If you liked The White Lotus or Happy Valley, you will love The Light in the Hall, which is Channel 4’s newest crime show.
Set in the Welsh Valleys, the dark six-parter follows nosy reporter Cat Donato (Alexandra Roach) as she goes back to her home village to look into the death of her childhood friend Ela Roberts (Ella Peel).
Ela went missing 18 years ago, and her DNA was found in Joe Pritchard’s caravan, which led to him being charged with her murder.
But when Joe gets out of prison after serving his time, he opens up new wounds, especially for Ela’s mother, Sharon Roberts (Joanna Scanlan), who is still grieving.
She still can’t get over the fact that Joe, who has amnesia and can’t remember what happened when Ela went missing, hasn’t told her where her body is.
Sharon is determined to find out what happened from Joe because she can’t stop thinking about what happened in the past. Cat is also trying to find out what really happened.
The Light in the Hall’s creator and writer Regina Moriarty spoke to Metro.co.uk about what viewers can expect from the gripping series.
When asked about what the secret of writing crime drama is, she responded: ‘Oh my God, that’s just so impossible to answer. I mean, I don’t think there is a secret. I feel like I’m just learning honestly.
‘And for me, I can only really talk about what I like and I love character-driven crime. That’s the kind of crime stuff I watch.
‘Some of the things that I really love, [it’s all to do with] the characters – and I probably wouldn’t even remember the plot if you asked me now.
‘But you remember the world and the characters and the plot is just there as well to keep you engaged.’
Among Regina’s favourite character-driven crime dramas, which have influenced her work, are Happy Valley and The White Lotus.
She explained: ‘I love The White Lotus. I just think it’s so brilliant. And funnily enough, I watched the last episode of series two this morning, at about seven o’clock, in bed. And I was just in suspense.
‘I love Mare of Easttown and I also love things like Happy Valley, they’re brilliant, but all of those have fabulous characters.
‘Anything with great characters [does it] for me and they’re the sort of shows that I aspire to write.’
The Light in the Hall is available to stream on All4.
