WRONG MOVE

ANDREW LINCOLN AND INDIRA VARMA TELL LYNN RUSK ABOUT TV THRILLER COLDWATER, WHICH SEES A COUPLE ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY ONLY TO DISCOVER EVIL WAITING NEXT DOOR

- LYNN RUSK

THE role of the stay-at-home father and the challenges it poses to traditional ideas of masculinity is a theme rarely explored in television and film.

Coldwater, a new six-part thriller from playwright David Ireland, tackles the subject while also examining the strains of a long-term marriage and whether relocating can ever truly resolve personal struggles.

Taking on his first British TV drama in more than a decade, The Walking Dead star Andrew Lincoln plays John, a middle-aged man in the midst of an identity crisis who moves his family from London to the Scottish village of Coldwater. There, he befriends new neighbour Tommy. But Tommy is concealing horrifying secrets that soon unravel into a series of unsettling events.

Andrew, 51, says David's writing was impossible to ignore. “It was one of those scripts that I just couldn’t get away from. I hadn't read anything like it for a long, long time,” says the London-born actor.

“It was frightening and I thought it would be challenging, but also, I thought it was about something. Then we started, and it became one of the most enjoyable, brilliant experiences with these astonishing actors.”

In the series, John is a stay-at-home father, privately resentful of his role.

When his failure to intervene in a violent playground confrontation forces him to face up to his own insecurities, he uproots his family in search of a fresh start.

“He's a man who doesn’t quite know who he is at the moment. He's trying to find a sense of himself,’ Andrew explains.

“In this event, we all wish to behave in certain ways under certain circumstances, and this guy just doesn’t and there’s an enormous amount of shame and guilt.”