Latest news with #Karen Pirie
The Independent
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Viewers say they're ‘hooked' on ITV detective drama Karen Pirie
ITV 's detective series Karen Pirie has returned for its second season after a three-year wait, starring Lauren Lyle as the titular detective. The new season sees DI Karen Pirie investigating a cold case from 1984 concerning the kidnapping of an oil magnate heiress and her son, which is reopened after a body is discovered. Viewers have largely praised the crime series for its engaging storylines and for portraying a 'normal' detective who is not traumatised or grumpy. Lauren Lyle, the lead actress, noted that the show often surprises audiences by not conforming to typical ITV detective drama expectations. Despite the positive reception, some viewers expressed frustration regarding the frequent and lengthy commercial breaks during the broadcast.
The Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Karen Pirie cast: Who appears in the ITV show?
LAUREN Lyle is back for a second series of the Scottish murder-mystery whodunnit Karen Pirie. The gritty cop drama is produced by Line of Duty bosses and follows Detective Inspector Karen Pirie, freshly promoted after the events of series one. What is Karen Pirie about? Based on crime writer Val McDermid 's novels, the new series is adapted from the Scottish novelist's 2008 page-turner, A Darker Domain. The first was based on Val 's novel The Distant Echo. Teenager Rosie Duff was found brutally murdered in the Scottish university town of St Andrews in 1996 and three drunken students were the prime suspects. In the second season, Karen is put in charge of an infamous cold case from the 80s that has gained fresh scrutiny from senior police, the media, and the victim's relatives. In 1984, Catriona Grant, the daughter of a wealthy local oil tycoon, was abducted, along with her infant son. The ransom notes that followed stirred up a huge press storm, but the culprits were never traced and neither Catriona nor her son were seen again. But when, in the present day, a body is found with an undeniable link to the historic crime, Karen and her team must discover the truth under intense personal and professional pressure. Here's a look at the case who will be looking at uncovering the truth in the second series of Karen Pirie. Lauren Lyle as DS Karen Pirie 4 Outlander star Lauren Lyle again takes on the role of DC Karen Pirie. Lauren spent a great deal of time discovering her character with the best-selling author of the book, Val and with a detective she met. In the books, Karen is unfashionable and odd, and doesn't really mind what she looks like because her main focus is her job. That is why Lauren worked closely with costume designer Lesley Abernethy to make her look humble but cool at the same time. To get into character, she also explained how she got to understand the plot and the case like a detective. She said: "I read the scripts hundreds of times. "Like a detective, I got 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.' Lauren appeared in Broken, alongside Sean Bean, in 2017, and played Jade Antoniak in Vigil. She has played Marshall in Outlander since 2017. Chris Jenks as DC Jason Murray 4 The Sex Education star is back again. Portraying DC Jason Murray, Chris explained how his character brings humour to the show and how his relationship with Karen evolves through the episodes. He said: "Jason is really well-intentioned and good-natured, but just doesn't quite get things right a lot of the time. "He's desperately trying to hit the mark, but he just misses it. "He's maybe not the brightest detective on the team, but he kind of makes up for it in his hard work and through his relationship with Karen - they develop into a really good team and she helps him find his stride. "That relationship builds through the series - at first, they don't really see eye to eye and she's quite frustrated that she's been given such a potentially useless member of the team! "But he really shows his qualities as they move on and eventually he comes into his own, and really stands up for himself in the later episodes." Chris explained Jason to be a sort of mummy's boy who loves working out in the gym and enjoys doing basic things in life too such as going out and dating. Zach Wyatt as DS Phil Parhatka Zach Wyatt is known for his roles in The Witcher: Blood Origin, Blithe Spirit and Urban Myths. Now he takes on the role of detective Phil Parhatka, who was supposed to be promoted, but Karen took the position instead. Zach said: "He's a very diligent, driven detective - this job is all he has ever wanted to do and he's consumed by his work, he takes it very seriously but at a healthy level." Who else is in the second series? Who else is in the second series of Karen Pirie? James Cosmo (Braveheart) plays oil tycoon Sir Broderick Grant, while Julia Brown (The Last Kingdom) is victim Catriona Grant, daughter of Sir Broderick. 4 When is Karen Pirie season 2 released? The second series of Karen Pirie started at 8pm on ITV on Sunday, July 20. There are three episodes in the series, with the remaining two airing on Sunday, July 27 and Sunday, August 3. All episodes are available to stream on ITVX.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Karen Pirie: With plots as deep and dark as a coal mine shaft, this is no ordinary Karen
Something of a tradition, the two-hour crime drama on a Sunday night. It stretches from Vera and Grace, all the way back to Inspector Morse in the 1980s. But it's a dangerous format. If the characters are weak, if the story sags, if the dialogue drags, viewers will really start to feel it around the 60-minute mark. Then an ad break will come around, they'll wander off to put the kettle on... and not bother coming back. The cosy detective show McDonald And Dodds, starring Jason Watkins and Tala Gouveia, ought to have thrived as a series of well-paced one-hour episodes, for instance. But it simply didn't have the complexity or the characters to last double the length. Viewing figures slumped, and earlier this year it was quietly cancelled. Karen Pirie is different. Based on the superb books by Val McDermid, this returning drama has plots as deep and dark as a coal mine shaft. The characters aren't merely well drawn — they're alive, constantly seeking to understand and learn more about each other. This three-part adaptation of the novel A Darker Domain opened in a Fife fish shop during the miners' strike in 1984. A young mother was sharing a chip supper with her best mate and cooing over her one-year-old. A thread of tension ran through the scene, vibrating with a hidden threat. But nothing hinted at the explosive violence to come, as a masked gunman seized the mum, taking her and the baby hostage. DI Pirie (Lauren Lyle) wasn't even born when the kidnap happened. But the young woman was the daughter of Scotland's wealthiest oil baron, Sir Brodie Grant, and it was all too plausible that the unsolved case was one every copper would know. This three-part adaptation of the novel A Darker Domain opened in a Fife fish shop during the miners' strike in 1984 Its parallels with the John Paul Getty kidnap are hard to miss, and acknowledged in a brief aside by Pirie to her slightly dim sidekick, DC Jason 'Mint' Murray (Chris Jenks). He's none the wiser: 'John Paul?' he asks. 'As in the pope?' Mint gets all the best jokes. When Pirie asks if he's 'media trained', he replies, 'No, but I've watched a lot of Arnold Schwarzenegger speeches on YouTube.' The two timeframes are expertly intercut, with some flashbacks lasting just a few seconds, helping us to grasp what people are talking or thinking about. This technique removes the need for long passages of explanation. Grant in 1984 is played by Jamie Michie, as a bullying, demanding tycoon who expects the police to work as his own private army. James Cosmo is the same man 40 years later, emotionally broken but as controlling as ever, employing an investigator to look into Pirie's past. The private eye will surely have discovered that she's in a relationship with another colleague, DS Phil Parhatka (Zach Wyatt) — one she hasn't disclosed to her bosses. That deep, dark mine shaft is going to take more twists.
