Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You set a new precedent for unpacking trauma on the small screen. In her landmark pandemic-era drama, we see a horrifying blow-by-blow account of the minutes and seconds leading up to the moment one woman experiences sexual assault. Presenting the minutiae of one particular experience doesn’t sound like it should have been a groundbreaking idea, but nothing had ever felt so authentic. Coldwater, ITV’s murderous new thriller, is less grounded in reality, but explores a similarly compelling story about trauma.
After experiencing a violent crime near his home in London, John (Andrew Lincoln), his wife Fiona (Indira Varma) and their two children move to the fictional village of Coldwater in the Scottish Highlands. On one hand, they get the peaceful life in nature they’d been craving, but he’s plagued by nightmarish visions of witnessing the attack.
It’s not long before John meets another wrong-un when he becomes entangled with his fantastically creepy neighbour Tommy (Ewen Bremner), as well as his wife Rebecca (Eve Myles), the local vicar. After getting caught up in another horrific event, John is forced towards a breakdown, confronted by his trauma and a huge sense of guilt.
Hideous Tommy and poor old John are the sorts of deliciously bingeable characters you want to stick with. There is impressive range to After Life and The Walking Dead star Lincoln’s lead performance, but you can’t peel your eyes away from Bremner’s enigmatic weirdo Tommy. He is ghastly as a coercive controlling force when he holds court at dinner parties, but he truly gets under your skin when he lurks in the background of shots casting daggers.
Coldwater is produced by the company behind Chernobyl and Eric, and that prestige shows. The storyline might be dark but there’s always a pop of colour to remind us that makers SISTER are just as interested in presenting a stimulating portrait of suburbia as they are the inner workings of the male psyche.
This is expensive television worth luxuriating in. Lee Haven Jones, who directed A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, Passenger and Doctor Who, brings the camera in so close that you can count the crow’s feet, but these incriminating shots are provocatively cut against serene establishing shots of the spectacular Scottish countryside, always bringing the yin and yang.
Then there is the writing by David Ireland, who has on his CV much acclaimed work for the stage, including the recent Woody Harrelson piece Ulster American. Ireland has an incredible knack for authentic speech; his understanding of guilt and the way in which a man like John would process stress feels spot on.
Despite its tautness, the writing may alienate with some of its bougie references. “Maybe I choked to death on a smoked kipper at Daylesford Organic and now I’m in hell in the Scottish Highlands,” Indira Varma’s Fiona says at one point. It’s funny, but perhaps the sort of hyperlocal remark that’s better suited for the London stage.
A minor qualm in a thriller that impressively balances mainstream thrills with a nuanced examination of male mental health.
Coldwater is streaming now on ITV
