Lorcan Cranitch is an Irish actor who trained at RADA in London, graduating in 1982, and has also performed on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He became widely known for playing DS Jimmy Beck in the British crime drama Cracker (1993-1995) and has gone on to a long career across British television, including roles in Fortitude as DI Littlejohn and, in 2021, as Detective Chief Superintendent Jackie Twomey. More recently, he appeared in Series 3 of the Northern Irish police drama Blue Lights in November 2025.

About Lorcan Cranitch
Lorcan Cranitch TV shows
Cooper & Fry
as DI Paul Hitchens
Set in the mystery-shrouded Peak District, the series follows two mismatched young detectives: affable local Ben Cooper and guarded newcomer Diane Fry.
Magpie Murders
as Sir Magnus Pye / Max Ryeland
When book editor Susan Ryeland receives the unfinished manuscript of bestselling author Alan Conway's latest Atticus Pünd mystery, she discovers the final chapter is missing and Conway is dead. As Susan searches for the missing pages, she realises that Conway's 1950s whodunit contains thinly veiled caricatures of real people in his life, and that his apparent suicide may actually be murder.