New six-part psychological thriller, The Ridge stars BAFTA Scotland award-winning Scots actress Lauren Lyle and New Zealand star Jay Ryan. Running from the secrets in her past, Scottish anaesthetist Mia Beaton (Lyle) thinks she’s going to New Zealand to attend her sister Cassy’s wedding to fiancé Ewan (Ryan). On arrival she’s shocked to learn Cassy has died, fallen from a mountain ridge. Believing Cassy was pushed and murdered, Mia sets about hunting for the killer.
As Mia grapples with the shock of her sister’s death, she becomes entangled in the small town’s web of secrets and lies. Mia learns that Cassy, a staunch environmentalist, was involved in a heated conflict with local farmers, and there are unsettling indications that her relationship with Ewan was not as perfect as it appeared. The deeper Mia investigates, the more convinced she becomes that her sister was murdered.
Meanwhile, Mia has her own problems to contend with. She struggles with a secret opioid addiction and her 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.
Determined to uncover the truth about her sister’s mysterious death, she soon soon finds that familiarity among a small community breeds lies and tensions, endangering the brittle fabric of the town itself. Undeterred, Mia embarks on a relentless search for buried secrets.
The Ridge was filmed on location between New Zealand and Scotland. The six-part drama was produced by Glasgow-based Sinner Films and New Zealand’s leading drama makers Great Southern Studios, for BBC Scotland and Sky New Zealand Originals. The Ridge was made with the support of New Zealand On Air, the NZ Screen Production Rebate and Screen Scotland. Boat Rocker manage global sales.
It will be available to view on BBC iPlayer, BBC Scotland, BBC Two, Sky Open and NEON.
Mia is a gifted – but a deeply troubled – Scottish anaesthetist, known for her calm precision under pressure. However, behind the façade of professionalism lies a dark secret: a hidden opioid addiction and a childhood trauma that never let go.
When Mia flees to New Zealand to attend her estranged sister’s wedding, she discovers Cassy has died in what locals call a tragic accident. Mia doesn’t buy it. Her instincts scream murder. Strung out and increasingly isolated, Mia’s grip on reality begins to fray. Complicating everything is her growing attraction to Cassy’s enigmatic fiancé — the last person to see her sister alive. Something about him unsettles her. Something that feels dangerously familiar.
Haunted by the past, hunted by the truth, and pushed to the edge, Mia must confront not only what happened to Cassy — but who she’s become.
Tell us about your character Mia?
Mia is a drug addicted anaesthetist, whose childhood trauma is catching up with her and she’s trying to hide all of it. 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 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. At times she is quite psychopathic. I loved the thrill of playing her and being told to push it further and further. Robyn Grace the director of episodes 3-6 would often say I could go crazier which was such a gift and joy as an actor.
What takes Mia to the other side of the world and what drama awaits her on arrival in New Zealand?
She goes to New Zealand for her estranged sister’s wedding only to find her missing up a mountain and soon turns up dead. Mia becomes embroiled in this NZ ‘Succession’ type old money family, she uses her body and sex to manipulate others and find out what happened to her sister.
She desperately seeks answers for her sister’s death, all the while balancing quite an evil streak that informs a lot of her behaviour. She is very much the outsider over there and has to integrate into the small-town weird community. She can be manipulative, calculated and at times very funny.
Why does Mia become so fixated with finding the truth about her sister’s death?
Because she doesn’t believe anyone or trust anyone. She sees that things don’t add up and must find the truth. There have been very odd things happening in the NZ 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.
And how would you describe her relationship with Ewan?
Manipulative and complicated. Mia uses Ewan to get what she needs personally, sexually and also what she needs for her sister. However, their relationship is also wrong and unethical, but it seems like at times she isn’t in control of it. I love the way they both use each other and sometimes neither of them are aware of it, other times they know exactly what they are doing. It’s very dangerous which in turn makes it exciting as a viewer to watch.
What drew you to The Ridge?
The strangeness of the character. 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. New Zealand is a bit of a second home to me too; 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.
There is a scene the writers wrote in the morgue that ends episode one, where Mia holds Cassy’s hand and falls asleep next to her. I loved that she comfortably falls asleep next to the cold dead body of her sister – it really set the tone of this being something different for me.
What was it like filming in New Zealand and was this your first trip there?
As I say, I lived in New Zealand for around four to five years finishing high school there and it has really become home. 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.
