Deep Water on ITV: Lake Windermere drama with sexy shenanigans aplenty is perfect end of summer filler

ITV's new primetime drama sets up intriguing scenarios in its first episode
Lucy Hunter Johnston14 August 2019

I wonder why anyone in a television show ever agrees to step foot on a boat, so often do they end up “accidentally” tumbling into the waves mere moments later. And so, inevitably, it comes to pass in the opening sequence of Deep Water, ITV’s new and much-trailed prime time six-part drama.

But if this is the first predictable moment it’s also among the last. You see, as Anna Friel’s Fair Isle-d protagonist, Lisa, is about to find out, the deep water in question is more figurative than literal, man, and there’s many a sinister and surprising going-on taking place around the moody, murky Windermere where the series is set.

It’s not that the warning signs aren’t there, and most of them in the TV equivalent of giant flashing neon lettering at that: the physiotherapy client who, in casting terms, is far too conventionally good-looking to be a decent bloke is, in fact, a creep. The boyfriend who swaps a not particularly hard-earned £50 pay cheque for a saxophone is, you guessed it, a waste of space, regardless of how many times he wails “Why don’t you trust me? Are you ever gonna forgive us?”

The school-gate mum who hijacks a bonding coffee session with a chilly “I don’t want to use the ‘b’ word … it’s not physical bullying” is, I’m afraid, going to prove tricky to win over. And anyone who turns up in your place of work with a compelling “business proposition” opening with the immortal line “You’re a good woman, I want to help you” definitely does not want to help you do anything other than remove your knickers.

Compelling: You'll be hooked on ITV's new drama
ITV

We committed viewers know all this to be true but somehow the WTF moments remain more or less entirely unexpected. Three scenes in the first 20 minutes had me desperately looking around for someone to grab and share the madness with.

It’s also not entirely clear until the final moments what the driving point of the programme will be. Based on a series of novels by Paula Daly, the story centres on the domestic lives and loves of three women, connected through the playground, but any initial plot ambiguity just makes the first episode all the more compelling, as the starry cast dance around each other with ever increasing levels of sexual tension, simmering resentment and some questionable bathroom interactions.

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It’s the perfect end-of-summer filler. Friel’s jumper — set to inspire a thousand memes — is just snuggly enough to have you longing for some evening chill, while the windswept Lake District is a beautiful and bleak background that serves as a timely reminder of the joys of a blustery autumn. Better yet, there are secrets, lies and bed-swapping shenanigans aplenty.

But perhaps most tellingly, after it ended I immediately wanted to stream the next instalment. Longer nights? Sign me up.

​Deep Water is on ITV from 9pm tonight.

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