Is ITV drama Karen Pirie season two based on a true story?
Karen Pirie has made her comeback for an electrifying second series, with Outlander star Lauren Lyle tackling a fresh cold case mystery as the fearless Scottish detective. The much-loved ITV detective programme initially premiered in 2022, adapting Val McDermid's Inspector Karen Pirie book series for television.
The debut series followed the intrepid young Scottish detective as she delved into a quarter-century-old case, exposing the killing of a barmaid amongst a tangled web of sinister secrets, deception, and potential suspects.
This second series, drawing from McDermid's novel A Darker Domain, explores the 1984 abduction of an enchanting oil fortune heiress, Catriona Grant, alongside her two-year-old son Adam.
The pair were snatched at gunpoint outside a chip shop in Fife, vanishing without trace despite a frenzied media frenzy.
The investigation resurfaces when a man's corpse is discovered, bearing connections to the original abduction, reports the Mirror.
The official description hints: "After her bittersweet success in series 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."
Is Karen Pirie series two inspired by real events?
Whilst the investigation does appear plausible enough to have actually occurred, A Darker Domain remains entirely fictitious. The novel draws its inspiration from the UK Miners' Strike of 1984-1985 in Fife, when with the fictional crime of Catriona's kidnap and the setting where McDermid grew up.
However, despite the central case of the series being a work of fiction, actress Lauren discovered some elements of truth in her character.
She shared her intriguing experience during filming: "It was really interesting when we were filming, we started at St Andrews Cathedral and one night we had police escorts with us," she said prior to the first series broadcast.
"One of them was a 20-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."
Emer Kenny, the writer, also recently emphasised the significance of maintaining the original timeline of the book, even though the first season is set in the 1990s while the initial book, The Distant Echo, takes place in the 1970s.
Speaking to Radio Times, she explained: "This time it felt really important for it to be 1984, which is what it is in the book, because the background is the miners' strike, which, in the east of Scotland, was a massive thing in that area.
"And quite a few of our characters are living in those areas, and some of the miners, so it felt really important that we keep it there. Also, I really love that era. I think it's interesting politically, and I like the music and the style."
She added: "Also, it's quite important to Val because she's from that area, she lived through that."
Lauren, reflecting on the filming process, shared with the publication that they frequently visited Val's hometown.
She explained: "We'd put up some of our sets, you would see the old mounts, the pit heads, and we would use all that. And they've never been taken away, because they can't, they were just sort of abandoned. It's quite haunting and intense to be around that. It really puts into perspective how real some of that was."
Karen Pirie is available to watch on ITVX.
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Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
My Notting Hill restaurant has been targeted by brazen thieves 20 times and police do nothing about it... I'm still waiting for them to show up 24 hours after the last break-in!
A top chef has lamented the decline of London policing after thieves stole produce from his restaurant by thieves for what he believes is the 20th time. Richard Wilkins, who runs 104 Restaurant in the capital's plush Notting Hill, says police are yet to visit him more than 24 hours after a pair of brazen thieves stole soft drinks and pantry supplies from a storage area in broad daylight. The Welsh chef reckons his business has been targeted by opportunist and organised thieves 20 times in the last four years. Criminals have made off with all manner of stock - including pricey Scottish langoustines and a mincer he bought for the kitchen. One even used bolt cutters to steal his £2,000 bicycle last month. Mr Wilkins, who has worked at Gordon Ramsay 's Michelin-starred Pétrus and at the three-starred Maison Pic in France, says he has reported every theft to the Metropolitan Police - only for officers to close the case in days with no arrests. And when his bike was stolen, police effectively let the thief get away after scrambling up some scaffolding. Officers decided the criminal would be put at too much risk if they tried to chase him. 'London shouldn't feel lawless but it is lawless when it comes to petty crime like theft,' Mr Wilkins told MailOnline. 'It doesn't even matter the level of the theft - it could be this, it could be a £10,000 watch. People know they can get away with it so they do it. That's why they come along at three o'clock in the afternoon and steal bikes. 'A colleague in Soho came back from a daytime meeting and the lock on her bike had been 75 per cent cut through. 'People are just doing things in broad daylight - and nobody stops them because they're worried about being stabbed. 'London has become a low trust society. You can't leave things outside anymore because someone will steal it. I don't wear anything nice out, my Apple Watch or anything, because it's becoming a matter of life or death. 'The core values of the police have been obliterated. It's a failure of organisation.' He opened the Michelin-recommended establishment, labelled London's smallest fine dining restaurant, in March 2019. Inspired by his time working in top Continental establishments, it serves offerings like Noir de Bigorre pork pâté en croûte, French guinea fowl and Kagoshima wagyu fillet. A three-course dinner runs at £60 per person - with a tasting menu coming in at £120, or £150 with A5 wagyu, the highest standard of Japanese beef available. A sample wine menu suggests bottles of 1992 La Tache Grand Cru can be served with dinner for £4,900. And he hit the headlines not long after opening after engaging in a war of words on social media with Made In Chelsea and Buying London star Rosi Mai Walden, telling her 'I've never even heard of you' after she got in touch trying to blag a free meal. Wednesday's theft saw a crook in a t-shirt, gilet and baseball cap nonchalantly make off with a stack of Coca Cola as well as packets of butter. The stock had been left in a small wicker enclosure off of the main road, around the side of the restaurant. An hour later in the CCTV, the same man returns with a pair of sunglasses on his head, what