When The Woman In The Wall arrives on BBC1 and Paramount on Showtime, the emotional drama will show us the legacy of one of Ireland’s most shocking scandals — the inhumane institutions known as 'The Magdalene Laundries'
Starring Ruth Wilson (His Dark Materials) and Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters), it follows the the horrors the befall one Irish woman Lorna Brady who wakes one morning to find a dead body in her house. Daryl McCormack joins Ruth to play investigating Garda detective Colman Akande.
Ruth Wilson will also executive produces the six-part series for Motive Pictures alongside creator and BAFTA Award-nominated Joe Murtagh (Calm With Horses) and BAFTA Award-nominee Harry Wootliff (True Things, Only You) who directs some episodes.
So here's everything you need to know about BBC One and Showtime drama The Woman In The Wall...
The Woman In The Wall release date
The Woman In The Wall is a six-part drama that launches in the UK on BBC1 on Sunday August 27 at 9.05pm, with the following episode on Monday August 28 at 9pm. After that the four remaining episodes will run weekly on Sundays at 9pm. Episodes will only become available on BBCiPlayer after it has aired on BBC1. It is a major drama for the BBC's Autumn TV season.
The Woman In The Wall is due to be shown on Paramount Plus with Showtime in the US while it is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution in all other territories. We'll update on the US and international release dates when we learn more.
Is there a trailer for The Woman In The Wall?
Yes a trailer for the The Woman In The Wall has now arrived from the BBC which shows Ruth Wilson leading the cast as Lorna. The language is pretty strong in parts. Do take a look at the trailer below to get an idea...
What is the plot of The Woman In The Wall?
The Woman In The Wall follows the horrors experienced by Lorna Brady (Ruth Wilson) is a woman from the small, fictional Irish town of Kilkinure, who wakes one morning to find a corpse in her house.
Lorna is chilled to the core as she has no idea who the dead woman is or if she could even be responsible for the apparent murder herself. This is a deadly possibility because Lorna suffers from extreme bouts of sleepwalking, which started around the time she was ripped from her life at the age of 15 and incarcerated in the Kilkinure Convent.
This awful place was home to one of Ireland’s infamous 'Magdalene Laundries', a place where women were taken when they had fallen from grace — so included those accused of committing adultery to teenage pregnancies.
When the Kilkinure Convent finally closed its doors, a score of survivors were left suffering in its wake. Very few women were able to go on and lead relatively normal lives, and others, such as Lorna, were even less fortunate in their fate. One thing all survivors had in common, is that none of them would ever forget.
Unluckily it all unravels for Lorna, when the very ambitious Detective Colman Akande (Daryl McCormack) starts investigating her for a crime that is seemingly unrelated to the dead woman she’s discovered in her house. But are the two linked?
The ambitious Colman quickly rose through the ranks of the Garda Síochána thanks to his natural aptitude. His scathing wit hides a quiet sadness, and when he meets Lorna Brady, he finds himself forced to confront his own haunting secrets.
As Colman searches for a murderer and Lorna searches for her daughter, their paths collide in ways they could never have anticipated. Lorna’s search for Agnes will take her deep into her own past and to the heart of Kilkinure’s darkest secrets, as she and Colman seek the answers they each so desperately need.
The Woman In The Wall cast — Ruth Wilson interview on playing Lorna Brady
As the main star of The Woman In The Wall, as well as executive producer, Ruth Wilson says: “Lorna Brady is a complex and fascinating character and I’m thrilled to help bring her to life. In The Woman in the Wall Joe Murtagh has created both an enthralling gothic thriller and a moving examination of the legacy of The Magdalene Laundries. It’s a privilege to bring this story to TV screens. I remember reading the script and thinking, ‘This is fascinating with really great characters.’ It laces through a number of different genres – psychological horror, black comedy and even crime caper. It was also about something vital that I didn't know much about and I thought, ‘This is a creative way of bringing this story to a wider audience.’
Here's much more of Ruth Wilson's interview....
The opening scene sees Lorna wake up lying in the road after sleepwalking and cows are sniffing at her. Was that challenging to film?
