The Lakes (TV series)
| The Lakes | |
|---|---|
 Principal filming location: Inn on the Lake Hotel | |
| Created by | Jimmy McGovern |
| Starring |
John Simm Emma Cunniffe Mary Jo Randle Paul Copley Robert Pugh Elizabeth Bennett Nicholas Day Kaye Wragg Charles Dale Clare Holman Kevin Doyle Annabelle Apsion Matt Bardock Amanda Mealing Barbara Wilshere |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 14 |
| Production | |
| Running time |
90-minute (series 1, episode 1) 50 mins (series 1, episodes 2–4) 40 mins (series 2) |
| Production company(s) | Company Pictures |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One |
| Original release | 1997 – 1999 |
The Lakes is the title of a television drama series in the United Kingdom, made by the BBC and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. The Lakes brought writer Jimmy McGovern and actor John Simm a great deal of critical praise in 1997. Following a particularly dry period for British TV drama, the show's realistic characters and their painfully honest decisions hit audiences hard. Simm plays Danny Kavanagh; a twenty-something trapped in a life of compulsive gambling, theft, and being on the dole in Liverpool. On a whim he heads north to the Lake District. He expects to find countryside quiet where he might explore his hidden poetical leanings, but gets caught up in a community like any other. Lies, temptation and tragedy beset every household just as much as the big city. As time races by, Danny's link to the Lakes becomes an exercise in torment when he is suspected after the accidental deaths of three schoolgirls. Stoking the flames of a series of secondary explosions in waiting are a pair of affairs, one adulterous, the other complicated by religion.
In the far longer sequel series that came two years later, these back-stories would come to the fore. The series explores a Hitchcockian murder scenario, with series two expressing more black humour that was obvious in series one. The second series received very mixed reviews, with most critics saying it had left realism for high melodrama and contrived plots. Critics said that McGovern's lower level of participation in the writing about his characters and situations, resulted in deviations from their consistency from the first series.
The series was principally filmed in and around Patterdale and The Ullswater Hotel, Glenridding. The lake is Ullswater. Both series were released as a four-disc set in 2003. The first episode has additional commentaries by John Simm and David Blair. The Lakes is rated R16 in New Zealand for offensive language and scenes of a sexual nature.
Overview
The core of both series is the relationship between Danny Kavanagh (John Simm) and Lucy Archer (Kaye Wragg). In Series One, Danny is a compulsive gambler and philanderer, who escapes from the dole queues in Liverpool to live in the Lake District. After he meets and marries local girl Emma Quinlan, they move back to Liverpool. Emma finally returns home because of Danny's gambling. He follows her, gets a job looking after a rowing boat concession, and starts to patch up his relationship with Emma, who now has a daughter.
Danny rejects unsubtle advances from the attention-seeking Lucy Archer, who determines to gain revenge. When three schoolgirls are drowned in a boating accident while Danny is on the phone to the bookies, Lucy lies to implicate him. Danny is unwilling to tell the truth, as he has promised to stop gambling. The community looks for someone to blame, and Lucy is exposed as a liar in the subsequent inquest. Phone call records provide Danny with an alibi. In series two, Lucy is raped by three locals. Only Danny, enduring the claustrophobic hostility of the Quinlan family home, can testify as a witness, putting him at odds with the village, his wife and her family.
Reception
The series was critically acclaimed when first broadcast. It caused controversy because of its hard-hitting portrayal of an immoral British sub-culture, and scenes of sex and violence. The Lakes was the springboard for the British TV drama careers of many of the cast.
