Emer Kenny, 32, chats about starring in ITV’s new crime drama Karen Pirie as River – and how penning it stirred her emotions.
The much-anticipated new drama is based on Val McDermid’s crime novel, but distancing itself apart from the usual dead-girl narratives, this one has a feminist edge to it.
Let’s see what makes it different through the eyes of the woman who adapted it for our screens.
How did you get involved with Karen Pirie?
I was writing on Save Me Too and I was sent The Distant Echo by Val McDermid and asked, ‘What do you think?’ I read it and loved the central character, Karen. She’s really funny and relatable.
The book is set half in the ’70s and half in 2004, and I said, ‘If you’ll let me put my spin on it for it to work on screen, I’d love to take it on’. They said, ‘Go for it!’ We pitched it to ITV and they loved it. We filmed it last summer. It feels like I’ve been waiting for people to watch it for a long time.
Were you already a fan of Val McDermid’s books?
I’d read her non-fiction book about forensics but none of her fiction. I know she’s a formidable creative force. She is great at balancing plot with characters that people love.
Did you spend much time with Val?
Because it was lockdown, we spoke on Zoom during the writing process, and I first met her when she came on set. She approved everything.
But she said to me, ‘I don’t want to write TV – that’s a different format – so I’m happy for you to have your process and for it to be different.’ What was important to her was that Karen’s tenets were right. If she gave me a note, I was really receptive to it.
Val’s also a feminist and this addresses the challenges women faced years ago, but also still today…
Absolutely, and that’s part of what resonated with me, because the book’s about a girl who’s trying to walk home but doesn’t make it.
When writing in early 2021, Sarah Everard was missing and there were similar cases that year of women walking through a park or coming home from a party and not making it.
I felt bubbling anger the whole time I was writing. I never wanted it to feel like another dead-girl crime story but that it had feminism in its identity. That’s the difference when a book by a female writer is adapted by a female screenwriter with a strong female character at its centre.
Karen, too, is finding it hard to be treated as an equal in the workplace…
Yes, it’s about how underestimated she is as a young woman. Lauren [Lyle, who plays her, above] is so brilliant with her attitude and eye rolls. There was a lot of me in Karen, and Karen in me.
It’s her first murder case and it was my first experience showrunning. I’m quite young, as is she, so it all became quite meta in that experience of trying to show who you are.
You play Karen’s best friend River – what’s it like starring in something you’ve written?
I’ve been acting for 15 years, so it’s where I feel very relaxed and at home. It made sense to play Lauren’s friend, especially because we got on really well. And my character wears a lot of pyjamas at home, so the days I got to play River I felt most myself.
Did you and Lauren know each other before?
The first time I met her, she was in Vigil. We knew Karen would be hard to cast because she’s young, Scottish and has to be able to be unglamorous and vanity-free. Not a lot of actresses want to do that.
The way Lauren read the lines, she got all the nuances and humour. As well as my firsts, it was her first time of being number one on the call sheet and in the title, so we grabbed on to each other. She’s strong but absolutely tiny, and it was amazing watching her against much taller men who were telling her off.
There are six Karen Pirie books so there’s scope for more – would you like that?
I’ve been looking at the second book and working out how to do it. So there’s absolutely scope to do more. We just have to see whether it resonates with people. I’ve never cared about anything so much in my life, so I’ve been so excited to hear what people think.
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Karen Pirie is on ITV on Sundays
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