Ruth Wilson says: "Cows are scary but they were well behaved! There was food behind my head, just drawing them in. It was freezing and windy but it's a clever way to start the show, it sets the tone – it's not a straightforward drama, it's going to push boundaries and encourage you to laugh as well. It’s serious material, but it has humour within it. You need that alongside the dark."
How do you see Lorna?
Ruth says: "I love Lorna, she's mad and she's brilliant. She is haunted by her trauma. And her sleepwalking is a manifestation of what she's gone through. We don’t know if things are real or not. You are inside Lorna’s head and the camera shots are sometimes in and out of focus, and that's how she must feel. As an audience, you’re led through her emotions, you’re getting inside the mind of a person who could be a killer."
She’s incredibly angry, isn’t she?
Ruth says: "She’s furious! And she hasn’t been allowed to be furious. Society put her in this institution, which made her feel ashamed and which didn’t listen when she wanted to speak out. But her rage emerges as the reality hits. Only when this note arrives does it all start coming to the fore. The only way to control it is not to sleep and then she becomes more mad…"
How did you find shooting in Lorna’s oppressive house?
Ruth says: "It’s great, isn't it?! There’s this horror movie element so the house becomes important. It's her parents’ home where the trauma began when she was sent away by them. Nothing's changed, the past hasn't been dealt with, it’s facing her every day. The house itself is her haunting and it’s brilliantly designed."
What do you make of the relationship between her and Colman?
Ruth explains: "At first, she's like, ‘He’s after me.’ They are antagonists against each other. But they're both missing something in their lives – he has experiences of the mother and baby homes too – and, as it goes on, they realise that they fill a hole for each other and they come together."
Was there any research you could do?
Ruth reveals: "The subject matter is so sensitive. There are oral histories and testimonies and a great book called The Light in the Window [by June Goulding], which was illuminating. It's from the point of view of a nurse who was brought into a mother and baby home to look after the girls. I also went to Tuam in Western Ireland [the site of a former mother and baby home where a mass grave was found], and that was moving.
Were you able to meet survivors?
Ruth says: "I didn't, you don’t want to put them back through their trauma. But we had a consultant, Katherine O'Donnell, who works with them and we talked to her a lot. And it was interesting working alongside people in our crew and cast who had direct attachments to this. You realise how wide it spread and how many people it touched."
What do you hope viewers take away?
Ruth says: "I hope people are gripped and moved. But I also hope that it encourages people to dig deeper and read about the Magdalene Laundries and the mother and baby homes and understand on a different level the experiences these women went through."
* Ruth WIlson is best known in recent years for her portrayal of Mrs Coulter in His Dark Materials. She also played unhinged Alice Morgan in Luther and Alison Bailey in The Affair.
Daryl McCormack as Detective Colman Akande
Detective Colman Akande quickly rose through the ranks of the Garda Síochána thanks to his natural aptitude for the job. He possesses a dark and sometimes scathing wit but there is a quiet sadness to him that even he doesn’t understand, and he's hiding his own secrets from the world.
Daryl McCormack, who plays Colman, is starring in new Apple TV+ series Bad Sisters. He's previously appeared as Isaiah Jesus in Peaky Blinders, Pierce Devlin in Irish soap Fair City and lead character Leo in Good Luck to You Leo Grande.
Here Daryl reveals more about The Woman In The Wall....
Can you tell us about your character, Colman Akande?
Daryl says: "Colman is a detective. He is in his early 30s and is an adopted young man who came out of the Mother and Baby Home within our fictional town of Kilkinure so he's never known the true identity of his mother. He is very bullheaded, kind of stubborn, but you can sense that it is his only way to survive. He's an interesting character and hides a lot on the surface, he is almost a victim of the type of masculinity that almost hurts him. He struggles to really bear himself to those around him. He's met with a lot of his own demons and paths that he doesn't want to really face but this investigative case that he is working on forces him to do so. You can sense the wounds and trauma that he hasn’t yet dealt with and has to then face throughout the course of the series."
You’ve recently returned to Ireland to star in Bad Sisters, how did these two roles differ?
