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The Missing
The Missing“A fascinating and highly compelling
  television series about a living nightmare
  as a young boy goes missing in France,
  The Missing is a must-see hard-hitting
  drama with awesome twists and turns
  that leave you teetering on the edge
  of your seat as his parents try to find
  out what really happened to him...”

A MOMENT'S DISTRACTION AND A YOUNG BOY DISAPPEARS. His distraught parents report him missing and begin the heart-rending search for him in BBC1's powerful and magnetic eight-part series The Missing that was aired from 28 October (2014).

Tony (James Nesbitt: Cold Feet; Murphy's Law; Jekyll) and Emily Hughes (Frances O'Connor: Mr Selfridge) are on holiday in Chalons du Bois, France, with their five-year-old son Oliver (Oliver Hunt), staying at an hotel in France run by Sylvie (Astrid Whettnall) and Alain Deloix (Jean-François Wolff).

“Harrowing at times
yet riveting as the series
pulls the viewer deeper
into Tony’s
unthinkably-bleak world
and you agonise with
him over his lost child,
The Missing is
totally believable
and outstanding and
will have you teetering on the edge of your seat
at every turn...”
Tony takes Oliver swimming and afterwards they join a group of football fans in a bar who are watching a televised match, but Tony loses his grip on Oliver's hand; only to find the boy has disappeared and he is unable to find him.

It is the beginning of an eight-year search by his frantic parents that spans two continents as The Missing perfectly captures the desperation of a husband and wife who have lost their only child.

English-speaking Police Officer Laurence Relaud (Emilie Dequenne) calls in Parisian Police Detective Julien Baptiste (Tchéky Karyo: The Patriot), who launches the initial but fruitless search for Oliver. Emily's parents rush to France and her father questions Tony about a past misdemeanour that could point to a revenge kidnapping.

Using cleverly-constructed time frames and set in France and London, The Missing deftly switches between past and present, from 2006 through to 2014 when, eight years after Oliver disappeared, Emily has partially come to terms with her own pain and has divorced Tony.

In 2014 she is preparing for a future with another man — the English Police liaison officer Mark Walsh (Jason Flemyng: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), who had come to France in 2006 with his own young son and was supporting the Hughes'.

Tony still suffers openly beyond human endurance and his grief, frustration, guilt and the depths of despair drive him to desperate measures. The investigation of known paedophile Ian Garrett (Ken Stott), whose own 14-year-old daughter Molly disappeared some years before, leads to a violent confrontation; but there is still no peace for the bereft Tony.

Sex offender Vincent Bourg (Titus De Voogdt) was also questioned in 2006 and journalist Malik Suri (Arsher Ali) had bribed police officer Khalid Ziane (Said Taghmaoui) for inside information and other clues are emerging. But in 2014 the mayor, Alain's brother Georges Deloix (Eric Godon) is reluctant to re-open the case despite the fresh evidence.

Sylvie spots a boy wearing Oliver's distinctive scarf and both Tony and Julien follow the clues to a second-hand shop and finally to the cellar of a house where a child's picture on the wall could have been drawn by Oliver.

Julien had also interviewed Rini Daica (Annamaria Marinca), whose brother Leon is part of a Romanian people-trafficking operation and whose boyfriend Antoine is an undercover cop infiltrating the gang when he is murdered. Her offer of help may have serious consequences for her.

The van of suspected fellow trafficker Karl Seig (Johan Leysen) has been caught on camera outside the house where it is now certain that Oliver had been held. Now, in 2014, the retired Baptiste comes back to the case he was unable to solve when Oliver first disappeared, having never given up hope of finding the boy alive.

As further investigation progresses, a tragedy exposes a dreadful secret and Tony and Emily are at odds when it comes to uncovering vital information.

Can it be that someone known to them has been hiding something? Is the truth as simple as a genuine accident or as complex as Oliver witnessing something that could have exposed criminal activity? In this living nightmare, Tony's unshakeable belief that he will find his son alive and well never falters — even though the odds are stacked heavily against finding the boy at all.

Told through a fine, tantalising and complex narrative that reflects the fractured and frenetic battle for a lost child, The Missing is a thrilling and heart-breaking drama of a life consumed by hope, love, truth and obsession.

It is a gripping puzzle as Tony's exhaustive, obsessive search results in the break-up of his marriage and threatens to destroy his life; a reflection of the emotional cost of losing a child and not knowing if he is alive or dead or what he has been through.

Harrowing at times yet riveting as the series pulls the viewer deeper into Tony's unthinkably-bleak world and you agonise with him over his lost child, The Missing is totally believable and outstanding and will have you teetering on the edge of your seat at every turn. Upsetting scenes that never stray too far beyond suggestion.

The Missing also features: Anastasia Hille (The Tunnel) as Celia Baptiste; Macauley Keeper as James Walsh; Diana Kent as Penny; Clive Francis as Robert; Mark Hesketh as Daniel Morgan; Csaba Bartos as Costel; Michael Erpelding as Leon; Camille Schotte as Sara Baptiste; Diana Quick as Mary Garrett; and Josephine de la Baume (Rush) as Monique.

Series Music by Dominik Scherrer; Series Cinematography by Ole Bratt Birkeland; Written by Harry Williams and Jack Williams; Producer is Chris Clough; and Directed by Tom Shankland.

* Expected to become one of television and Home Entertainment's biggest titles of the year, the powerful eight-part series The Missing benefits from a superb cast and will be released, following its run on BBC1, by RLJ Entertainment's Acorn Label as a stunning three-disc DVD and two-disc Blu-ray set on 26 December 2014.

Product Details

DVD — Running Time: 480 Minutes Approximately on 3 Discs | Catalogue Number: AV3188 | RRP: £24.99.

Blu-ray — Running Time: 480 Minutes Approximately on 2 Discs | Catalogue Number: AB2014 | RRP: £24.99.

Special Features Include: 8 Mini-Features including Cast and Crew Interviews that take you Behind The Scenes of The Missing; Picture Gallery | Subtitles.

"Harrowing at times yet riveting as the series pulls the viewer deeper into Tony's unthinkably-bleak world and you agonise with him over his lost child, The Missing is totally believable and outstanding and will have you teetering on the edge of your seat at every turn" — Maggie Woods

"Hauntingly brilliant" — The Guardian

"A masterpiece of agony to rival Broadchurch *****" — The Times

"Excellent drama will leave your stomach tied in knots *****" — The Mirror