Karen Pirie star Lauren Lyle: ‘I love screaming to heavy metal in the car’

Karen Pirie was a refreshingly hot new take on cold-case TV drama when it arrived on ITV in September 2022. The series, set in St Andrews, comprised three feature-length episodes and was adapted by Emer Kenny from Val McDermid’s novel The Distant Echo.

And it had all the ingredients that make this such a popular genre – from a complex historical case with multiple suspects to the possibility of a bent copper or two. What sets Karen Pirie apart, though, as it returns for three more instalments of prestige crime drama, is Lauren Lyle in the title role. 

Unlike so many previous TV detectives, Pirie is not washed-up, jaded and cynical, heartbroken or bereaved, battling demons or addictions, middle-aged or male. She is young, female, fearless and funny.

“In detective shows, it’s always someone who hates their life, hates the job, has a drink problem and is going through a divorce. But Karen loves her job,” says Lyle.   

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“And she’s not got a drink problem – she likes a drink and loves the pub, but don’t we all? She’s got a boyfriend, she’s having sex – and she’s not middle-aged, where it’s easier to have a relationship where no one bats an eyelid. It’d be really spicy at work if everyone knew about her and [her fellow officer] Phil. 

“That’s what someone in their late 20s would experience at work. Especially as a woman. You have to be really careful. So she is living a life that so many women would relate to. I love her sparkiness, her lust for the truth and lust for life.” 

When we meet Pirie in series two, she’s stepping up to lead a major investigation. This time, it’s a historical case that made headlines in 1984, at the height of Thatcherism and the miners’ strike, when a young heiress was kidnapped alongside her baby. The case was dubbed Scotland’s John Paul Getty III. 

In a change to the original novel, in which the family had made their millions in property, Kenny makes them oil barons – adding an extra energy and modern resonance to the story.

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Flashbacks alongside the contemporary action show the police force at the time assuming the best of kidnapped Catriona Grant’s family – and assuming the worst of the anarchists, environmental activists, protesters and art students she preferred to hang out with. Plus ça change.  

“There’s lots of themes about privilege, money, class,” says Kenny, who also co-stars as Pirie’s best pal River Wilde.  

“We’ve seen a lot about the miners’ strike in Yorkshire and the Midlands, but not what happened up on the east coast of Scotland, where it also devastated communities. So we have this fossil fuel magnate who made his fortune in the North Sea oil boom and the coal industry being decimated by Thatcher.  

“The financial and class disparities between the characters are integral to the plot – because Catriona Grant is the daughter of an oil tycoon, and has grown up with everything she could want, but has great sympathy for those who have less than her and issues with how her father made his money. I think Karen Pirie’s superpower is to really relate and empathise with the female victim.” 

Between series, Kenny wrote the new episodes, starred in Channel 4 comedy crime caper The Curse and had a baby. Meanwhile, Lyle filmed Netflix’s Toxic Town with Jodie Whittaker and The Bombing of Pan Am 103, after joining Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun, the hit big-screen adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s bestselling memoir. 

The latter left a big impression.  

“[Producer] Jack Lowden had seen me in Vigil and Saoirse had seen me in Outlander, so they asked if I would do a part. The whole film was improvised, getting to improvise with Saoirse for a really long shot was really cool and nerve-racking. But having Jack in the background laughing at what I was doing made me feel like I was doing OK.

“Being up in Papay and Orkney was surreal. It feels like you’re on a Caribbean island with the white sands, and the people are the embodiment of community. If there’s one thing I strive for now in my life it’s community. I’m seeking it in London in a way that’s quite difficult to find.” 

Coming back together for series two of Karen Pirie, knowing that the first was a hit, has given both Kenny and Lyle hope that it will continue for years (there are now eight books to draw on). And the creative duo were able to compare notes about what it means to get the responsibility and seniority you crave.  

“Karen, in the first series, was put on the case because they felt she would have no hope of solving it,” says Kenny. “This time, she is given the authority she has been fighting for and an absolutely enormous case. So she has the scope she’s always wanted. Now she’s battling with being the boss. She’s a maverick who enjoys being under the radar and now she’s very much on the radar.  

“It’s very personal for me. I probably have more impostor syndrome than Karen does. But I am similar in that we know exactly what we’re doing and want to achieve, but sometimes feel we need permission to go and do it,” says Kenny.  

“On the second series, I was given permission. Being the boss is an entirely new role. The buck stops with me. But Lauren [and I] are like creative soulmates. We understand each other. And being two young-ish women, we have similar experiences to draw on.” 

“I’ve always wanted to be a leading actress, and now I’m doing it,” agrees Lyle. “It’s quite daunting and isolating and can be quite lonely at times. But for playing Karen that’s quite useful – because that is how she feels. 

“Emer also knew every element of my personal life during filming. There’d be things she’d start writing in and she’d be like, ‘I don’t know if this is a bit close to home?’ But it’s actually really cathartic to play it out. 

“So there are moments where Karen is crying or screaming along to heavy metal music in her car. And I’ve done that. We talked about it. One of my favourite things to do is go on a long road trip and have a huge cry and a scream and a yell. I’ve done it ever since I learned to drive.”  

Karen Pirie airs from 20 July on ITV1 and ITVX. 

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