Daryl says: "In Bad Sisters, I played someone who was investigating a fraudulent insurance claim and for this series, I’m portraying a detective who's dealing with criminal activity – a murder. In Bad Sisters, that character was a musician who gets caught up in his brother's business, so he's a little bit more reluctant to go through the dealings and he's getting caught up in that world. Whereas for Colman, it's his job to solve cases and to meet them head on."
Colman is transferred from Dublin to the fictional Irish town of Kilkinure – a seemingly close-knit community, which up until the events of the series, remains relatively quiet. Tell us about this journey for Colman, and what his relationships are like with Gardai and people living in the town?
Daryl says: "I think Colman is angry at what appears to him to be small mindedness on behalf of the local Gardai. I think there can be an Irish tendency to sometimes sweep things under the rug in fear of hurting people or in fear of disrupting the peace. And he’s partnered with a detective called Massey who is very happy to just move things along quite quickly. So, there is a dissonance there between the two of them. They operate in very different ways. He has no real allegiance or obligation to appease the local community, so he comes in becomes quite frustrated quite quickly, which I think adds to the kind of comedy of the two. They're two very different people which makes for more of an obstacle for his investigation."
Though totally fictional the series is inspired by Ireland’s horrific history with the Magdalene Laundries and Mother & Baby Homes. How much did you know about these real-life events before taking on the role?
Daryl reveals: "I've known about the Magdalene Laundries for quite some time. I remember watching The Magdalene Sisters movie when I was maybe 14 or 15. And through kind of just growing up in Ireland, it would have been talked about every once in a while. So I knew of it for the most part, but I obviously did a much deeper dive into the history once I once I started prepping for this role. I was more focusing on the children that came out of the Mother and Baby Homes, because that's where Colman was coming from. It was difficult. Obviously, there's a lot of pain and a lot of shame, which is part of the Catholic institution. So it was necessary, but also difficult to re-expose myself to the truth of what happened."
Who else is starring in The Woman In The Wall?
The remaining cast for The Woman In The Wall are as follows...
Philippa Dunne, plays pregnant and determined Niamh, the local woman who is trying to get justice for Lorna and others who were sent to the Kilkinure convent.
Simon Delaney is Aidan Massey, a laidback police sergeant who is eager to keep things on an even keel in Kilkinure and avoid any potential scandal.
Former Holby CIty star Chizzy Akudolu plays Lola Akande who is Colman’s adoptive mother. She showers him with love but can she help him come to terms with his childhood?
Dermot Crowley plays James Coyle while Frances Tomelty is Sister Eileen, the former Mother Superior who might be able to provide answers at the convent. Ardal O'Hanlon plays Dara O'Halloran who has a criminal past and will do anything to rotect his ex-nun wife Aoife and their daughter.
Abby Fitz plays the teen Lorna sent to the convent.
Behind the scenes and Joe Murtagh on The Woman In The Wall
Creator and Executive Producer of The Woman In The Wall Joe Murtagh, whose previous credits include Gangs of London, says, “My family is from Mayo, the county in which the fictional Kilkinure is set, and it deeply frustrates and saddens me that it feels so few people have heard of the Laundries that existed across Ireland. I hope that by making something that has the familiarity of a genre piece we are able to shed some light on the awful things that occurred within these kind of institutions and introduce this history to the wider public, so that nothing like it may ever happen again.”
"I had this idea about 10 years ago when I was at film school and I saw [2002 film] The Magdalene Sisters, which is about the Magdalene Laundries. I couldn't believe this had happened. I hadn’t known about it. But the last laundry only shut in 1996. It’s this hidden bit of history, and that inspired me to get the story out there,’ says Joe, who was able to meet survivors. What struck me was how enthusiastic they were for us to tell this story. And how thankful they were that someone is talking about this. I want to start the conversation so that people who are trying to achieve justice will be more empowered."
Sam Lavender and Simon Maxwell, Executive Producers for Motive Pictures add: “Joe Murtagh has crafted a brilliantly inventive and emotionally powerful exploration of the personal and collective traumas experienced by the survivors of the Magdalene laundries and Mother & Baby Homes. It’s a testament to the unique quality of Joe’s scripts that this series/show has attracted the extraordinary talents of Ruth Wilson, Daryl McCormack and director Harry Wootliff to work with us to bring this profoundly relevant story to audiences around the world.”
