History Series / McDonaldAndDodds

''[=McDonald=] & Dodds'' is a British DetectiveDrama set in the city of Bath, created by Robert Murphy and starring Tala Gouveia and Jason Watkins as [[OddCouple mismatched detectives]] DCI Lauren [=McDonald=] and DS Dodds.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: At play with the Crockett family in "The Fall of the House of Crockett" -- Max, the head of the family, is a rich man who is well-regarded locally, and one of his daughters is a respected city councillor who's married to a top lawyer.

* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Five years ago, Dodds helped catch a teenage robber. Dodds barely remember the case and fails to recognize the thief when he runs into him in the present. To the young thief, Dodds ruined his life.

** In ''A Billion Beats'' Archie Addington's father committed suicide [[spoiler: on Archie's fifteenth birthday, the knowledge that the victory which shot team Addington to glory came about thanks to his son literally killing off the completion being too much for him to bear.]]

** In "A Billion Beats", Team Addington is this to the Williams Racing, a British F1 team which first found success in the late 1970s (although that team is based in Oxfordshire).

* NoNameGiven: Dodds, who is only known by his rank (Detective Sergeant) and his surname.

* RaisedCatholic: Dodds, whose beliefs still hold to the point where he regards himself and his ex-wife as being still married (despite several years of separation) because they had a Catholic wedding and the Vatican has ignored his requests for a papal annulment.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Martin Silver, the medium in "Clouds Across the Moon", has quite a few clients who would appear to genuinely believe that he really can communicate with the dead. [=McDonald=] is most unconvinced, and when Silver claims on his website to be in communication with the second victim '‘before his death is reported'', he goes to the top of the suspect list.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Martin Silver, the medium in "Clouds Across the Moon", has quite a few clients who would appear to genuinely believe that he really can communicate with the dead.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Dodds's lack of knowledge of modern technology means that, when [=McDonald=] mentions [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify Spotify]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa Alexa]], he has no idea about the former and assumes that the latter is a real person who lives with [=McDonald=] and her boyfriend. When [=McDonald=] mentions that she made said boyfriend give up his job as a barista due to a perceived lack of career development opportunities, Dodds is confused as to why she should have done this. Turns out, he is also unfamiliar with modern coffee-shops and so does not know what a barista is, and is therefore under the impression that she'd made him give up being a ''barrister'' (ie. a lawyer).

* AwfulWeddedLife: Al and Marielle, the couple who run the clinic in "The War of Rose", are going through a divorce. She announced that they were due to divorce in front of 200 people at an event where they were due to renew their wedding vows.

* TheGhost: [=McDonald=]'s boyfriend. Sometimes mentioned, usually in a way that makes him seem like a bit of a ButtMonkey, but never seen.

* HeManWomanHater: A non-human example in "The War of Rose", in which Spike (the dog) only growls at women. Which actually provides the detectives with a vital clue as to the identity of the "mystery nurse" who was in the clinic on the day of the murder.

* ArtisticLicenceBiology: The biological information behind the title of "A Billion Beats" (that human beings are allotted only a billion heartbeats in a lifetime) are incorrect. With an average heart rate of 60 beats per minute and an average life expectancy of 70 years, anyone can expect their heart to beat over two billion times in a lifetime [[note]] assuming that a billion is defined as a thousand million rather than a million million [[/note]].

* ArtisticLicenceSports: Averted somewhat with Team Addington, the UsefulNotes/FormulaOne team in "A Billion Beats". They are stated to be working on improving their pit-stop times, aiming to do one in under two seconds; in RealLife, the fastest pit-stops do take less than two seconds. Also, Watkins Glen really was used as a circuit during the 1979 F1 season.

** It is also never fully explained why [=McDonald=] transferred from London, although she hints that she did so as she would have had to wait longer for a promotion to DCI had she stayed in London.

* FictionalCounterpart: The "West of England Police" is this to the Avon & Somerset Police, the [[UsefulNotes/BritishCoppers regional constabulary]] that actually covers Bath. In "We Need To Talk About Doreen", the "Bath Eagles" rugby team are this to the real-life Bath RFC.

* ArtisticLicenceSports: Averted somewhat with Team Addington, the UsefulNotes/FormulaOne team in "A Billion Beats". They are stated to be working on improving their pit-stop times, aiming to do one in under two seconds; in RealLife, the fastest pit-stops do take less than two seconds.

** It is also never fully explained why [=McDonald=] transferred from London.

* PlayingSick: Despite her age (she turns 100 during the course of "Belvedere"), Agnes Gillan is as sharp as a tack. Until [=McDonald=] has her cone to the police station to interview her under caution, at which point she feigns dementia. Whether her solicitor is in on the deception or taken in by it is unclear.

** "A Billion Beats" guests stars Paul [=McGann=], Naoko Mori and Louise Jameson and has a few to ''Series/{{Doctor Who}}'', most notably Naoko's first line on entering the offices of Paul's character's business which is a dismissive "It looks much smaller on the inside".

* In "Belvedere", George Gillan refers to his South American travels, about which he wrote a book and gives public talks, as his "''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'' adventures".

* SmugSnake: Chief Superintendent Houseman -- [=McDonald=]'s boss -- comes across as one of these in addition to his ObstructiveBureaucrat tendencies.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Max Crockett.