Karen Pirie

I'm generally highly critical in my reviews and often can not understand why people score obvious rubbish highly. For a change, it's nice to be able to aware a series a 10.

When so many series have more holes in the pot than a golf course, it's nice to come across a gem like this which is as near perfect as one could hope for and with an excellent cast featuring a rising star in Lauren Lyle.

Yes, the point is regularly made by experts in the real police that too many roles are cast where the investigating officer is far younger than would be the case in the real life. Lauren Lyle is only 29 and hence that criticism would be entirely valid (and which has been made here by other reviewers who have completely missed the point) except for one rather key fact: she was chosen to lead the cold case investigation because she was thought a dead certainty to fail. Of course, someone that young would never be assigned to this sort of case in real life but if you don't understand why she was appointed to this case in this tv series, then you really have missed the point of the story.

Anyway, this is as close to perfect as I've seen in a while and let's hope more of Val's Karen Pirie novels can be made into television series in future years.

The series, set in the university town of St Andrews, on the Fife coast, opens in 1996. A Police woman stops a student who is covered in blood; he claims that he and two friends found a seriously injured woman in the grave yard of the cathedral. When she gets there the woman is dead. The three students are detained but despite their somewhat implausible explanations there is no evidence that they committed the murder so they are released. Twenty five years later the case is still unsolved and after a 'true crime' podcaster uses it as an example of the police not caring about women the case is reopened. Wanting a woman to lead the reinvestigation they turn to DS Karen Pirie. She is teamed with DC Jason Murray. The case will see them talking to the trio of students again as well as to the victim's brothers, one of whom has a propensity for violence. As the story progresses various secrets are exposed and alibis broken; we also learn more about the victim.

When I sat down to watch this I expected it to be a standard ITV Sunday night mystery that would be wrapped up in one two hour episode; as the end of the first episode approached it was clear that wouldn't be the case. Thoroughly gripped I was concerned that I'd now have to wait a week between episodes but thankfully all three are available on ITV Hub so I could enjoy the series over three nights. The story got off to a great start before effectively introducing key characters; most obviously the eponymous DS Pirie. She is a solid leading character; making a refreshing change from the typical older character with some sort of emotional baggage. The story progresses nicely with the events of the present being intertwined with key events from 1996. The location is good; making a refreshing change from stories set in a big city while avoiding becoming a Scottish 'Morse' which could have happening in a famous university town. The acting is impressive; I particularly liked Lauren Lyle's performance as Pirie. On the strength of this story I hope we see more of DS Pirie.

I was concerned, as other reviewers say, that the sound production was poor but had assumed it was my TV. But after the first episode I then settled down to watch the following two. The plot may appear a bit obvious (in hindsight). Unlike others I really liked Lauren Lyle in the lead role - in fact a welcome change from middle aged obese men. The characters were all believable and I liked the switching from current time to mid 1990s. One puzzle -- Loch Leven ? It was not the one in Fife and looked more like Loch Lomond, but could have been Loch Leven, close to Glencoe? I hope ITV will film and broadcast more of Karen Pirie stories.

Karen Pirie is an engaging, entertaining cold case drama of 3 episodes. Because the episodes are around 90 minutes each, it has the length of a standard 6 episode series. One way that British police procedurals surpass those from Hollywood, is that Brit cops tend to look like real people, rather than fashion models. I appreciate that. That said, throughout the series, I couldn't help but feel that Lauren Lyle as the main character was a bit of a miscast. It's not that her acting was bad; rather, her youthful, babyfaced look never quite worked for me in that role.

I also thought that her interactions with her male partners sometimes bordered on slapstick. Further, the series featured an acceptance of "fraternization" between cops that seemed a bit out of step with the current times.

These quibbles aside, I liked the series, and would watch a second season. As for the comments I've seen about the audio quality, it never bothered me, particularly because I close caption all Brit TV!

In terms of sound I can't really complain, since headphones were in use.

Really liked it, with its decent twists & turns, plus good performances imho. Nothing is what it seems at first. Got flashbacks hearing Slam - Positive Education, scottish DJ Duo

At first I also thought she would be too young etc. However, if you watch the whole series you'll know why. Same applies to the point of the podcast starting a 25 year old murder to be reinvestigated... I get the feeling those people haven't watched the show, at least not till things are really unfolding.

And it is quite realistic having VHS tapes in 1996, since agencies like the Police were/are at least 5 years behind in terms of technology.