‘Doctor Who’ star Jenna Coleman has stepped out of the time-travelling police box and into the police station, as she leads the BBC’s latest crime drama.
‘The Jetty’ is a gripping four-part series that sees a lakeside town in the north of England thrown into turmoil when a connection is made between a string of mysterious cold cases.
Here's all you need to know about ‘The Jetty’ and where it was filmed.
What is The Jetty about?
The thriller opens with disaster as a fire tears through a home in an idyllic lake town in Lancashire. What starts as suspected arson suddenly becomes much more sinister as connections are made to the case of missing teenagers.
Detective Ember Manning (Coleman) faces shocking discoveries as she gets closer to the truth, with revelations that will rock everything she knows.
Meanwhile, a podcast journalist has come to town to make a series on the historic cold cases, but her snooping could threaten the police’s own investigation.
Come for that spicy procedural premise and stay for a harrowing investigation of sexual morality and identity – as well as some knotty questions around what it can take to protect your family. Expect some major cliffhangers, too.
Who is in the cast?
Jenna Coleman heads up the cast as Ember Manning, a police detective who searches for the connection between two local mysteries, while battling her own private demons and grieving her late husband. Her daughter is played by ‘Bridgerton’s Ruby Stokes, with the pair often clashing over how they move forward as a broken family.
‘House of the Dragon’ actor Tom Glynn-Carney plays her late husband in flashback.
Archie Renaux (‘Shadow & Bone’) plays Hitch, another detective working on the case who has a link to the victim’s family. The great Ralph Ineson, of ‘The Office’ and ‘The Witch’ fame, heads up the department as DI Morgan.
‘I May Destroy You’s Weruche Opia is podcaster Riz, in town to make a series about the historic crimes but ending up far more involved than she expected.
Where was The Jetty filmed?
Filming for ‘The Jetty’ took place between September and December 2023, but while the series is set in Lancashire, most of the locations were actually in nearby Yorkshire, with other sites in and around Manchester.
Areas including Calderdale, Ripponden, Sowerby Bridge and the town of Todmorden were also used for the series.
Hollingworth Lake
Hollingworth Lake spans 118 acres and was originally the main water source for the Rochdale Canal, but was later redeveloped as a tourist resort in the 1860s, now it serves as the focal point of ‘The Jetty’.
‘As soon as we saw it, we knew it was right,’ says executive producer Elizabeth Kilgarriff. ‘It’s a particularly cold and deep lake that has a real air of mystery about it. First thing in the morning there would be a mist hanging over the water and swans gliding through it. It was hard to imagine a more beautiful place.’
While there is already a jetty on the lake, the production team had to build a new one that was safe to film on.
Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club
As the series hurtles towards its dramatic conclusion, DC Manning confronts several suspects at the local waterside pub, with the Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club standing in for the scenes.
‘It has this amazing window overlooking the lake which meant that even inside, the lake is a presence, a backdrop to the characters’ conversations,’ says Kilgarriff. ‘The pull of the water is always there.’
The police station
DC Manning’s station is based at was actually created especially for the filming, with the crew building a set within a building in Manchester, just a short walk from where writer, creator and executive producer Cat Jones grew up.
What are the reviews saying so far?
‘The Jetty’ has been a big hit with critics, with many praising its steady stream of unexpected twists and cliffhangers.
The I claimed The Jetty is ‘the most gripping crime drama in months’ with the ‘ever-reliable’ Jenna Coleman being the ‘glue that holds the series together.’
The series’ filming locations won praise from the Evening Standard, describing the setting as a ‘stroke of genius’, and noting how ‘the picturesque lake acts as the focal point of all the action, veering from pretty to ominous’.
What have viewers said about The Jetty?
Viewers have taken to social media to praise the show and commending Jenna Coleman's work, with many calling her 'brilliant' and 'always watchable'. Fans are calling for the character of DC Ember Manning to become a new staple of TV crime dramas, with demands for follow-up series in the future.
One viewer told writer Cat Jones that they were hoping for at least three more series of The Jetty. 'Make Ember Manning our new go-to detective please. I will happily watch Jenna Coleman solve murders and mysteries for many years to come,' they put on social media.
Local viewers in the Lancashire area spotted their hometown on screen. 'I knew some of it was filmed at Hollingworth Lake, but it was practically the whole episode!' one viewer put on social media. 'Not just the lake itself, but the sailing club, the rowing club, the chippy, the water activity centre, the sea scout place.'
Where can I watch The Jetty?
‘The Jetty’ lands on BBC iPlayer on Monday, July 15 with all four episodes available to stream.
Episodes will air weekly on BBC One at 9pm on Monday evenings.
Check out the official trailer below.