Cast
The Kavanaghs
- John Simm as Danny Kavanagh
- Kate Fitzgerald as Mam
- Arthur Kelly as Dad
The Quinlans
- Emma Cunniffe as Emma Kavanagh, Danny's wife
- Mary Jo Randle as Bernie Quinlan, Emma's devout Catholic mother
- Paul Copley as Peter Quinlan, Emma's pent-up, unsophisticated father
- James Thornton as Pete Quinlan, Emma's pent-up, unsophisticated brother
- Jessica Perry as Annie Quinlan, Bernie and Peter's youngest child
- Tony Rohr as Grandad, Bernie Quinlan and Sheila Thwaite's father
- Caitlin Frain as Samantha Kavanagh, Danny and Emma's daughter
The Archers
- Elizabeth Bennett as Doreen Archer, the stuck-up hotelier
- Nicholas Day as Cecil Archer, Doreen's downtrodden husband
- Kaye Wragg as Lucy Archer, the Archers' manipulative and provocative daughter
The Hotel staff
- Charles Dale as Gary Alcock aka "Chef", an extremely well-endowed sexual predator and potential psychopath
- Elizabeth Berrington as Ruth Alcock, Chef's wife
- Matt Bardock as Albie, chirpy Cockney suffers from premature ejaculation
- Justin Brady as Billy Jennings
- Marshall Lancaster as Ged Hodgson
- Lee Oakes as Tharmy, with a crippling stutter
- Robin Laing as Joey, always speaks in the third person
- Samantha Seager as Julie
The Thwaites
- Elizabeth Rider as Sheila Thwaite, Bernie's sister
- David Westhead as Arthur Thwaite, Sheila's husband
- Jenna Scruton as Paula Thwaite, their daughter
The Fishers
- Kevin Doyle as John Fisher, a schoolteacher who has been driven mad by his adulterous wife
- Clare Holman as Simone Fisher, wife of the schoolteacher and one of the many women who succumb to Chef's large manhood
- Annabelle Apsion as Beverly, Simone's sister
- Note: John and Simone's surname was Parr in series one
The Kilbrides
- Barbara Wilshere as Dr Sarah Kilbride, hiding her lesbian past from her husband
- Robert Morgan as Charles Kilbride, Sarah's husband
- Amanda Mealing as Jo Jo Spiers, the lesbian teacher who replaces John Parr. Used to have an affair with Sarah Kilbride
Others
- Robert Pugh as Father Matthew, the repressed parish priest
- Anthony Newley as the Bishop
- Bob Mason as Sergeant Slater, the local bobby
- Sally Rogers as Juliet Bray, owner of the boatyard
- Joel Phillimore as Thomas Alcock, Chef's Son
Episode list
Series 1 (1997)
| Episode | Title | Written by | Directed by | Viewers (millions)[1] |
Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Compulsion over Greed" | Jimmy McGovern | David Blair | TBA | 14 September 1997 |
|
Danny Kavanagh, a compulsive gambler and lout, looking to start afresh, arrives in a small village in the Lake District and manages to get a job at a local hotel, working under tyrannical, sex-mad chef Gary Alcock. However, it's not long before he's taken a shine to local girl Emma, and after a series of short rendezvous, Emma discovers she is pregnant. Danny is subsequently sacked from his job, having become a pariah. Danny, however, soon manages to find another job, hiring out boats on the local lake to tourists. However, when Danny abandons his work station to phone in a bet, a tragic accident occurs, leaving three young girls lives' hanging in the balance. This episode was 90-minutes long. | |||||
| 2 | "Scapegoat" | Jimmy McGovern | David Blair | TBA | 21 September 1997 |
| Danny finds himself playing the scapegoat when the local villagers hold him responsible for the tragic accident which resulted in the deaths of three young schoolgirls. Despite his efforts, Danny finds he has nobody to talk to and soon realises that he is running out of friends. But is a much sinister work at force? And can Danny prove that his neglect of duty may not be have been the only factor in the girls' deaths? | |||||
| 3 | "What Lies Behind" | Jimmy McGovern | David Blair | TBA | 28 September 1997 |
| As Danny continues to get closer to the truth behind the tragedy, the funerals of the three victims take place. But just as he is about to make a significant breakthrough, Danny's campaign is blighted when Lucy Archer decides to unleash a tirade of lies which threatens to tarnish what is left of his reputation. Meanwhile, Bernie Quinlan’s passion for Father Matthew continues to grow. | |||||
| 4 | "Time Waits for No Man" | Jimmy McGovern | David Blair | TBA | 5 October 1997 |
