THE WOMAN IN THE WALL. BBC 1 sun 9pm - TV PACE. NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

this is a 6 part drama

1 is shown sun and then 2 on the monday

3456 the following 4 Sundays

it’s will no doubt be on iPlayer but try and not binge lovely people in my phone 😂😂😂

this will be tv paced

Ruth Wilson and Daryl McCormack are teaming up for a gripping new BBC drama, which is inspired by the horrifying revelations around Ireland's Magdalene Laundries.

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.

The Woman in the Wall follows Lorna Brady (Wilson), a woman who was incarcerated in a convent from a young age, where she traumatically gave birth – only to have the baby taken away from her to whereabouts unknown.

The awful treatment she endured continues to impact her life, causing extreme bouts of sleepwalking that end with her waking up in strange places with no memory of how she got there.

While her specific story is a work of fiction, the Magdalene Laundries were very real and are thought to have blighted the lives of tens of thousands of women.

Although their history dates back further, more is known about the practices of these institutions in the 20th century, where inmates entered via the criminal justice system, reformatory schools and the Health and Social Services sector.

Once inside, they would have to carry out unpaid labour, while many former inmates have reported being abused.

Magdalene Laundries became the subject of a media scandal in the 1990s, when a mass grave holding 155 bodies was discovered on the former grounds of one such institution in Drumcondra, Dublin.

There was a series recently I watched (Scandi? Netflix?) about drug smuggling, partly set in Ireland, and a woman detective came over to Ireland from Norway (?) to investigate. Anyway, it had exactly the same stock comedy garda character.

I don't know, but I've a feeling she actually hasn't buried a woman in her wall at all , but it's just a euphemism for ' burying bad thoughts' and her obvious trauma for what went on :(
However, I'm usually very wrong and agree that she would have knocked into next door !

I'm 55. I was speaking to my Aunt (75,) recently. She got pregnant aged 16. Her boyfriend (17) wanted to marry her but her Father didn't approve of him. The (Catholic) family plan was to 'send her to the Magdalenas in Ireland'.
She shook when she told me how relieved she'd been that 'her baby was a boy & came early & her own Father fell in love with him so they were safe from the Laundry'. Her story had a happy ending as she & her boyfriend married, had a 2nd child & have been very happy

My Mother had me out of wedlock in 1968 in a small town (worse, both my natural parents were married but not to each other. It was meant to be a lovestory but my bio Dad died) Her parents shunned her. She stayed in her marriage as 'there was literally nowhere else to go'. She was spat at in the street, I came home from infants school asking what 'bastard' meant (my head teacher often called me it!).
Now no one would bat an eye. Different times, but not so long ago.

I still find it shocking that anyone still follows an organisation that did such horrific things. Lucy Letby will be in prison for murdering babies. These nuns got away with murder plain and simple. There are far too many dead babies in Tuam to have all died from natural causes.

Watching the 1st episode today as had visitors last night. Drinking pink cocktails in the “Thin Man” pub 😞

Yes this was my feeling.

I was at a private convent in the 1980s so before the last Laundry closed in 1990s.

The nuns quite rightly treated any contact with other schools (like the girls one I’d gone to) as bad news but the Catholic boys school down the road and the Catholic comprehensive nearby were considered ok as they had “our type” there (even though I’m Protestant. I’d actually lost my virginity at 14 (yes too young) but the same year I joined the convent (was at another school) but I wisely kept quiet about this (was only a brief relationship). The other girls especially those without brothers treated boys as an alien species and the grounds man, Gardener, priest and IT teacher (male) were all the subject of crushes. Sex education was not on the cards unless you had human biology and even then it was very basic. We did have an old nun who sold tuck (homemade cakes and crisps etc) who would sit and scream “S E X spells sex and it is bad and evil”, she was at least in her 80s and we mostly ignored her.

In my 5th form another girl got in trouble for bringing in Playboy/Playgirl and like I said one girl got pregnant (by her singing master luckily not employed by the school).

I heard later that at another nearby convent an older friend of a friend got pregnant at 15 had to have the baby but her DM supported her (her DF had died).

At the boys school (Catholic) they had dances/discos where the boys were rampant, once one (very tall and well built) got me in a private room by saying there was something there to see, there was no way I was having sex with him or anything else but he dry humped me - I avoided him after that but then bumped into him a Catholic youth group where we had a smooch and a couple of dates afterwards but I really didn’t like him!

