Add Karen Pirie to your watchlist
Scottish crime novelist Val McDermid, 70, is a leading exponent of tartan noir. The Distant Echo (2003), her first novel featuring Karen Pirie, formed the basis of ITV’s titular 2022 series, with Lauren Lyle as the Scottish detective. As the cold-case drama returns, actor/screenwriter Emer Kenny, 35, is once again writing the adaptation.
MIXING IT UP
VAL McDERMID As a writer of fiction, when you agree to an adaptation, that’s what you’re agreeing to – an adaptation. It’s not a word-for-word transliteration of the book onto the screen. Writers never have any vetoes in adaptations, but I have a clause in my contract that says Emer can’t do anything substantive to a returning character without my consent. She can’t suddenly give Karen triplets! I always sit down with the people and say: “Here are the key elements, the things that are important, that you have to hold on to. Now go away and make me the best television you can.”And Karen Pirie is great television.
EMER KENNY Early on set, you said to me, Val, to paraphrase, “Do your thing”. I felt trusted. But there are tenets that are important to Karen’s character. I think Lauren brings a lot of that as well. It becomes an amalgamation – a bit of Val, a bit of me, a bit of Lauren. Then we get this character on screen.
CASTING KAREN
VAL The casting has been crucial to this. Lauren doesn’t look anything like the Karen Pirie in my head. But that doesn’t matter, because she embodies who Karen is. But I’m still not happy with the bum bag!
EMER Ha! I’m sorry, Val! Lots of people love it. It’s important with a TV detective to give them an iconic look. Vera with her hats; Columbo with his coat. The bum bag and Karen’s blonde bob give you a lot. It shows she’s very practical. Although Val might argue that it’s not practical because you can’t get much in there.
VAL Yep!
WRITING ROOM
VAL I write a book over a period of about three to four months. It’s been in my head a long time before that; you can’t start until you know where you are, when you are, where your characters come from. I set one book, The Last Temptation, on the waterways of Europe, so I spent three weeks going around Europe talking to people who drove barges and worked on the water. I’m not a morning person; I’ve never written a decent sentence before 11 o’clock. I write in bite-sized chunks, for about 20 minutes. Then I’ll make a cup of coffee, walk around the block, play a video game... The one thing I can’t do, is work in coffee shops. Too much interesting stuff to eavesdrop on!
EMER I’m a “write anywhere, anytime” person. The other day my toddler was in the bath and I was sat on the edge with my laptop on my knees, finishing something. That’s from necessity; TV deadlines are brutal.
VAL You’re also constantly revising, getting notes, having to rewrite as you go. Whereas I do my first draft and then I get the notes. Then I do a revision. And then we’re done.
JOB SWAP
VAL I’ve no interest in adapting my own work for TV. I can write for the theatre or radio because they’re still all about the words. In television, it’s all about the visuals. You can say something in a single shot that would take me three, four, five pages to say.
EMER I wouldn’t know where to start with a novel. I’d find writing a book quite solitary.
VAL My partner says I don’t play well with others. Which is a bit bizarre, because she’s just agreed to do a collaborative novella with me. We’ll see how it goes!
A MAN’S WORLD
EMER I’ve been in a lot of rooms where I’m the only woman, where I’ve had to fight to be heard. Sometimes I’ve had to have an older, more experienced man back me up. That all fed into Karen. I think the trifecta of me, Val and Lauren has been important for Karen. We’ve put a lot of ourselves in the character.
VAL When I started at newspapers a million years ago, I was one of only three women in the newsroom of the Daily Record. We were patronised, belittled and groped. I’ve been through the mill on that. What’s important now is the recognition that women can do the job, any job, as well as men. I can write male characters. I can write people who are very different from me. Because we observe, we empathise, we listen, we watch. You can’t be reductionist and say, you can only do one kind of thing. There are only so many stories about wee, fat, Scottish lesbians to tell.
EMER Ha! There’s your headline!
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