| The inquest into the tragic accident gets underway, but as Danny prepares to stand in the dock and give evidence, his relationship with Emma begins to feel the strain. Meanwhile, Lucy Archer's campaign to smear Danny's plight to uncover the truth grinds to a significant halt when she is caught in a compromising position with Gary "Chef" Alcock. Meanwhile, the passion between Bernie and Father Matthew boils over. | |||||
Series 2 (1999)
| Episode | Title | Written by | Directed by | Viewers (millions) |
Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Outcast" | Jimmy McGovern | Bill Anderson | 7.26m | 10 January 1999 |
| Danny is contemplating suicide after being made to feel an outcast after admitting to his wife Emma that he had been gambling again. John Fisher can no longer cope with his wife's affairs and he bludgeons her to death in the bath. | |||||
| 2 | "Forbidden Passion" | Jimmy McGovern | Bill Anderson | 7.33m | 17 January 1999 |
| The forbidden passion between Father Matthew and married parishioner Bernie Quinlan is about to erupt. Parr is struggling to summon up the courage to dispose of his wife's body when his sister-in-law Beverly turns up. | |||||
| 3 | "Grown Man Responsibilities" | Joe Ainsworth | Bill Anderson | 7.05m | 24 January 1999 |
| With flies buzzing round the boot of his car, John is finding it harder to hide his wife's murder from her flirtatious sister. Danny is trying to be a responsible father, but he also wants some fun. Bernie is still troubled by her conscience. Dr Kilbride is called to school to treat a pupil where her former lesbian lover Jo Jo is the new teacher. | |||||
| 4 | "Besotted" | Joe Ainsworth | Sallie Aprahamian | 7.43m | 31 January 1999 |
| Beverly is still besotted by John and helps him to destroy all the evidence of Simone's murder. Lucy plays with fire when she joins the local lads for a game of pool. Jo Jo wants to restart her relationship with Dr Kilbride. | |||||
| 5 | "Attack of Conscience" | Joe Ainsworth | Sallie Aprahamian | 7.00m | 7 February 1999 |
| Lucy has to decide whether to report her rape by Billy, Ged and Peter, fearing that her previous lies about Danny's involvement in the drownings could count against her. Danny tells Emma that her mother is not as saintly as she tries to make out. | |||||
| 6 | "The Truth Will Out" | Julie Rutterford | Sallie Aprahamian | TBA | 14 February 1999 |
| Bernie discovers she is pregnant with Father Matthew's baby. Danny tells Lucy that he knows she was raped. Sergeant Slater's dog Syndrome uncovers something interesting in the lake. | |||||
| 7 | "Revenge Best Served Cold" | William Gaminara | David Moore | 6.80m | 21 February 1999 |
| John Parr gets his revenge against Chef by kidnapping his son, while the police start to piece together the facts about Simone's murder. Danny is thrown out by the Quinlans when he tells them he will be a witness on behalf of Lucy Archer, against Pete Quinlan and his two co-defendants. Mrs Archer is upset about the backlash that has resulted from her daughter's allegations. Bernie tells Father Matthew about her pregnancy. | |||||
| 8 | "Advice" | Jimmy McGovern | David Moore | 6.79m | 28 February 1999 |
| Father Matthew and Bernie visit the Bishop (Anthony Newley) for advice on how to deal with the unwanted baby. Sergeant Slater tries to get the truth out of John. Danny and Lucy talk about their true feelings for each other. | |||||
| 9 | "Fury" | William Gaminara | Roberto Bangura | TBA | 7 March 1999 |
| Lucy takes to the stand in court to give her account of the night she was raped. Her evidence reveals to Emma that Danny has been telling her the truth. Peter reacts with fury when he learns of Bernie's affair. Beverly pays a visit to John in jail. | |||||
| 10 | "Judgement Day" | Joe Ainsworth | Roberto Bangura | TBA | 14 March 1999 |
| Bernie must choose between Peter and Father Matthew. Danny tries to save his marriage to Emma, in light of Lucy's announcement in court. The audience is also led to believe that, eventually, Chef's 'judgement day' arrives as, he waits in a hotel room, whilst tied to a bed. | |||||
References
External links
- The Lakes at the Internet Movie Database
- The Lakes at TV.com