Like I said there was the odd story I mentioned in my stepdad’s family where the young girl/woman luckily kept the baby but most girls didn’t have that option.

I worked with a flighty Dublin young woman when I was younger in my early 20s who said she was pretty, liked boys and could’ve got into trouble but said her parents hammered it into her to never have sex before marriage and the consequences if she did do this.

It’s quite disgusting that not only were girls put in these laundries if they were too pretty but also if they were ugly or silly (supposed to be easier targets for boys). They weren’t allowed to take physically or mentally handicapped girls but apparently this wasn’t for altruistic reasons but was because they couldn’t be put to work to earn money so easily.

I will say that my convent wasn’t that bad, looking back, yes the nuns were sometimes harsh but it was very much a generational thing of them and us.

The mass grave discovered in or outside Dublin which was discovered makes me so angry and upset but sadly it’s not just the case in Ireland. Were there similar convents and laundries in other Catholic countries?

The nuns and priests should be held to account but sadly Rome tends to think that an apology from the Catholic church acts as a salve and is acceptable. It’s not.

The book of that name is very good.

Laundries such as this operated in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada, the United States, and Australia, for much of the 19th and well into the 20th century.

Not sure if graves were found in any of the other countries.

Now I like Ruth Wilson, and she played the lead beautifully, but why her? Are there no Irish women who could have taken the part?

I found it very ‘bitty’ too many flash backs and it didn’t seem to know what it wanted to be.

And as said above, are houses normally built with hollow walls like American houses in Ireland? I’ve never known a house like that in England but perhaps that’s more common in Ireland.

I don’t believe there is a body at all.She bent it in half at one point!You wouldn’t be able to do that!

I wish they had an Irish actress instead of Ruth Wilson,her accent is dreadful!

Sorry can't quite a quote on the app

@Theblacksheepandme I meant that due to this programme I googled the laundry - I had no idea it had happened

Horrific to those poor girls

@medianewbie that must have been awful for you and mum

Will do

"..... and it didn't seem to know what it wanted to be."

I agree @PriamFarrl

It’s a pity the lovely Nika McGuigan sadly passed away, not sure if she’d have been the right “type” of actress for the lead here but she was dark haired if they wanted that. Maybe slightly on the younger side but as I liked her as an actress and I think she’d have done well. Seana Kerslake (Can’t Cope Won’t Cope) wouldn’t have been suitable. From that same series Sheila Moylette) another dark haired actress) who played Aisling’s colleague and landlady might’ve been good in this lead.

Philippa Dunne is doing a good job at coordinating the older abused women.

Thank you for adding me to the TV list.
Thank you also for your kind words x (I didn't mean to 'blurt' quite so much!)
But it's good that attitudes towards unmarried mothers have changed SO much. (I realise that Magdalene Laundries didn't just house unmarried mothers)

@medianewbie thats awful - I know the ‘sins of the father’ was a very prevalent sentiment still, late 60’s and 70’s but to use that language with an innocent infant pupil is atrocious. I’m sorry that happened to you.

@Terloz ah, thanks! She was a horrible old bat right enough & it was quite a backwards community. I'm just so glad it's unimaginable now & unmarried women (& kids) have far more choices

Sorry @Blondeshavemorefun - you have a great eye for a compelling tv series! Please add me to your list too.

(just been getting way too involved in the ins and outs of the Catholic Church).

On another topic but kind of related to this. DB’s first wife was in a children’s home in Dublin area as her DM died and her DF had something like 5-6 children and couldn’t care for them all. Don’t think grandparents were around or able to help out. She never really divulged to me what had happened but the priests and staff of this home were abusive so much so that she and her siblings were awarded compensation, not sure how much but probably not nearly enough as she should’ve got. Either way most of not all of the siblings were severely affected by their ill treatment.

I think I will continue to watch this to see if it improves!

TBH i just look to see what is on at 9/10pm on bbc itv 4&5 😂

Usually series or drama and I search for it

Will add you

@GonnaGetGoingReturns 'Forgive me father for I have sinned' should never have to come out the mouth of a 10 year old and yet we had to go to confession twice a week. I had to make stuff up! Hope your school friend found her freedom.

Confession and communion starts at eight. Don't get me started on eight year old little girls wearing white dresses like wedding dresses for first holy communion. It's just so wrong.