A fantastic new thriller series is available to stream for free from this weekend

The mystery series is like a British version of The White Lotus, but with a dash of Twin Peaks. Essential viewing.

Based on the hit novella by Sarah Moss, the series begins with the police investigating a devastating fire at the titular rural and secluded Scottish holiday park. The cops are questioning the four groups of British vacationers present at the time, as well as the Eastern European family that works there.

After this introduction, the show settles into a unique structure. Each episode takes place in the same 24 hours leading up to the fire, but focuses on a different character or group of characters.

As we learn more about everyone's reasons for being at Summerwater and the simmering tensions that spark amongst the park's attendees, the story builds to a "devastating climax".

Summerwater Review

Summerwater's premise, focusing on the different guests at a holiday spot, has already drawn comparisons to The White Lotus. In fact, the series also shares a cast member with the HBO hit in Arnas Fedaravičius, who played the hotel liaison Valentin in season three.

That said, having seen all of its six episodes, we feel comfortable stating that the tone and structure of Summerwater sets it apart from its contemporaries. Almost akin to an anthology, each episode of the Channel 4 thriller turns the attention to a different guest or group of guests, flashing back to the traumatic moments of their past pre-Summerwater.

We then witness how these events have led the characters to the rural Scottish holiday park and influenced their behaviour while there.

This inventive narrative not only deepens the mystery as to who or what started the fire, in that nearly every character feels like a powder keg ready to blow, but it also creates a disquieting, heartbreaking portrait of disconnection.

As the show progresses, we come to witness a pattern of characters being so focused on their own troubles and so locked into their own perspectives and viewpoints that they struggle to notice or communicate properly with their fellow man. These missed connections slowly accumulate, eventually snowballing into disaster.

Also boasting sharp writing from John Donnelly (Glue, Utopia); moody, stylish direction from Robert McKillop (Guilt) and Fiona Walton (Shetland); and powerful performances from both more established actors (Dougray Scott, Shirley Henderson, Valene Kane) to those less famous (Anna Próchniak, Calum Ross, Shereen Cutkelvin), Summerwater is several things at once.

It's a great whodunit. It's a sobering portrait of division in modern-day Britain, but also the dark side of human nature.

There's even a touch of dark magical realism, with one character theorising throughout the show that Summerwater's woods and lake could contain an ancient energy, one that forces those who visit the area to confront what they've been repressing.

This suggestion adds a beautiful but foreboding, haunting quality to the series, almost akin to the TV classic Twin Peaks.

Summerwater Interview

Ahead of Summerwater's release, JOE spoke to the show's Northern Irish star Valene Kane (The Fall, Profile) about the Channel 4 thriller.

Though Kane's character appears throughout the series, she is the main focus of the very first episode, titled 'The Tindalls'. The actress plays Justine Tindall, a hard-working mother struggling with the domesticity of marriage and middle age.

When a new and younger woman is chosen for a work promotion over her, Justine forms an intense resentment toward her colleague, which manifests itself in increasingly erratic ways.

Valene Kane as Justine Tindall in Summerwater

Kane told JOE that she was a long-time fan of creator John Donnelly, when asked about what drew her to the project: "You read a lot of scripts as an actor, and as a female actor, you read a lot of scripts where the women are just not as interesting.

"I remember reading this first episode [of Summerwater] and being like: 'Oh my God, [Justine's] so fascinating.'

"Also, I was really excited by the idea of… there's maybe 15 minutes [in the pilot] where no one talks. So, it was really exciting to take a script like that - in which there is very little dialogue, but so much character info - and try and transmit that in an episode of TV just by what I do with my body, what I do with my eyes, what I do with my essence, I suppose."

Speaking about the sub-genres and themes of Summerwater, the NI actress added: "I suppose for me, it feels like a very heavy character-based drama. There is an event, but it's not really a plot-based drama.

"That is what really excited me about the project... This is really just an exploration of characters and families and relationships, and how we all have our separate little identities, but how we all interact with each other, and how class and xenophobia interact with all of us.

