The Dark is a six-part ITV1 crime drama television series, adapted from the novel From the Shadows by GR Halliday. It aired on 12 July 2026. The cast is led by Laura Donnelly, Mark Rowley, Emun Elliott and Helen Baxendale.
Contents
Premise
A detective investigates after the body of young man is found staged in a peculiar fashion in the Scottish wilderness.
Cast
Laura Donnelly as Detective Monica Kennedy
Mark Rowley as DC Conor Crawford
Emun Elliott as Barclay Adams
Helen Baxendale as Bethany Morgan
Rona Morison as Philly
Cal MacAninch as Stephen Wright
Stella Gonet as Angela Kennedy
Tunji Kasim as Michael Bach
Catherine McCormack as Gloria MacLennan
Jatinder Singh Randhawa as DC Ewan Dhillon
Phil McKee as Don Cameron
Brian Ferguson as Kyle Ward
Emily Mac as Tammy Ward
Liam King as Scott MacKay
Jack Hesketh as Owen MacLennan
Tamsin Jordan as Lucy Kennedy
Aaron McVeigh as Rob Wright
Anders Hayward as James Brooke
Ian Pirie as PD Duncan Gregg
Lois Chimimba as PC Carol Stewart
Jim Kitson as Muir Maitland
Charlie Geany as Sandy Allen
Nicholas Nunn as Nichol Morgan
Hayat Kamille as Dr Hana Hadid
Production
The series was commissioned by ITVX in July 2025, and is adapted from the GR Halliday 2020 novel From the Shadows, with the adaptation by Matt Hartley, Lena Rae and Nessah Muthy, with Gilles Bannier as director. The series is executive produced by Ben Stephenson for Poison Pen alongside Preethi Mavahalli, Luke Woellhaf and Fern McCauley and Hartley. Matt Brown is series producer.
The cast is led by Mark Rowley and Laura Donnelly and also includes Emun Elliott, Helen Baxendale, Rona Morison, Cal MacAninch, Stella Gonet, Phil McKee, Tunji Kasim and Catherine McCormack.
Filming began in Glasgow, Scotland, in September 2025. Filming also took place in Greenock that month.
Broadcast
The Dark was broadcast on ITV and ITVX from 12 July 2026.
Reception
Lucy Mangan in The Guardian noted the gothic tone of the series and praised the performance of Donnelly in the lead role, which along with the "style and confidence" of the series, "marks it out from the formulaic ITV herd". Mangan criticised some forced and awkward plot devices. James Jackson in The Times described the series as having the feel of a horror film, with a "grimly intense" performance by Donnelly, and a terrifying climax to the first episode, but noted a dryness and lack of wit within the dialogue. Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph said that series is more "horror than police procedural" with the title being "a warning for viewers, to be taken both figuratively and literally" with a creepy tone "not for those of a nervous disposition", and a plot that could have been streamlined producing "long periods in between the shocking moments and cliffhanger endings that feel painfully slow and disjointed".