Scots actress Lauren Lyle has established herself in many roles – a fierce friend in costume drama Outlander, a peace protester in submarine drama Vigil and as detective Karen Pirie.
So the prospect of being a manipulative, opioid-addicted psychopathic anaesthetist felt like a reasonable next step.
“I loved the idea of playing someone a bit evil and manipulative. I also loved the weirdness and spookiness of the way the story plays out,” she says.
Lyle fronts the ‘s new six-part psychological thriller, The Ridge, which airs this week.
Filmed on location between New Zealand and Scotland, it sees Lyle’s character Mia Beaton head to New Zealand to attend her sister Cassy’s wedding.
But things take a turn when she arrives to find Cassy has died after falling from a mountain ridge. Believing Cassy was pushed and murdered, Mia sets about hunting for the killer.
Lyle was immediately drawn to the character.
“Mia is a drug-addicted anaesthetist, whose childhood trauma is catching up with her and she’s trying to hide all of it,” she says.
“In order to escape her life and the mess she has made of it, she runs off to New Zealand to her estranged sister’s wedding.”
Mia, Lyle says, is a bit of an antihero and woman on the edge.
“So many moves that she makes come from a need to feed her addiction and remain in control of her ever-spiralling life,” she says.
“At times she is quite psychopathic. I loved the thrill of playing her and being told to push it further and further.”
As Mia grapples with the shock of her sister’s death, she becomes entangled in the small town’s web of secrets and lies.
She learns that Cassy, a staunch environmentalist, was involved in a heated conflict with local farmers, and there are unsettling indications that her relationship with fiancé Ewan – played by Jay Ryan – was not as perfect as it appeared.
The deeper Mia investigates, the more convinced she becomes that her sister was murdered.
At the same time, Mia has her own problems to contend with – her opioid supply is dwindling.
With unresolved charges of professional misconduct looming over her, haunted by a tragic incident from her childhood, and drawn romantically to Ewan, Mia finds it increasingly difficult to escape her past.
Cassy’s death is being framed as a tragic accident but Mia doesn’t buy it. Her instincts scream murder.
Lyle says: “She sees that things don’t add up and must find the truth. There have been very odd things happening in the New Zealand small town which don’t add up and push her to dig deeper.
“I think because her relationship has been so strained with her sister, it’s her last act of love and loyalty to her. She is Cassy’s big sister; it’s in Mia to protect her.”
Directed by Robyn Grace, the six-part series was produced by Glasgow-based Sinner Films and New Zealand’s leading drama makers Great Southern Studios for Scotland and Sky New Zealand Originals.
The location was also a draw for Lyle. New Zealand is somewhat of a second home for her.
“I finished high school there and spent some formative years making lifelong family friends, so I couldn’t pass the opportunity to blend both of my lives now I am more of a grown-up,” she says.
“It’s the most amazing lifestyle and the people really are some of the coolest. The New Zealand crew are also some of the best I’ve ever worked with – such positive, funny, talented people who really made me as the outsider most welcome.
“We’d sit and have beers at the set’s unit base on all the camera/costume trucks on Fridays after work and it was one of the best traditions I’ve ever been a part of. “
Working in the sunshine was also a bonus, and ” the coolest commutes to work “
The Ridge will be available on iPlayer, Scotland, Two from Tuesday.