"So often scripts are plot-based... There's the hook, and then what happens next. I think what's so cool about this is it's very slow, it's very meandering, it's really haunting, it's really dark, and you get to sort of peep into a window of these characters' lives."

Kane cites two other Summerwater episodes as examples of this unique feature. That pair of episodes each gives the perspective of one side of an older couple staying at the holiday park, who are played by Dougray Scott (Ripley's Game) and Shirley Henderson (Trainspotting).

Speaking at a London premiere for the series recently, the Emmy award-winning Scott proclaimed of the Channel 4 thriller: “It may be the best thing I’ve ever done."

On this, Kane told JOE: "I heard him say that to the press, and I get it. I think it's just a stunning performance, and it's so unlike anything we've seen him do, and he's so vulnerable."

The attendees at Summerwater

Kane is also full of praise for Summerwater's director, Robert McKillop, who helmed most of its episodes, including the Justine-focused pilot.

She credits him with establishing the show's strong tone and for creating an open space for the cast to be so vulnerable.

"It really felt like we were shooting an indie doing Summerwater. There was so much autonomy and creativity and openness," the Co Down actress said.

"When I met Robbie in the audition, I remember thinking: 'This is going to be great.' Because he's such a true artist, and you could tell he had such a strong vision and a passion.

"I always feel like if the script is good and the director is someone that you trust, then you can just lean back and relax into it, which I did.

"I think that's the magic about Robbie, when you have a director that you trust so much - and we all trusted him - you allow yourself as an artist and an actor to go to places that feel kind of scary.

"When you have someone like Robbie who's just holding you so, so tightly yet so loosely, and is like: 'I've got you, but try whatever', then you can do some vulnerable stuff, and I think Dougray does some really incredibly vulnerable stuff."

Northern Irish actress Valene Kane

Kane and McKillop also bonded over their love of movies.

"Obviously, Robbie directed my episode in which I'm on screen most of the time," she explained. "So, we had a very, very close relationship.

"He's a huge movie buff and I'm a huge movie buff, so we would talk like: 'What should we shoot today in the style of?'

"Obviously, we're massive fans of Lynne Ramsay, and I'm a massive fan of Jonathan Glazer, and so we were like: 'Let's bring that!' I just love working creatively like that.

"You don't often get that. You don't get that on TV. You never get a TV director saying: 'What kind of style should we shoot this in?'

"I think he absolutely set up the tone in a very strong way... I work a lot with music, and so I always have a playlist for a character, and he had a playlist for the show.

"So, there was just a lot of like synchronicity in the way in which we approached the work, and he was so invested.

"He had created the world. He had a massive director's mood board. So, it was very easy to go like: 'Ah, this is the show that we're in, I get it. I get what the vision is.'

Dougray Scott says of Summerwater: 'It may be the best thing I’ve ever done.'

During the interview, we compared Summerwater to Twin Peaks. In response, Kane exclaimed: "Oh my god, Robbie will be so happy. I felt that. It's very Lynchian".

She also said of the series: "It's really creepy. I think because of the soundtrack [by electronic artist Gazelle Twin, Nocturne], and because of how slow it is, it does have this kind of nauseating feeling of dread throughout a lot of it.

"Every character has an unease, but there's a real deep subterranean darkness that I think is permeating the whole [series], and I think the music really makes you feel deeply uneasy."

We noted to the actress that while shows of this type would typically be about how the guests at the holiday park interact with each other, Summerwater is about how they don't really and how they struggle to see each other's perspectives.

She agreed, responding: "Oh, that's very perceptive, and that actually is the truth.

"It really is how we want to avoid each other. All of us, I think, are deeply seeking connection, but are unable to get it from the people that we're around.

"All of the relationships are not connected. Justine and [her husband] Steve (played by Daniel Rigby, Landscapers) are not connected. Dougray and Shirley's characters are not connected.

"Shereen [Cutkelvin] and Anders [Hayward's young lover characters], even though they're having sex, they can't connect.

"You're right, there's just a lack of connection, really."

Summerwater will be available to stream on Channel 4's website from Sunday, 16 November. Its first episode also airs on Channel 4 at 9pm the same day.