Outlander star Lauren Lyle will take on a new role as DS Karen Pirie, Val McDermid’s famous character, in an adaptation of her novel The Distant Echo for ITV.
The actress will play the young and fearless Scottish investigator in the new ITV drama series, from the makers of Line Of Duty and Bodyguard.
The show, based on Scottish crime writer McDermid’s first Karen Pirie novel, will also star Emer Kenny, who has adapted the book.
Kenny will play DS Pirie’s friend, River Wilde, while Chris Jenks will play Jason “The Mint” Murray and Zach Wyatt will play DS Phil Parhatka.
Lyle said: “I am completely overjoyed to be bringing the formidable force that is DS Karen Pirie to life through Emer Kenny’s slick adaptation.
“The world Emer has created using the backbone of Val McDermid’s much-loved books is electrifying and hooked me immediately.
“I couldn’t ask for a more creative, supportive and energetic team to be joining. I’m so thankful to Val, Emer, World Productions and ITV for welcoming me wholeheartedly on board.”
READ MORE: International Women’s Day: famous female Scottish writers
McDermid said: “It’s always exciting to see a project like Karen Pirie leave the page and head for the screen.
“We’ve been fortunate to secure a very talented and enthusiastic cast to bring The Distant Echo to life, and shooting in Scotland is definitely added eye-candy! Audiences are in for a treat.”
The show, called Karen Pirie, will see the detective tasked with reopening a historic murder investigation that has been the subject of a provocative true crime podcast in the first episode.
Teenager Rosie Duff was found brutally murdered in the Scottish university town of St Andrews in 1996 and suspicion fell on the three drunken students who were discovered at the scene of the crime, claiming to have found her body.
With a lack of forensic evidence, no charges were brought and the police investigation floundered.
However, 25 years later, someone appears to be willing to risk everything to keep the secrets surrounding the case hidden and DS Pirie will investigate whether the three men know more than they previously revealed.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here