BBC confirms transmission date for season two of The Missing

Back in 2014, the Williams brothers’ The Missing enthralled viewers with its choppy narrative and emotional story of parents searching for their missing son, who had disappeared while on holiday in France. It was soon announced that a second series had been commissioned and that an all-new story would be at its heart. Now we know that story, and we now know when the eight-part story will start.

BBC releases first trailer for season two of The Missing

No sooner has one Williams brothers series finished, another one is just starting to crank up. We’re a month or so away from the second series of The Missing – this time starring the excellent Keeley Hawes and David Morrissey – but a new teaser has hit the streets, featuring the gravel-voiced Tchéky Karyo’s Julien Baptiste in fine, foreboding form. It doesn’t reveal too much, but it does tell us that there’s a different spin in this second series – that of a missing child who reappears after 12 years after her initial disappearance.

BBC announces cast and plot lines for season two of The Missing

The Williams brothers’ hit kidnap drama, The Missing, was a huge hit for BBC1 when it first appeared in 2014, and since then we’ve known that this will be anthology series, with each subsequent story featuring new characters and a new, horrifying tale. Today the BBC announced not only a top-name cast but also plot lines for series two, which has begun filming. This means that this second series may well be with us this year. Read on for the details…

Review: The Missing (S1 E8/8), Tuesday 16th December, BBC1

Like Broadchurch before it, The Missing has become the most talked about crime drama of the year. It has been a classic whodunit wrapped up in the emotive blanket of a child abduction case. So who did it? Why did they do it? And, crucially, what really happened to little Oliver Hughes?

Whodunit? The key suspects in The Missing

I’ve had my issues with The Missing (I’ll detail them more when I review the final episode) but there’s no denying that writers Harry and Jack Williams have done a good job of revealing just enough in each episode to keep us interested, and keeping enough concealed to make tonight’s finale (Tuesday 16th December) a must watch. We’re still none the wiser as to who abducted Oliver Hughes (and his fate), but there is a list of suspects. Have a look at them after the jump.

Review: The Missing (S1 E7/8), Tuesday 9th December, BBC1

Three years after the disappearance of Oliver Hughes something else horrid happened in the region of Chalons Du Bois. In the blink of an eye another little boy was snatched from under the noses of their parents in a school car park. Only two miles from where Oliver was taken. Suddenly we were plunged into more myriad feelings – the teeth-gnashing horror of another abduction, waves of sympathy for the new set of parents but also confusion. Here was yet another timeline to get to grips with. It felt like too many cooks; another needless layer to delay the inevitable – finding out what happened to Oliver Hughes.

Review: The Missing (S1 E6/8), Tuesday 2 December, BBC1

Last week we were plunged into a new world of moral ambiguity when Tony Hughes – desperate to find any clues about his missing son – smashed the head in of paedophile Ian Garrett. This added another murky layer of wattle and daub to an already convoluted, albeit thrilling, hut of a plot. How would we now feel about Tony – lest we forget the supposed hero of the piece – after knowing he was a killer? 

Review: The Missing (S1 E5/8), Tuesday 25th November, BBC1

After the initial teeth-gnashing emotion of the first episode – where Tony and Emily Hughes were coming to terms with the disappearance of their young son Oliver – I’ve felt this drama has taken a while to get going. Yes, it has been super-tense in places, but the dual timeline approach has seemed to stunt this drama’s growth and drive. Thankfully, last night’s episode, in both timelines, was the most dramatic and tense since the opener.

Review: The Missing (S1 E4/8), Tuesday 18th November, BBC1

As good and as wrought and as thrilling as The Missing has been in places, I’ve been finding it hard to make an emotional connection with it. Which is a strange thing to say when you consider the emotional storyline it starts with. I’ll be writing a separate post on this in the near future (you lucky people), but for the moment let’s concentrate on last night’s episode, which (thankfully) offered more narrative drive. The series is starting to emerge from the fog of an over-egged set-up and that’s a good thing. Finally, the story is starting to go places and half way through, there are tangible lines of enquiry.

Review: The Missing (S1 E3/8), Tuesday 11th November, BBC1

Apologies for the delay, but things have been busy here at The Day Job. Last night’s third episode of The Missing – now attracting almost six million viewers per episode – is really starting to ramp up the action. We have a son abducted, a relationship falling apart, suspects galore being pegged and two timelines’ worth of action to digest. Not much, then.