The Missing (TV series)

Production

The series was originally titled The Breakdown. Filming began in February 2014 with help from the Belgian government's tax shelter scheme. The series was co-produced by New Pictures, Company Pictures, Two Brothers Pictures and Playground Entertainment with Fortis Film Fund, Czar TV Productions and Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie. The distributor is All3Media who sold the series at MIPCOM. The series producer is Chris Clough and the executive producers are Charlie Pattinson, Willow Grylls and Elaine Pyke for New Pictures, John Yorke for Company Pictures, Harry and Jack Williams for Two Brothers Pictures, Polly Hill for the BBC, Colin Callender for Playground Entertainment and Eurydice Gysel for Czar TV Productions. The Missing was commissioned by Charlotte Moore and Ben Stephenson for BBC One.

Although the first story is set in France and the United Kingdom, most of the scenes were filmed in Huy, Halle, Charleroi and Brussels, Belgium, taking advantage of the Belgian Tax Shelter for film funding. Only a few scenes were shot in Paris and London.

Synopsis

The story starts with Tony Hughes, his wife Emily and their five-year-old son Oliver, travelling from the United Kingdom to northern France for a holiday. It is the summer of 2006, during the FIFA World Cup. Soon after entering France, the car breaks down. They are forced to spend the night in the fictional small town of Chalons du Bois. That evening, Tony and Oliver visit a crowded outdoor bar, where a quarter-finals football match is being watched. Tony loses sight of his son, never to find him again.

Eight years later, Oliver has not been found; the police have closed their investigation. Now divorced, Tony has continued to search for his son after seeing a recent picture of the French village where a little boy is wearing a scarf identical to the one Oliver was wearing the day he disappeared and that was specially made for him with a unique insignia. Tony and the retired detective, Julien Baptiste, who led the original investigation, start to put the pieces together. The police decide to officially reopen the case.

Cast

Production

The second series was confirmed in December 2014 and production began in February 2016. Again written by Harry and Jack Williams, this series was directed by Ben Chanan. The filming locations were Morocco, Belgium (Malmedy, Brussels & Ghent) and Germany. Episode 4 shows a Hanover hospital (which was filmed in Az Sint-Lucas Ghent) and a police car with a Hanover number plate, episode 5 shows soldiers marching over the Vesdre dam in eastern Belgium, and the fictional Vaaren in Switzerland is Monschau.

Synopsis

The story is told in dual timelines: flashing between 2014 and the present time, and is based around a British army garrison in the town of Eckhausen in Germany. It features Sam and Gemma Webster, whose daughter Alice went missing in 2003. In 2014 the police inform the parents that Alice has reappeared and claims she had been held captive with Sophie Giroux, a French girl who disappeared at about the same time. The French detective Julien Baptiste was in charge of the Giroux investigation. Although now in retirement, he cannot resist becoming involved again and travels to both Germany and Iraq to find answers.

Cast

Reception

The first series of The Missing was met with critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has earned a "Certified Fresh" score of 96%, with an average rating of 8.4/10 out of 28 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Missing turns a common premise into a standout thriller with heartfelt, affecting performances." On Metacritic, the series has a score of 85 out of 100 based on 21 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". The Guardian called it "hauntingly brilliant television". The Daily Telegraph described it as "supremely compelling". The Independent said it was "tense [...] absorbing [...] mercilessly believable". The New York Times wrote "The Missing is imaginatively written, well cast, chillingly believable and quite addictive. This kind of story has been told this way before, but somehow that doesn’t make this telling any less compelling."

The final episode was discussed heavily on the social networking site Twitter, with over 1,000 tweets being posted per minute. The series has been hailed as being superior to its ITV counterpart Broadchurch. Gerard O'Donovan in The Telegraph referred to the final episode as "... a manipulation too far ... I mostly felt that sinking feeling you get when a book or series you've loved goes wrong in the final stretch."

In January 2015, at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards, the series was nominated for Best Miniseries or Television Film and Frances O'Connor was nominated for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film. For the 5th Critics' Choice Television Awards, James Nesbitt was nominated for Best Actor in a Movie/Miniseries. At the 2015 British Academy Television Awards, the series received four nominations–Best Drama Series, Radio Times Audience Award, Nesbitt for Best Actor and Ken Stott for Best Supporting Actor. For the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards, Tom Shankland received a nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie or a Dramatic Special.

The second series was also met with critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has earned a "Certified Fresh" score of 100%, with an average rating of 8.55/10 out of 15 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Missing's astute narrative and intense perplexity allow for more thrills and exciting guesswork in season 2." On Metacritic, the series has a score of 76 out of 100 based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".