021). The American legal dramas brought her international recognition, but they are only part of the work. She also wrote and performed Josephine and I (2013), a one-woman show about Josephine Baker, and took the title role in Hamlet (2021). The clarity and dry humour of her Hamlet are useful reminders of what a police drama does not always ask her to do.
In Criminal Record, Capaldi is an especially useful partner because Hegarty's seniority changes the terms of every encounter. Jumbo has to make Lenker a credible opponent without pretending that they meet as equals, and she does. We felt uneasy watching them together because challenging him puts her at a professional risk that he does not appear to share. The series also leaves us asking how much either detective can change the way the job is done. That question prevents her determination from becoming a ready-made answer to every problem.
Some secondary stories in Criminal Record weaken the pressure, and even this pairing cannot make them feel essential. It is worth distinguishing Jumbo's achievement from the unevenness of the programme around her: we can believe Lenker without being equally absorbed by every subplot. Watch it for the confrontations with Capaldi, and allow for the detours.
Biography
Cush Jumbo is a British actress and writer. She trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and began her career in theatre and television.
She is known for playing Lucca Quinn in The Good Wife (2015–2016) and The Good Fight (2017–2021), DC Bethany Whelan in Vera (2012–2016), and DS June Lenker in Criminal Record (2024–), on which she also serves as executive producer. Jumbo wrote and starred in the one-woman play Josephine and I, for which she received an Evening Standard Theatre Award. She was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for playing Mark Antony in an all-female production of Julius Caesar (2012). She was appointed OBE for services to drama.
