Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Lee Haven Jones and Andrew Cumming, ‘Coldwater’ follows John’s identity crisis, which is triggered by a violent incident in his neighborhood. Forced to question his innate sense of good and evil, and conflating that with his masculinity, he begins taking increasingly rash decisions, including a sudden shift from London to the quaint village of Coldwater. However, his dream of leaving the past behind comes crashing down when the new reality turns out to be far more eccentric. At the center of it all is Tommy, a seemingly model father, husband, and town leader, whom John can’t help but see as his antithesis of sorts.
What John doesn’t know, however, is that the village is filled to the brim with secrets, and Tommy, along with his equally enigmatic wife, Rebecca, is at the origin of many mysteries spanning decades. As John and his family try to navigate the sharpest turns in their lives yet, Tommy’s involvement only intensifies, leading to some uncomfortable confrontations. In bringing this intricate social portrait to life, the psychological thriller drama series touches on the idea of masculinity, faith, and the very idea of family.
Coldwater is a Fictional Collage of Writer David Ireland’s Interests and Anxieties
While ‘Coldwater’ is a fictional story penned by David Ireland and Andrew Cumming, it is strongly informed by some of David’s real-life experiences. In an interview with Woman and Home, he explained that many of the story’s central ideas came to him during the COVID-19 pandemic. The writer reportedly developed an obsession with running, as well as reading the bible and true crime narratives. All of these interests came together to shape the opening stretch of the show. Around the same time, David and his family also made plans to move out of Glasgow and settle in the countryside. While this detail has an apparent overlap with John’s desire to move from city to countryside in the show, the context is completely different in the latter scenario, which reiterates its crafted identity.
A huge chunk of John’s characterization, and by extension the larger narrative of the show, was also molded after David himself, as he confirmed in the interview, “The main character John is a bit like me (…) He’s middle-aged, has two young children, and is at a point in his life where he’s examining everything (…), dealing with a lot of difficult personal issues.” Although the statement indicates certain parallels between David and his fictional creation, the narrative isn’t exactly autobiographical in nature. Instead, the writing team likely used these real-life antecedents as a starting point to flesh out original ideas in and around the story. To that end, ‘Coldwater’ serves as an expression of David’s fascination with thrillers that transition from urban to rural settings.
David Ireland’s Social Memory Also Serves as a Reference Point to the Narrative
The show also came into existence partially as David’s attempt to write about his life outside Northern Ireland. As such, his sociocultural and historical sensitivities also found an outlet in the narrative, as he expressed in his conversation with ITV. He stated, ‘My life, bringing up a family in Scotland, I was trying to get away from writing about violence, tribalism, and identity, and all the issues in my other work, but I couldn’t escape it.” The writer added that “even though I’ve written something about a family in Scotland, all this rage crept into it.” This blend of powerful emotions is what gives ‘Coldwater’ its distinct flair as a work of fiction with deep cuts of social commentary.
For actor Andrew Lincoln, who essays the role of John, much of the show’s theme is a critique of toxic masculinity. While talking to Radio Times, he stated, “I was suitably frightened by the part, because it’s a man being dismantled. His masculinity being dismantled, he’s lost, and there’s a real sense of a man in freefall.” This perspective helped him add depth to John, not just as a character in the larger narrative web, but as a vessel for a nuanced take on social relationships. For actor Ewen Bremner, who steps into the role of Tommy, the challenge was more about peeling the layers off his character. Talking to ITV, he confessed that “it was like putting the puzzle pieces together” as he initially had a hard time finding the right lens for Tommy. Ultimately, these challenges and perspectives of the respective actors helped them create the tense dynamic, which is integral to the story.
Coldwater is a Fictitious Village Nestled in Rural Scotland
In line with the series’ crafted narrative, Coldwater is a fictional Scottish village created by the show’s writers. Despite its invented origins, however, it is deeply inspired by David’s fascination with living in an idyllic rural Scotland, characterized by a deep sense of community and relationships. To that end, the crew went the extra mile in making the region come to life, be it via an emphasis on communal gatherings or in the worldbuilding department. For Director Lee Haven Jones, a key element in this binding was its authenticity. He explained in a conversation with ITV that, “We have to understand why John and Fiona want to live in this rather lovely village. Because they’ve come from London and they’re in search of a new life. So it was really important that this place felt aspirational, that it was beautiful.”
Coldwater was filmed in multiple locations in and around Glasgow, which added a healthy dose of realism to its presentation. The majority of the sequences surrounding the village were filmed in the quaint village of Dunlop, situated in the East Ayrshire region of Scotland. Here, the village hall, primary school, and other visual elements found their real-life counterpart, with the camera capturing not just the locations but also their aesthetics and atmospheres. Additionally, the crew also shot in places such as Loch Lomond and Glen Fruin, both of which added their own visual flair into the mix. Given how central the village is to the story, not just as a backdrop, but as a visual storytelling canvas, it makes sense for the team to lens real-life places, while also retaining Coldwater’s fictional identity to make the story’s twists and turns all the more seamless.
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