A serial killer is terrorising a small community in the Scottish Highlands in ITV’s The Dark.
The six-part thriller, based on GR Halliday’s novel From the Shadows, stars Laura Donnelly as DI Monica Kennedy, who teams up with her new partner, DC Connor Crawford (Mark Rowley), to track down a twisted murderer targeting young men.
Helen Baxendale also stars as Bethany Morgan, “a distraught mother pushed to her limit” when Monica returns to her doorstep with “a case linked to her missing son”.
“When the body of a young man is found eerily staged in the remote wilderness, Monica fears it’s only the beginning of a horrifying killing spree,” reads the synopsis.
“As paranoia spreads through the close-knit community, long-buried secrets begin to surface and locals realise a serial killer is hiding among them.
“Drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse, Monica must stop the murderer before more lives are lost. But as her own past resurfaces, she begins to question her judgement, putting both the investigation and her family at risk.”
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The Dark is set against the dramatic backdrop of the Scottish Highlands, and was also filmed on location in Scotland.
Read on to find out where the cast and crew pitched up.
Where was The Dark filmed?
The Dark was filmed in Scotland, primarily in Glasgow and Greenock.
Key Greenock filming locations included:
- areas close to Annexe Park
- in and around West College Scotland’s Finnart Street campus
- in and around Inverclyde Academy
Mark Rowley, who plays Detective Connor Crawford, is originally from Paisley, just west of Glasgow, and now lives in the Highlands. Naturally, he was thrilled to be working in his native country.
“It’s really nice to have a TV show about this place,” he said. “When the sun is out it’s the best place ever… we have such a beautiful country… we went to a filming location that they use in a lot of car adverts. It’s a stunning valley, which they shut down for us and I got to drive a red BMW through there with blue lights flashing.
“You don’t get the chance to do that very often! It was a spectacular day, and the weather was moody and atmospheric.”
Laura Donnelly, who leads the cast as DI Monica Kennedy, also had a thing or two to say about the brisk Scottish weather.
“It was freezing, but I love working in Scotland!,” she said. “I studied in Scotland, and lots of my family live there. It was so lovely being based in Glasgow again – I genuinely feel at home in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, so it was a huge part of the reason for doing this job. Everything felt instantly familiar, and that helped to ensure that the subject matter didn’t weigh too heavily as well.”
For Helen Baxendale, making The Dark was something of a homecoming.
“My career started in Scotland, so it was very nice to return there,” she explained. “I have very good memories of being in Glasgow, the city was very good to me. I met my husband there, and I did my first telly job up there too, Cardiac Arrest.”
She went on to describe Glasgow as “such an amazing city”, adding: “The buildings and the architecture are wonderful and it’s a really beautiful, vibrant place. I really enjoyed revisiting it.”
The farm where her character, Bethany, lives with her husband was also a “real working farm”.
“It was a sodden, isolated place with hundreds of hens wildly running free – you had to dodge them as you came up the hill. There were pens of pigs right next to the house and there was a real blasted heath nature to the place. It was really right for that couple – two people who are almost wild themselves.”
Emun Elliott, who plays Bethany’s husband Barclay, also recalled filming at the farmhouse.
“I had imagined in my head what it would look like, and then I was driven to set on a wet, cold Monday morning,” he said.
“Seeing it for the first time, and then being inside this house, it had a strange energy and left me with a weird feeling. The art department and locations team completely nailed it, because there was a sense of both isolation and claustrophobia there.
“It was the only house within miles, in the wilds of Scotland and yet you felt this weird claustrophobic pressure. It was really helpful in exploring Barclay and Bethany’s world.”
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On a personal level, he also very much enjoyed working in his home country.
“As I’ve got older, I’ve found a real pride in working closer to home, and because the Scottish network is much smaller you see the same faces on different jobs,” he said. “There’s a real feeling of happy families up here.
“Most Scottish shows are about being Scottish or Scotland itself, so it’s great to see a universal story like The Dark that just happens to be set in Scotland, that’s really important too. Scotland has that sort of folklore and mystery to it, as well as a feeling of isolation, so it’s the perfect place for a thriller.”
The Dark premieres on ITV1 and ITVX on Sunday 12 July 2026.
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