appears to be a bright yellow carrier bag from Selfridges and an accomplice, who reaches in to grab two cases of bottled water. Thief number one then helps himself to another two cases - and checks a box labelled 'wagyu beef' to see if there were any prime Japanese cuts he could pinch before leaving. The chef glibly captioned the footage: 'Another lovely member of the public stealing our produce an hour ago. Police do nothing. So nice of them to come back and take the rest. Cheers guys.' The wicker fencing had been used to store his bike - until it was stolen. Suppliers keep dropping stock off in the enclosure despite the fact he has padlocked cupboards he asks them to put their deliveries in. Mr Wilkins is often alone as he prepares the restaurant for the day - so can't keep a constant eye out for deliveries. The delivery had been dropped in a wicker enclosure despite Mr Wilkins asking suppliers to use the padlocked cupboards next door Few suppliers do as he asks - not that it would matter. Not long ago, a thief smashed his way into the cupboards looking for stock and left empty-handed. Mr Wilkins is yet to get the door fixed. He almost doesn't see the point, since he expects it to be stoved in again anyway. The chef reported the theft shortly after it happened but is yet to be visited by a police officer more than 24 hours on. 'This happens every few weeks,' he told MailOnline as he prepared for the evening's dinner service on Thursday. 'It seems to be the new normal.' Next to him, a laptop shows a constant feed of the CCTV cameras, something he wishes he didn't have to keep a constant eye on. He continued: 'If it isn't that (someone stealing stock), it's someone ripping the cupboards off their hinges and walking off. 'It's happened 20 times in the last three or four years and no-one has ever been arrested. You report it, you give them the CCTV, and they close the case. 'There was a guy who took 20 minutes to break into the cupboards and just left two cases of water in there - and it costs us so much to get the door redone.' Mr Wilkins does not suffer financially from the thefts so long as he gets a police report to submit to his suppliers - but being deprived of stock in a business that has few tables, and discerning customers, is hardly convenient. The theft of his £2,000 bike on June 11, however, was the incident that took the cake. Mr Wilkins had heard activity outside that day while preparing for service - and it was only an hour or so later that he realised his bike was gone, the lock shorn through with bolt cutters after the thief first tried to wrench a securing bracket from the wall. By chance, he saw the thief outside an hour or so later - with no bike in sight - and confronted him. Fleeing, the crook hopped over a wall towards Ladbroke Grove and vanished. A member of the public then saw him clambering up scaffolding. Emergency services then cordoned off the street and tried to coax the crook down as he threw pieces of scaffold into the street. As the clock hit midnight and the criminal refused to leave, Mr Wilkins went home, sure that he would wake up to good news. Instead, he received an email from a police constable who told him the pursuit had been called off because of the risk that the thief might fall. What are the Peelian principles? 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In summary, they are: To prevent crime and disorder That policing is done with public approval and respect That the cooperation of the public to follow the law should be secured Recognising that physical force and compulsion reduces public trust Demonstrating 'absolutely impartial' service to the law Using the minimum physical force only when needed to restore order 'The police are the public and the public are the police' Allowing the judiciary to decide who is guilty and their punishment That police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visibility of police dealing with them 'We couldn't catch him,' the officer said. There was no apology. Mr Wilkins says his situation is endemic of the general experience of crime in the capital - where phone-snatching, 'Rolex-ripping' and bike theft is rife. He deliberately uses a £140 Samsung smartphone - because the risk of having an upmarket device stolen is simply too great. 'It's the breakdown of society if it takes a member of the public to try to solve the crime themselves,' he said. 'I don't want the world to be like Mad Max.' He claims the Peelian principles - the ideals of modern British policing developed by Sir Robert Peel when he founded the Met Police - are effectively dead, and that the force is weighed down with bureaucracy. His bike theft was first passed to an officer in Hammersmith who attended - before being sent to a 'local' officer in another area of London. In order to email in, he had to register for a 'community portal' website, and hasn't heard back. Earlier this month, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced a policing blitz in 20 town centres across the capital, with more uniformed officers on the streets. Mr Wilkins, however, says he barely sees an officer at all - save for the occasional community support officer (PCSO), who don't even have the power to arrest a suspected criminal. And despite being stolen from time and again, the chef says he loves London, having aspired to move to the capital since he was a child. He wants to see the city strive for better, rather than give up altogether. 'You've won the lottery being born in the UK but that doesn't mean we shouldn't want to make things better,' he said. 'It's not even about the money or having so many officers. It's the organisation. 'Restaurants can be a money pit - you can buy £10,000 chairs, hire triple the number of staff you actually need, but does that make it better? Not necessarily. 'What makes a business a good business is running it efficiently, and I think it's the same with the police. The whole organisation is discombobulated. 'The idea is that people should be worried about being caught - and they're not. 'It makes criminals think they can do whatever they like. If they aren't scared of getting caught they're just going to be emboldened. There's no detriment.' He adds: 'I love London. 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The 1% Club knocks out a whopping 14 players with a simple letter question – but could you get it under pressure?
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The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
The 1% Club knocks out a whopping 14 players with a simple letter question – but could you get it under pressure?
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