Sunday nights are made for gripping dramas, so it's just as well that ITV have another one for us all to get hooked on, in the shape of Karen Pirie.
ITV know what they're doing when it comes to a good Sunday night drama. Back in the day we had Heartbeat, Where the Heart Is and Wild at Heart, while more recent hits include The Good Karma Hospital, Trigger Point and, of course, Vera. Over the last month, it's been Ridley, starring Line of Duty's own Ted Hastings, that's peen pulling viewers in and on Sunday night, Karen Pirie will make its debut, after what seems like an eternity of preview adverts teasing its arrival.
Episode one focused on the murder of young barmaid Rosie Duff, who has been assaulted, stabbed and left for dead, with three students found with blood stained clothes, claiming to have stumbled upon her body on the way home from a night out. The investigations gores unsolved for a quarter of a century and is brought back into the public arena when it's discussed on a true crime podcast.
This leads to DS Karen Pirie being tasked with heading up a cold case review, to try and get to the bottom of the killing 25 years on. The Karen Pirie cast is led by Lauren Lyle in the title role.
Who is Karen Pirie?
While it's very much feasible that Karen Pirie could be based on real life events, it is, in fact not based on real life events, meaning Karen is entirely a fictional character. She comes from the pen of celebrated crime writer Val McDermid, with the three episodes of Karen Pirie's first series based on Val's book, The Distant Echo.
Talking about what research went into the character, lead actress Lauren said: "It was really interesting when we were filming, we started at St Andrews Cathedral and one night we had police escorts with us. One of them was a twenty-something blonde woman, and it turns out she was a detective from Methil, the same tiny town Karen is from! To me, she was the real Karen Pirie. So we exchanged numbers and we stayed in touch, it was like looking into a mirror for Karen."
Discussing how far she took her preparations, Lauren added: "Much like a detective, I got some huge pieces of paper that I taped together and put on my wall, with details of the whole case. It’s so complicated that I had to make sure I understood it, so I kept referencing back to this map on my wall. There are so many suspects and I had to walk into each scene remembering if Karen really did suspect them or if she secretly trusted them."
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