'The Dark' has recently premiered on ITV, and it has six episodes. The new crime drama features Laura Donnelly, Mark Rowley, and many others in the lead roles.
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Add BollywoodShaadis on GoogleThe Dark, a new crime drama on ITV1, premiered on ITV1 on July 12, 2026. It is an adaptation of a novel, From the Shadows, by GR Halliday, which arrived in 2020. Apart from ITV, the show is also available on STV, and features a lineup of talented cast members, such as Laura Donnelly, Mark Rowley, Emun Elliott, Helen Baxendale, Rona Morison, and more.
The new show has a premise that is familiar to a majority of the audience, despite being an adaptation of a book. However, the credit goes to the cast and setting that work in favour of the show while it deals with the flaws.
The Dark works best when it slows down and lets Laura Donnelly do the work. Portraying the role of ‘DI Monica Kennedy’, Donnelly brings a quiet intensity to a detective who is dealing with a body found staged in the Scottish wilderness. The show frames this not just as a case, but as something that could unravel a small continuity.
The setting is the other lead. Shot in Glasgow and Greenock, the series uses wide shots of rural Scotland to create isolation. That landscape does a lot of the heavy lifting for tension. When ‘Kennedy’ and ‘DC Connor Crawford’, played by Mark Rowley, move through crime scenes and empty roads, the place itself feels like a suspect.
The adaptation also gives the story space to breathe. As the first of GR Halliday’s three ‘Monica Kennedy’ novels, From the Shadows provides a clear case structure. But the 6-episode format lets the show sit with the aftermath. We see how rumours move, how trust breaks, and how ‘Kennedy’ has to manage both the investigation and the pressure from a town that’s starting to turn on itself.
The writing team of Matt Hartley, Lena Rae, and Nessah Muthy keeps dialogue tight and avoids exposition dumps. That means a lot is carried in silences, in how people avoid eye contact, in how news travels at the local pub. It’s a choice that makes the world feel lived-in rather than just a backdrop for murders.
The supporting cast leaves an impression. Helen Baxendale and Emun Elliott bring instant credibility, and the ensemble, including Rona Morison, Cal MacAninch, and Stella Gonet, gives the town texture. Even with limited screen time early on, they make it feel like people actually live here and have something to lose. That matters because the central idea is that the killer is hidden among them. The stakes will not land if the town does not feel real.
The Dark struggles in the familiarity of the setup. Staged body, rural town, and a serial killer hiding in plain sight. We have seen versions of this before, and the first episodes don’t do a lot to reinvent it. The plot beats are clear from the official synopsis, and the show plays them straight.
Because it’s only adapting the first book, some threads feel like setup. With six episodes, there isn’t a lot of room to go deep on the entire supporting cast. Names like Tunji Kasim, Catherine McCormack, and Lois Chimimba are in the credits, but early on, the story keeps circling back to ‘Kennedy’ and ‘Crawford.’ That makes sense, but it also means the “community” side of the story takes time to develop.
The pacing is deliberate. If you’re looking for fast twists every 10 minutes, this isn’t it. It’s a slow burn that relies on atmosphere over shocks. That will work for some viewers and feel too familiar for others, especially given ITV’s long history with detective dramas.
Overall, The Dark is carried by Donnelly’s performance and the Scottish backdrop. It’s not trying to be loud. It’s a character-based crime drama that sticks close to its source material and lets the location set the mood. Whether that’s enough to stand out in a crowded genre will depend on where the story goes in episodes 3-6.
Have you watched all the episodes of The Dark on ITV? Let us know.
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