{"id":803039,"date":"2026-10-15T04:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T04:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/803039\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T04:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T04:30:15","slug":"karen-pirie-stars-compelling-small-town-set-mystery-drama-to-stream-on-the-bbc-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/803039\/","title":{"rendered":"Karen Pirie star’s “compelling” small town-set mystery drama to stream on the BBC right now"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been almost a year to the day since Scottish drama The Ridge premiered on the BBC<\/a>, and if you haven’t watched it yet, it’s still well worth a recommendation. Starring Karen Pirie and The Bombing of Pan Am 103 actor Lauren Lyle, the show follows a woman named Mia who is struggling with addiction and the end of her career.<\/p>\n

She travels to New Zealand for her estranged sister’s wedding, but is shocked to discover that her sibling is dead, and all of the locals seem suspicious. Even worse than that, she finds herself attracted to her sister’s widow.<\/p>\n

Last year, Digital Spy<\/a> called it “a moody crime series not to miss”, while The Times<\/a> dubbed it a “sure-footed, compelling show [that] could well have you on the ridge of your seat”.<\/p>\n

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BBC<\/p>\n

\"lauren<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services UK 2026 \u2013 including Disney+, Netflix, iPlayer and Apple TV<\/a> <\/p>\n

The Herald Scotland<\/a> said that the show “rattles along at a good lick” and that “the New Zealand setting is spectacular, with [Douglas] Mackinnon’s direction lending it a strange, unsettling air”. <\/p>\n

They added: “It feels as if anything could happen there. Lyle does a sterling job of steering her character away from cliches about addicts.”<\/p>\n

“With the wrong casting, this could quickly descend into hokum”, reads The Mail<\/a>‘s review. “But Lyle makes it believable, imbuing Mia with such anxiety and paranoia that the frantic drama around her seems less exaggerated.”<\/p>\n

Viewers were a bit more mixed on the drama, looking at the user reviews on IMDb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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BBC<\/p>\n

\"lauren<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: Perfect “unmissable” police drama gets first look with Broadchurch star for exciting return season<\/a><\/p>\n

The consensus seems to be that people enjoyed the anti-heroine lead character, but the “wobbly” camera work was off-putting.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, if you fancy another BBC drama set in the southern hemisphere, you’ll be glad to know that the third season of Return to Paradise is on the way and recently dropped a trailer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Ridge is available to stream in full on BBC iPlayer now.<\/p>\n

Visit our Streaming Guide<\/a> now to see at a glance where you can view ALL your favourite shows and movies.<\/p>\n

The new edition of Legends, a 100-page celebration of Dolly Parton’s life, is here. Buy Dolly in newsagents or online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV<\/a> and movies<\/a> both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been almost a year to the day since Scottish drama The Ridge premiered on the BBC, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[147950,379,263732,381,96,190731,1156,263731,223205,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-803039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-25653c4c-079b-453b-8846-57d6106974d0","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-karen-pirie-stars-small-town-mystery-drama-is-one-to-stream","tag-sponsored-false","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}