GONE - sun and mon 9pm itv - TV PACE NO SPOILERS [Title edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

[Blondeshavemorefun]

new 6 part series stars Eve Myles (https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/lifestyle/a65948077/best-eve-myles-dramas/) (Keeping Faith) as gutsy Detective Annie Cassidy, who's investigating the mysterious disappearance of Bristol woman, Sarah.

And the chilling twist is that Detective Cassidy’s main suspect is Sarah’s husband, Headmaster Michael Polly, who's played by none other than Sherwood's David Morrissey. Genius casting indeed!

Gone is a chilling mystery focusing on local Headmaster Michael Polly, played by David Morrissey (The Long Shadow, Sherwood), who becomes the prime suspect in his wife Sarah’s disappearance.

An upstanding member of the community, Michael Polly is inscrutable and likes order and precision in his working life.

Until, that is, he encounters super bright, gutsy Detective Annie Cassidy, played by Eve Myles (The Crow Girl, Hijack) and a compulsive game of cat and mouse begins as she chips away at his veneer in search of the truth.

Beneath the surface of the mystery, lies a deeper exploration of trauma, trust and the legacy of elite institutions.

The series also stars Jennifer Macbeth, Arthur Hughes, Nicholas Nunn, Elliot Cowan, Billy Barratt, Rupert Evans, Jodie McNee, Oscar Batterham and Clare Higgins.

i watched him in something really excellent recently - He became the youngest winner of the International Emmy Award for Best Actor at the age of 13 for his role in the television film Responsible Child (2019).

i watched responsible child,

He’s also the son of Shakin’ Stevens!

I do think that the Tina storyline and the new evidence Craig haa given her re. the hand bag could pave the way for a new Annie-led series.

I found Gone a lot more enjoyable than many standard TV drama series. I don't need everything to zip along at a fast pace with exaggerated unrealistic characters (thank you very much Harlan Coben) to keep my attention. But then I will watch David Morrissey in anything - I am actually in love with him.

Glaring ommissions for me are:

Paul. What the fuck was that all about and I hope Alanna gives him the heave-ho now.

No real explanation of when and where Sarah was murdered.

Why did Claire Goose accept a part where she only had two short scenes in the whole series?

Why has my reply been hidden? It gives the details on the real life cold case of a murdered teenager that this was inspired by.

yes, I think they’ll be pitching for a second series with the Tina storyline continuing. But it made for a bit of a damp squib of an ending.

I meant grandson.

Yep. We did the same. Terrible.

@purpleme12 That’s right, I had forgotten about Stephen using Sarah’s card.

There were good performances and I liked Eve Myles in this but I found Michael’s character a bit unbelievable, so buttoned up that he almost killed himself rather than admit that he’d been less than ideal as a husband and father. He felt like something from a much older generation.

And given that the series was at least partially inspired by a real life cold case which the police ultimately solved, I can’t understand why the fictional one wasn’t also wrapped up.

Somehow I found the reveal really disappointing.

Perhaps the "motive"?

I think I'd rather it had been Simone or Trudy because Sarah was cheating!

I enjoyed and kept guessing

tho still not sure why depty head killed sarah

so they were just walking and talking in the woods and he strangled her?

Weird. I wa:s going to ask what did you say ?

Tho sometimes seem mn doesn’t like links and spams the post

I mentioned upthread that DH, who went to a cathedral school, found Michael and the school quite credible! Although of course that was ~50 years ago.

The whole cold case thing makes no sense unless they are wanting to make another series (or more) with that as a longer-running backbone theme - there have been detective series in the past where they’ve done that sort of thing. But I’m not sure this first series was strong enough for them to get funding for more, and a lot of what made this one worth watching was David Morrisey who presumably wouldn’t figure in any subsequent plot lines.

I gave the link to where it’s discussed about the murdered teenager, that inspired this series, as the series is inspired by the detectives own book.

I thought it quite important not to forget, that at the heart of this is a young girl, whose life was brutally taken. She was my age, and a friend of a friend, but I never knew her.

The more I think about it the more exasperated I get with Michael and the constant focus of attention on him, with everyone tying themselves in knots trying to work out whether he did it because he's so aloof and repressed. If he had succeeded in ending things Alana would have lost both parents and the police would have seen it as an admission of guilt and closed the case, with the real killer getting away with it - how is that justice for the wife he supposedly loved? He needed to tell the police everything they needed to know so they could get on with their job of finding the killer, not stonewalling and making cryptic statements and grand gestures which all seem so performative.

I don't think a female character would have been written like that, and I wonder if the male writer thinks this is a sort of flawed heroic thing, because as an irritated perimenopausal woman I just think "Oh FFS get over yourself and give your poor daughter a bloody hug".

I thought it was a jealous rage, that he had lusted after her, and potentially made a move that she rebuffed and said nothing could happen, "because she was married" ...but then started the affair with someone else (while married)

Yes, I was similarly impatient with Michael. Self-pity by the bucket-load; just man up and be there for your daughter! And the whole (bodged?) suicide was ridiculously glossed over. He just happened to be found, in the nick of time, by a passer-by, are we to understand? Some distance away from the noose. Had the polis even found the noose? It was unguarded, and Annie headed straight for it. And as PP have pointed out, nothing on moving the body, etc etc.

He killed her because she didn't want him (despite his advances) and had an affair with someone other than him. He was obsessed with her. He tried to force her to finish the affair using the excuse of school reputation and when she refused and told him to butt out he killed her.

Ah right. Thanks

I thought it was good until this last episode , which was disappointing .

Michael is his own worst enemy, , not likeable and had the manner of men a few generations ago.

Why did Annie say Dylan out loud as if she'd suddenly found the murderer and then we saw her going to the Deputy Head's ?

I didn't like her very much either , wanted to do absolutely everything her own way .

Years ago I watched part of an episode of something where David Morrissey played a romantic lead. There was a scene between him and a woman he was having an affair with (either he was married or she was married or both) - I think he was playing a rural farmer type. God it was sexy as hell. I've tried in vain to find it since. Even looking through IMDB isn't giving me great clues. Does anyone have any idea what film/series I'm talking about ?

Lindor, the only tv show I could find starring David Morrissey was a 2011 show called ‘ south riding ‘ set during WW1. Can’t do links, may be worth looking up ? I don’t remember it at all, but DM plays a farmer type.

I quite liked it. Morrissey and Myles carried the whole thing really, they are very good at the moody stares. What was the scouse di previously in, I recognise her.
That Craig, what a wanker. I do hope they don't have him and his whiny voice in series 2.
Surprised she drove round with evidence shoved in her car.
The daughter and her wet bf were a bit annoying but I'd probably be the same in her situation.

I’m sure that the real police laugh at people in dramas that take evidence out with them or go off sleuthing without any back up or go off grid after being suspended for doing the wrong thing for the right reasons and all the other tropes they have in detective shows.