The Missing poster

The Missing

★ 8.1 33K votes 2014–2016 2 seasons · 16 episodes Ended BBC One
Slow burnDeliberate pacing where the payoffs are earned over long stretches.This show: 8/10BleakGrim and heavy, with little easy relief. These shows sit with suffering instead of softening it.This show: 8/10Emotionally heavyDemands real emotional stamina from the viewer.This show: 8/10SerializedContinuous arcs where every episode builds on the last.This show: 8/10TenseSustained suspense and pressure from start to finish.This show: 8/10Secrets & liesHidden truths straining every relationship.This show: 8/10Dark toneShadowy mood and subject matter, a shade short of outright bleak.This show: 8/10Gut punchWilling to devastate you, and remembered for it.This show: 7/10
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Starring
Tchéky KaryoAnastasia HilleJames NesbittFrances O'ConnorKeeley HawesDavid Morrissey
Starring
Tchéky KaryoAnastasia HilleJames NesbittFrances O'ConnorKeeley HawesDavid Morrissey
Ratings per Episode
246810
Votes per Episode
03006009001k

The Missing Episode Ratings Heatmap

AvgE1E2E3E4E5E6E7E8
S18.08.17.67.97.78.17.98.18.3
S28.68.48.48.58.38.68.28.89.2

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About

"Grief and obsession dressed up as a mystery"

A child vanishes during a family holiday, and the show follows the unraveling search across two timelines, present-day exhaustion intercut with the frantic early investigation. Season two shifts to a new case but keeps the same aching structure. It's a slow-burn mystery more interested in grief, obsession, and the corrosive toll of not knowing than in flashy twists. The pace is deliberate, the tone bleak and wintry, and the performances (especially the parents) carry real emotional weight. It rewards patience with a genuinely unsettling sense of dread rather than easy answers.

Watch it for

the devastating lead performances as parents unravel over years of not knowing.

Maybe skip if

you want quick answers rather than a slow, grief-soaked psychological unraveling.

Written by our AI editor to help you decide, spoiler-free by design.

All Seasons

Season 12014
8.07K87h 40m
When Tony and Emily Hughes travel to France with their 5-year-old son Oliver, their family holiday turns into a nightmare when Oliver disappears from a large celebrating crowd in Northern France.
Season 22016
8.66K87h 50m
In 2014, a young British woman stumbles through the streets of her German hometown and collapses. Her name is Alice Webster, and she has been missing for 11 years. Alice’s return sends shockwaves through the small community. Told in dual timelines, flitting between 2014 and the present day, we follow Alice’s family as they are thrown back into a turmoil that threatens to tear them apart at the seams. When French missing persons detective Julien Baptiste, races across Europe to pursue a 12-year-old case that he never let die, we begin to explore the murky morality and emotional complexity of what happens when the missing child you’ve been longing to return actually comes back.

Full Cast & Crew

Cast

Tchéky Karyo Julien Baptiste
Anastasia Hille Celia Baptiste
James Nesbitt Tony Hughes
Frances O'Connor Emily Hughes
Keeley Hawes Gemma Webster
David Morrissey Sam Webster
Émilie Dequenne Laurence Relaud
Jason Flemyng Mark Walsh
Laura Fraser Eve Stone
Abigail Hardingham Alice Webster

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