Why The Dark on ITV writer chose male victims over women
DIRECT ANSWER: The Dark on ITV premieres Sunday, July 12 at 9pm on ITV1, with all six episodes on ITVX. Writer Matt Hartley adapted GR Halliday's From the Shadows because its male victims offered a fresh lens on vulnerability—not the familiar trope of young women massacred in woods.
Key Takeaways
- The Dark on ITV is a six-part serial killer drama based on GR Halliday's 2019 novel From the Shadows.
- Writer Matt Hartley chose the story because victims are young men, not women—a deliberate break from a common crime-drama trope.
- Laura Donnelly stars as DI Monica Kennedy hunting a masked killer in the Scottish Highlands.
- Episode one airs at 9pm on ITV1; the full series streams on ITVX from launch night.
- Halliday's book has been republished, with sequels Dark Waters and Beneath the Marsh following.
Why did The Dark on ITV focus on male victims?
For anyone who has seen True Detective, the opening of The Dark on ITV will feel hauntingly familiar: a naked body is found, eerily staged, in remote wilderness. Except this victim is a young man on the cusp of adulthood in the Scottish Highlands.
That distinction made adapting GR Halliday's novel "unturndownable" for show writer Matt Hartley. Speaking to Metro, he said: "It wasn't young women getting massacred in woods. It did feel like it was a different prism in which victimhood was going to be explored."
Hartley related to the frustrations of young men in the middle of nowhere from his own adolescence. He wanted to examine how communities react when young men—often seen as less vulnerable than women—start to disappear.
What happens in The Dark on ITV?
The six-part drama follows DI Monica Kennedy, played by Laura Donnelly, as she hunts a serial killer using twisted techniques in the Scottish wilderness. When a young man's body is discovered in the countryside, Kennedy realizes his older brother went missing years before.
As episodes unfold, the body count rises and detectives quickly confirm they are dealing with a serial killer targeting men in their teens and early twenties. AOL's TV guide notes the line: "There truly is a wicked monster out there."
The masked killer is described in Hartley's scripts as a ghostly presence—someone you might glimpse driving past and only later recognize as wrong. Hartley drew on True Detective's haunting landscape and BBC's The Fall for its cat-and-mouse tension.
When and where can you watch The Dark on ITV?
The Dark premieres Sunday, July 12, 2026, at 9pm on ITV1. The second episode follows on Monday, July 13, with the six-part run continuing on Sundays and Mondays. All episodes are available to stream on ITVX from launch night.
Helen Baxendale also stars alongside Donnelly. Hartley promises Agatha Christie fans may spot the culprit before the finale—though he admits he avoids reading fan theories online.
Where did The Dark on ITV come from?
The series adapts From the Shadows, Halliday's 2019 debut and the first in a DI Monica Kennedy trilogy set in the Scottish Highlands. Crime Fiction Lover reports the novel has been republished to coincide with the show, and Halliday recorded a reading for the site's Video Evidence series.
Sequel Dark Waters is republished in September 2026, with a third novel, Beneath the Marsh, due in January 2027. Hartley says the second book features a "very, very distinct crime," but there is no word yet on whether The Dark will return for more seasons.
For readers who follow true crime and unsolved mysteries, Hartley's closing nod to Crimewatch's "Don't have nightmares" sign-off may land differently—he adds that if viewers do have nightmares, "that was part of the job done."