David Tennant leads the cast as Dr Tom Kendrick, a respected and beloved GP to a small Scottish community, whose wife and children are killed in a terrible blaze at their family home.<\/p>\n
When foul play is detected, Tom becomes the prime suspect as the only survivor, leaving friends Jess (Cush Jumbo) and Steve (Matthew McNulty) to question everything they thought they knew about him and his late wife, Kate (Anna Madeley).<\/p>\n
Back in 2020, when the show had its initial broadcast,\u00a0RadioTimes.com<\/a> sat down with screenwriter Daisy Coulam (of Grantchester<\/a> fame) for a spoiler-filled<\/strong> discussion of the season finale.<\/p>\n Read on for what she had to say about the Deadwater Fell<\/a> ending as well as our recap of the key moments in the episode.<\/p>\n After much speculation, the final episode reveals that Tom killed his wife and three young daughters after discovering Kate\u2019s plans to divorce him.<\/p>\n The evidence was there from the very beginning, most notably the injection marks in his victims\u2019 arms that only a doctor could have administered so effortlessly.<\/p>\n As the series progressed, we saw more of Tom\u2019s relationship with Kate, which was hostile and dominated by his coercive control over her.<\/p>\n Writer Daisy Coulam explains that having Tom as the culprit was the plan from day one, despite viewers being suspicious of almost everyone \u2013 including Kate herself.<\/p>\n \u201cI found it really interesting that people have looked everywhere. In fact, they say it\u2019s \u2018too obvious\u2019 to be Tom,\u201d she told RadioTimes.com<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt all along we wanted to say something about the men who commit these crimes, because it is men who are more likely to commit familicide than women.<\/p> \u201cThat\u2019s what we wanted to talk about and it\u2019s very interesting that people are thinking it\u2019s a whodunnit. By the time you get to episode 3, I thought it was pretty clear that he had done it.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so, episode 4 sort of became an unravelling of the truth of the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Coulam didn\u2019t want to include any kind of justification for Tom\u2019s awful crimes, but nor did she want to completely lose the humanity of his character.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really keen not to go, \u2018it\u2019s his mum\u2019s fault\u2019 or \u2018it\u2019s his dad\u2019s fault\u2019. I didn\u2019t want to excuse him because people have terrible relationships with their parents, but that doesn\u2019t make them coercive controllers.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cWhen people commit crimes like this, they get called monsters or they get called evil and that to me is a way of diminishing the fact that they are humans and they committed these acts.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I think Tom is a complex individual. He\u2019s a human being who has made some terrible mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the most shocking scenes in Deadwater Fell\u2019s series finale sees Steve\u2019s son, six-year-old Lewis (Bradley Connell), harming himself by picking at his burn from the first episode.<\/p>\n Coulam said: \u201cFor me, the last episode is all about communication and silence. If people don\u2019t talk, then these things fester and with Lewis, he\u2019s not been allowed to talk about the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s been trying to keep a lid on it and not upset him, but actually, he\u2019s expressing it the only way he knows how, which is to pick at his skin.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere this whole situation arises from is that men are incapable of talking about their problems and it gets bottled up. Then, the kids follow suit and in a generation\u2019s time, we\u2019ll have these problems still.\u201d<\/p>\n These issues are certainly reflected in Steve (Matthew McNulty), who doesn\u2019t physically hurt himself in the series, but suffers intense psychological pain that very nearly destroys him.<\/p>\n Coulam added: \u201cSome of my favourite scenes in the series are when Steve does his counselling and even when he\u2019s faced with an opportunity to open up and talk about his feelings, he can\u2019t and he says \u2018I feel good.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThat then bleeds through the rest of the series; him not communicating means his son doesn\u2019t communicate and it\u2019s an endless cycle of toxic masculinity.\u201d<\/p>\n After some truly harrowing experiences and an extremely rocky patch in their relationship, Steve and Jess actually end the series on a relatively positive note.<\/p>\n As they look to leave this dark chapter of their lives behind, Coulam is optimistic about their future together.<\/p>\n \u201cI think they\u2019ve started to communicate,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the scene where they\u2019re in bed together and they look at each other and they talk to each other for the first time, since even probably before the fire.<\/p>\n \u201cThey talk about things that are upsetting them and through that they heal. I think they\u2019ll go on and be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout the series, we see Steve and Jess attempting to conceive a child through IVF, a subplot which was inspired by Coulam\u2019s own experiences with the medical procedure.<\/p>\n In the final episode, it is revealed that their efforts were unsuccessful and Jess is still not pregnant, but she and Steve decide that outcome is the right thing for them upon reflection.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I realised how low the success rate was when I went into it. You go in hopeful and you read so many hopeful stories where it works, but when it doesn\u2019t work it\u2019s a bit soul-destroying,\u201d Coulam said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I wanted my characters to decide not to do it and have that be a positive ending for them. I\u2019m quite bored of reading \u2018IVF didn\u2019t work, life is over\u2019 stories, because I don\u2019t think life is over.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t have kids, that doesn\u2019t mean your life is over \u2013 you just need to find a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the biggest reveals from the final episode is that Tom\u2019s mother, Carol (Maureen Beattie), was fairly certain of her son\u2019s crimes from the beginning.<\/p>\n We discover that she received a call from her son just before he started the fire, which strongly implies his involvement in the murders. Coulam reveals more about why Carol decided to withhold this vital information for so long.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you realise that somebody in your life is toxic, it takes an awful lot of courage to speak up and I suppose she sits into that theme of communication and openness. She needs to admit to herself that her son has done this terrible act,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you say things out loud, sometimes that\u2019s the hardest thing. Basically, in that last episode, all of our characters are saying things that they\u2019ve just been unable to say. Actually, only by doing that can you move on.\u201d<\/p>\n Deadwater Fell is available to stream on Channel 4 and Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from \u00a34.99 a month<\/a>. Netflix is also available on\u00a0Sky Glass<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Virgin Media Stream<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only \u00a310 \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/b><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Daisy Coulam explains how the final episode unfolded \u2013 spoiler alert! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":45554,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/deadwater-fell-writer-explains-ending-to-david-tennant-drama.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/deadwater-fell-writer-explains-ending-to-david-tennant-drama-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/deadwater-fell-writer-explains-ending-to-david-tennant-drama-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/deadwater-fell-writer-explains-ending-to-david-tennant-drama-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/deadwater-fell-writer-explains-ending-to-david-tennant-drama-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/deadwater-fell-writer-explains-ending-to-david-tennant-drama-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/deadwater-fell-writer-explains-ending-to-david-tennant-drama-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Daisy Coulam explains how the final episode unfolded \u2013 spoiler alert!","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/45553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why did Tom commit the murders?<\/h2>\n
![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2020\/01\/Deadwater-Fell-Ep-3-260619-0175-a382490-scaled.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"DEADWATER")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>\nWhy was Lewis self-harming?<\/h2>\n
![\"Sgt.](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2020\/01\/Deadwater-Fell-Ep-1-13-0619-0019-83099d5-scaled.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"DEADWATER")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>\nWill Steve and Jess stay together?<\/h2>\n
![\"Jess](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2020\/01\/DEADWATERFELL-Ep-1-17062019-0534-59542cd-scaled.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"DEADWATER")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>\nWhy didn\u2019t the IVF work?<\/h2>\n
![\"Jess](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2020\/01\/Deadwater-Fell-Ep-2-150719-0029-e943423-scaled.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"DEADWATER")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>\nWhy didn\u2019t Carol come forward sooner?<\/h2>\n
![\"Carol](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/Deadwater-Fell-Ep-3-240619-0009-1bfd304-scaled.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"Deadwater")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"