Karen Pirie sets ITV, BritBox return
FIRST LOOK: Lauren Lyle reprises her role as Karen Pirie in the second season of the ITV and BritBox cold case crime series, which is set to return to screens this summer.
Lyle plays Detective Inspector Karen Pirie in the series, with a new three-part dreama based on author Val McDermid’s A Darker Domain and adapted by Emer Kenny (The Curse).
After her bittersweet success in season one, Karen has been promoted to Detective Inspector and seemingly given the authority she has long been fighting for. Just as she’s getting into the swing of her powerful new role, she is assigned an infamous unsolved case that will put her under intense scrutiny; from her boss, from the media, and ultimately, from sinister forces that would rather the past stayed in the past.
The 1984 case of Catriona and Adam Grant has confounded investigators and intrigued the public like no other. Catriona, the charming young heiress to a vast oil fortune, and her two year old son Adam, were brutally kidnapped at gunpoint outside a fish and chip shop in Fife. The ransom notes that followed stirred up an uncontrollable press storm, but when the culprits fell silent, the police faltered, and Catriona and Adam were never seen again.
Now, a man’s body has been discovered, with indisputable links to the original kidnap. With the first piece of evidence in decades, Karen must assemble an unbeatable team alongside her sincere and lovable sidekick DC Jason ‘Mint’ Murray (Chris Jenks) and the brilliant – but romantically complicated – DS Phil Parhatka (Zach Wyatt).
With the international renown of the kidnap and the constant pressure from Catriona’s father, Sir Broderick Grant (James Cosmo), the team take on the biggest challenge of their careers to date. As Karen delves deeper into what happened in the autumn of 1984, political grudges and painful secrets reveal themselves.
Lyle (Outlander) appears alongside season one regulars Jenks (Sex Education), Wyatt (Timestalker), Steve John Shepherd (Harry Potter), Emer Kenny (The Curse) and Rakhee Thakrar (Wonka). Joining the cast are Saskia Ashdown (Six Four), James Cosmo (Braveheart), Frances Tomelty (Unforgotten) and John Michie (Holby City).
Appearing in the 1980s storyline ar Julia Brown (World on Fire), Mark Rowley (One Day), Kat Ronney (Dinosaur), Conor Berry (Schemers), Stuart Campbell (The Winter King), Jamie Michie (Back to Life), Madeleine Worrall (The Legend of Tarzan), Jack Stewart (Outlander), Thoren Ferguson (Rebus), and Helen Katamba (The Nest). New additions to the present-day storyline include James Fleet (Bridgerton), Tom Mannion (Mr Selfridge), and Tommaso Basili (Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints).
Karen Pirie is executive produced by Simon Heath and Emma Luffingham at World Productions, Emer Kenny and Val McDermid. The series is directed by Gareth Bryn with Amanda Blue directing episode three, and produced by Marcus Wilson. It is produced in association with ITV Studios, which handles global distribution. Filming took place in Scotland and Malta.
Karen Pirie will return for a second season to ITV, STV, ITVX and STV Player in July and on BritBox in the US and Canada in October.
tagged in: Britbox, Emer Kenny, ITV, Karen Pirie, Lauren Lyle, World Productions