There is something to be said for working in the sunshine, in insane landscapes to help a day’s work feel good. I had the coolest commutes to work being driven up a mountain through the bush hanging out a pickup truck at 7am – episode four gives you a glimpse into that.
How would you describe The Ridge?
The Ridge is the story of a strange and manipulative young woman on the run and on the hunt. A speedy ride of spooky, and wild story which throws you straight into the deep end and asks you to dive in for the ride. Mia will take you across the world and show you the cruel depths of what she is willing to go through and do in order to protect her baby sister and get and give what everyone deserves. It asks questions of what is right, freaky small town issues and how far you will go for family.
Jay Ryan (Ewan Carmichael)
Wealthy, charming and strikingly attractive, Ewan could have had anything in life but he chose a path of environmental activism, dedicating himself to rewilding and preserving the land, one tree at a time.
Ewan’s past is riddled with intense relationships, many ending in pain — some in tragedy. Those closest to him know there’s more beneath the surface: a calculating streak, a narcissism carefully masked by charisma and good intentions. When his fiancé Cassy is found dead under suspicious circumstances, Ewan once again finds himself at the centre of a grieving community — supported, respected, untouchable.
He throws himself into the search for answers, and as grief draws Mia and Ewan together, an undeniable tension simmers between them.
Tell us about your character Ewan?
What a complicated lad. Ewan is the only legitimate heir to Korimako Estate, situated in a small South Island community in New Zealand. On the outside he is a fierce leader of his ‘followers’ – a rag-tag bunch of ‘Re-wilders’ whose mission is to keep the surrounding lands and the family’s estate from invasive wildlife and foliage, not native to the country.
He likes to be seen as one of the good guys and somewhat is – until his missing fiancés sister shows up from Scotland and begins to upturn the town for answers in her sister’s fatal accident.
Is Ewan a grieving fiancé or does he have secrets to hide?
I think everyone has secrets to hide in The Ridge – it’s often one of the first pieces I will lay in character preparation, what is the character hiding. But yes, Ewan is absolutely grieving. I think in a way he is still grieving the loss of his Scottish father’s death from when he was younger. Now he is grieving the loss of his beloved Scottish fiancé.
There’s an element I played with in the character where I gave him this chip on his shoulder for never really being accepted by his father or his Scots lineage. So maybe he is also grieving the feeling of not truly being accepted from any one place or culture. He’s stuck in limbo between loss and acceptance.
How would you describe Ewan’s relationship with Mia?
Fantastically complicated. When Mia arrives, it is an absolute unannounced and unexpected arrival. And of course, her timing makes the dynamic between them tricky. They are both in shock and disbelief that Mia’s sister, Ewan’s beloved fiancé is gone. Grief and shock can magnetise people together and when boundaries are crossed that grief can very quickly turn to guilt.
Well initially she is a striking vision of the woman he had loved and now suddenly lost. He knows these feelings for Mia are wrong and misplaced – but Ewan is very rarely told ‘no’.
He admires Mia’s strength, tenacity and intellect. He feels ostracised from his own community in a way, judged for his wealth and success, left to care for his ailing mother and dealing with the death of his soon to be wife – Mia is a breath of fresh air for Ewan. He has no idea what she is capable of – until it’s too late.
The scripts were gloriously unnerving and exciting to read. There is a gothic tone that really seems to sit well in the rural New Zealand setting and the final twist of the story had me screaming aloud. I really did not see it coming. Also, once I knew Lauren was on board I couldn’t refuse. She is absolutely captivating to watch, bold and brave to perform with and a brilliant number 1 on the call sheet. Everything lined up nicely.
A modern gothic fairy-tale in the dark woods of New Zealand. I think this Nietzsche quote sums it up nicely… ‘He who fights with monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster. And if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
I actually thought I’d get to film in Scotland also! But not this time. I adore Scotland. I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside some of your greatest actors… James Mcavoy, Peter Mullan and now Lauren Lyle!
My maternal side of the family is Scots. I grew up in my grandmother’s home in NZ, full of Scottish trinkets, stories and treasures from the ‘old country’. Scotland has always been present in my past. I was lucky enough to perform my one man show many moons ago during a Summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – I remember turning up one day to the Castle’s ancestry library, hoping to find some kind of family genealogy or connection and the lady at the office just laughed at me as if to say ‘good luck finding anything amongst the thousands of dusty old files!’
The Ridge gave me an excuse to look back into my Scottish roots. They are in there somewhere.
