Ruth Wilson & Daryl McCormack Showtime Join THE WOMAN IN THE WALL

SHOWTIME and The BBC announced TODAY the new six-episode gothic thriller THE WOMAN IN THE WALL, led by BAFTA® Award winner Ruth Wilson (THE AFFAIR, Luther) and co-starring Daryl McCormick (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Peaky Blinders).

Produced by Motive Pictures (an Endeavor Content backed company), Wilson will also executive produce with series creator BAFTA Award-nominated Joe Murtagh (Calm With Horses) and BAFTA Award-nominee Harry Wootliff (True Things, Only You), who will direct multiple episodes. Rachna Suri (Half Bad) joins as second block director.

This new drama, which will air on SHOWTIME in the U.S., BBC One and iPlayer in the UK, and be distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution in all other territories, will examine the legacy of one of Ireland's most shocking scandals - the inhumane institutions known as "The Magdalene Laundries." The announcement was made TODAY by Jana Winograde and Gary Levine, Presidents of Entertainment at Showtime Networks Inc. and Ben Irving, Acting Director of BBC Drama.

Lorna Brady (Wilson) is a woman from the small fictional town of Kilkinure, who wakes one morning to find a corpse in her house. Chillingly, Lorna has no idea who the dead woman is or if she herself might be responsible for the apparent murder...That's because Lorna has long suffered from extreme bouts of sleepwalking, understood to have manifested around the time she was ripped from her life at the age of 15 and incarcerated in The Kilkinure Convent.

The Convent was home to one of Ireland's infamous Magdalene Laundries, a place where women were taken when they fell afoul of the social mores of their times - from those accused of committing adultery to teenage pregnancies. When it 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, 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 for Lorna, the extremely ambitious, albeit elusive, Detective Colman Akande (McCormack) is now also on her tail for a crime which is seemingly unrelated to the dead woman she's discovered in her house. Colman 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...

Distinct, stirring and revelatory, THE WOMAN IN THE WALL is a gothic detective story shot through with dark humor and elements of psychological horror, which follows a pair of forgotten and unlikely protagonists searching for the answers they so desperately need in a place where they have been long buried...

"THE WOMAN IN THE WALL takes on a startling story about a notorious and heartbreaking scandal in Ireland, one that destroyed the lives of women for more than 200 years," said Winograde. "We are thrilled to bring the incomparable Ruth Wilson back to SHOWTIME with such a powerful, moving series that is also incredibly relevant to our culture today."

"It's a real pleasure to announce this remarkable new series for BBC One and iPlayer," said Irving. "Joe Murtagh's scripts are surprising, moving, and continually compelling, with two lead characters who I cannot wait to see brought to life by the extraordinary talents of Ruth Wilson and Daryl McCormack. With Harry Wootliff in the director's chair, audiences are in for six incredible hours of drama."

"Lorna Brady is a complex and fascinating character and I'm thrilled to help bring her to life," said Wilson. "In THE WOMAN IN THE WALL, Joe 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 screens."

"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," said Murtagh. "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."

Wilson is a two-time Olivier award-winner, Golden Globe® winner, and Tony nominated actor. In the UK, Wilson has twice been nominated for BAFTA actress awards; for Mrs. Wilson and Jane Eyre, and won the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actress for His Dark Materials.

She also received Best Actress nominations from the British Independent Film Awards for True Things and Dark River. In addition to starring in the hit SHOWTIME drama THE AFFAIR, Wilson's other credits include the upcoming film See How They Run, Oslo, Mrs. Wilson and her defining role as Alice Morgan on Luther.

McCormack most recently starred opposite Emma Thompson in the critically acclaimed film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. His other noteworthy credits include Peaky Blinders, The Wheel of Time, A Good Woman Is Hard to Find and Fair City.

Murtagh earned BAFTA and BIFA nominations for Calm With Horses, for which he wrote the screenplay. His other writing credits include Gangs of London, The Kitchen, and Origin.

Wootliff won two BIFA awards, honoring her work as a debut writer and director, for Only You. That film also earned her second BAFTA nomination, as well as a Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best First Screenplay.

Most recently, she directed and co-wrote True Things, starring Wilson. In addition, Wootliff was nominated for a BAFTA for the short film, Nits and she directed episodes of the limited series Deep Water and the final episode of His Dark Materials.

Produced by Motive Pictures for SHOWTIME and The BBC, THE WOMAN IN THE WALL will be executive produced by Sam Lavender (Saint Maud, The Lobster), Simon Maxwell (Get Millie Black, Deep State), Joe Murtagh, Ruth Wilson and Harry Wootliff.

Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Paramount, owns and operates the premium service SHOWTIME®, which features critically acclaimed original series, provocative documentaries, box-office hit films, comedy and music specials and hard-hitting sports.

Photos: Photography by Pip

To post a comment, you must register and login.