# The Lakes (1997)

> An outsider from Liverpool finds love and trouble in a seemingly tranquil Lake District community after he is drawn into a tragedy.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/3451

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 14
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, mystery
- Created by: Jimmy McGovern
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: John Simm, Charles Dale, Kaye Wragg, Elizabeth Bennett, Robert Pugh, Mary Jo Randle, Paul Copley, James Thornton
- TMDB rating: 8.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122579/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: bleak, melancholic, tense, morally heavy, unsettling

## What critics say

Critics broadly admire the bleak, morally weighty writing and the lead performance, while finding the mystery's momentum uneven.

## Synopsis

The Lakes (1997-1999) is a British mystery drama created by Jimmy McGovern for BBC One. John Simm plays Danny Kavanagh, a young man who leaves Liverpool for the Lake District, taking a job at a hotel and falling for a local girl, Emma. He never quite belongs in the close-knit village, and through a chain of unlucky circumstances he finds himself implicated in a tragedy on the water. Charles Dale, Kaye Wragg and Robert Pugh round out a cast of townspeople whose outward politeness hides their own compromises. The show runs across two series, four episodes and then ten, and it is built as one continuing story rather than a case of the week. Each episode peels back another layer of secrets, lies and crimes in a seemingly tranquil community, so the drama lives in what characters conceal and what it costs them. Set in a present-day British northern landscape of lakes, fells and small-town pubs, the mood is bleak, morally heavy and quietly unsettling, with tragedy and guilt accumulating steadily. Fans of Broadchurch, Happy Valley and Twin Peaks will find resonance in its small town dread and its portrait of a community's buried sins.

## Shows like The Lakes

- [Redemption (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/121311)
- [I, Jack Wright (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/176972)
- [Exile (2011)](https://ember.film/tv/34718)
- [The Burning Girls (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/152049)
- [Deadwater Fell (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/80579)
- [Glue (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/54727)
- [Bay of Fires (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/136056)
- [The Rising (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/103361)
- [Blackshore (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/161310)
- [Without You (2011)](https://ember.film/tv/41146)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt