The title of The Dark (ITV) is a warning for viewers, to be taken both figuratively and literally. This is a grim drama in which teenage boys are victims of a sadistic serial killer. And you’ll need to whack up the brightness on your TV from the very beginning, or you won’t be able to make out a thing.
This chilly slice of Highlands noir is based on the DI Monica Kennedy crime novels by GR Halliday. It leans more towards horror than police procedural, so is not for those of a nervous disposition. There is no gore but the tone is horribly creepy. There is a scene in which a masked face appears at an upstairs window that is the stuff of nightmares.
DI Kennedy (Laura Donnelly) is one of those skilful, no-nonsense detectives who gets the job done but lacks a decent bedside manner. She is all business and no small talk, as her new partner Connor Crawford (Mark Rowley) discovers on the drive to the scene of the first crime. The body of a young man has been found, splayed on the ground with hands neatly arranged in prayer. Kennedy recognises him as the brother of another boy who went missing several years earlier, and goes off to break the news to his parents. They are played by Helen Baxendale as a bit of a wet blanket, and Emun Elliott as her short-fuse husband.
Speaking of short: in the books, Kennedy’s most striking characteristic is that she is 6ft 2in, a fact upon which everyone remarks. But Donnelly, the Northern Irish actress best known for Outlander, is petite. This works in the context of the drama – Donnelly packs a punch in spite of her size – but is a curious adjustment. Perhaps there aren’t many tall actresses out there who can manage a Scottish accent?
The characters pile up – suspects, victims, their families and friends – and it can be hard to keep track of them. There is a subplot involving Kennedy’s home life as a single mother and a strange woman who is stalking her. As with so many adaptations of crime thrillers, the story has been stretched too thin. This could comfortably have been told in three episodes but has been eked out to six. As a result, there are long periods in between the shocking moments and cliffhanger endings that feel painfully slow and disjointed. The ending is set up to tease a second series with a new case, and there is definitely promise here if the stories can become more streamlined.
The Highlands look moody and majestic – when you can see them. The director can’t get enough of the dark (the original novel on which this is based is called From the Shadows) so there are plentiful scenes of characters driving through the pitch black night. When we first meet Kennedy, she’s in a darkened cinema. The weirdly poetic pathologist finds a pebble and describes it as being “dark as the darkest soul”. I’d love to meet some forensic pathologists in real life to find out whether they’re as oddball as TV crime dramas suggest.
The Dark is on ITVX