Deadwater Fell is the Netflix drama that has viewers completely hooked. Coined the new Broadchurch by the Guardian, this suspenseful series has David Tenant in the starring role playing a widowed doctor in a sleepy Scottish town, who is facing suspicion after his wife, Kate, and their three young children were murdered in a fire.
Originally appearing on Channel 4 in 2020, Deadwater Fell is proving to be one of the best Netflix shows in recent times, quickly climbing to the top of the steaming service's UK chart with viewers eager to race towards Deadwater Fell's shocking ending.
This is everything you need to know about the inspiration behind Deadwater Fell, as well as where the hit drama was filmed and whether the dark plot is based on real events. And if you need something a little more cheering after watching this harrowing series, Netflix's One Day has also just dropped and fully ticks the heartwarming box.
Where is Deadwater Fell set?
Deadwater Fell is set in the fictional village Deadwater of Kirkdarroch, a sleepy and picturesque corner of Scotland.
To create the drama's backdrop, producers used an amalgamation of two villages in rural Scotland; Dunlop and Kilbarchan. Both towns boast historic features and quaint, cobbled streets full of old-world charm. But while these villages may look remote and nestled in the Scottish countryside, both are just around half an hour's drive from the city of Glasgow.
David Tennant, who starred in and co-produced the show, noted how useful the towns' locations were during filming, explaining to the Radio Times, "Just in practical terms, you can be in the centre of a big city and then ten minutes later you can be in the middle of nowhere around Glasgow. From a filming point of view, that’s quite useful to have all those little villages in between them."
Tennant added, "It's not anything like where I grew up, but it feels like a very recognisable place. I don't know if that's specifically Scottish but it's the kind of community you could imagine being anywhere or in many places throughout Scotland."
Several town residents appeared in the show adding to the setting's authenticity, according to reporting from the Radio Times, including a local Ceilidh band who feature in the party scenes of the first episode of Deadwater Fell.
As well as the towns of Dunlop and Kilbarchan, the opening coastal scenes were filmed at Culzean Beach in Ayrshire, a stunning seaside spot surrounded by the woodland and rugged cliffs of Culzean Country Park. This seaside spot is also in Ayrshire, just over an hour's drive away from the villages of Kilbarchan and Dunlop.
Is Deadwater Fell based on a true story?
While its harrowing murder plot might feel familiar, Deadwater Fell is completely fictionalised. Having said this, elements of the story were influenced by true events, with show producers looking to true crime documentaries for inspiration.
Speaking at a Q&A session in 2019, Deadwater Fell producer Emma Kingsman-Lloyd explained (via The Scotsman), "We’re both a little bit obsessed with true crime shows which is where the initial thought came from because Daisy said that she wanted to write something that had the forensic detail of a true crime documentary show."
One particular case that shaped the narrative was Netflix's true crime documentary, The Staircase. The docuseries examines the real-life case of Michael Peterson who was accused of murdering his wife, Kathleen.
Writer and creator Daisy Coulam said of basing the central character of Dr Tom Kendrick on Michael Peterson, "I like that ambiguity and that he’s a really fascinating character, so just drawing on that really and that sort of nuance is what I was hoping for."
She also added that she and show producers were keen not to depict the accused as "monsters". She said the series, "is about humans and what they are capable of – both the heroic and the incomprehensible." Before adding, "And it’s about victims who deserve to be remembered as more than a smiling face in a faded photograph."
Deadwater Fell is available to stream now on Netflix and All4.
