--- title: "Five Days" year: 2007 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/five-days" fi1m_id: "five-days" imdb_id: "tt0840094" tmdb_id: 4170 wikidata_id: "Q2972882" fi1m_score: 76 critics_score: 80 critics_reviews: 4 published: "2026-10-07T14:39:18.528419+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T14:39:19.181911+00:00" region: "GB" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Five Days (2007) Created by Otto Bathurst, Simon Curtis, Peter Hoar · 1h 00m · Crime, Drama ## Identity Five Days - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/five-days - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** five-days - **IMDb ID:** tt0840094 - **TMDB ID:** 4170 - **Wikidata ID:** Q2972882 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0840094/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/4170, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2972882 **Fi1m score: 76** · Critics 80 (early) from 4 reviews *In a sentence:* Five days of a missing-person case, chosen so that the worst ones happen off screen > A missing-persons drama that skips the days most series would dwell on and is stronger for it. Penelope Wilton and Patrick Malahide carry the waiting; the final episode hurries to an answer the first four did not need. ## Synopsis In an English town in the summer of 2007, Leanne Wellings (Christine Tremarco) pulls over at a roadside flower stall with two of her children in the car, and none of them is seen again. Her husband Matt Wellings (David Oyelowo) is at work when the call comes. Her mother Barbara Poole (Penelope Wilton) and Barbara’s husband John (Patrick Malahide) open their house to the police; her grandfather Vic Marsham (Edward Woodward) sits in the corner of it. DSI Iain Barclay (Hugh Bonneville) runs the search, with DS Amy Foster (Janet McTeer) assigned to the family and DC Stephen Beam (Charlie Creed-Miles) working the stall and the road. A reporter, Sarah Wheeler (Sarah Smart), arrives before the second day is out. The series shows five days of the case, not consecutive ones, across five hour-long episodes. ## Review *Five Days* takes a missing-person case and shows us five days of it, spread across nearly three months, with the gaps left for us to fill in. On the first of them Leanne Wellings (Christine Tremarco) stops to buy flowers at a roadside stall and does not come back to the car, and two of her children go with her. The series then jumps: to day three, to day twenty-eight, and on, each episode an hour, five episodes in all. It is a good idea, and it gets better as it goes, because the days it skips are the ones a lesser drama would have spent its money on. We arrive after the press conference, after the reconstruction, after the first lead has gone cold, and we are asked to work out what happened in between from the state of the people. The people are the reason to watch. Penelope Wilton plays Barbara Poole, Leanne’s mother, and what got at us, more than the mystery, was watching her make tea for the detectives in her own kitchen because it is the last useful thing left in the house. Patrick Malahide, as her husband John, plays a man who has decided that being practical is the same as being calm and is wrong about that; the gap between what he says and what his hands are doing is the best acting in the series. Edward Woodward, as the grandfather Vic Marsham, has less to do and does it almost without moving, a man who has had more years of bad news than anyone else in the house. The police are drawn with the same care and no more glamour. Hugh Bonneville’s DSI Iain Barclay is decent, tired, and visibly aware that the odds get worse with each day that passes; he is not a genius and the series does not pretend he is. Janet McTeer, as DS Amy Foster, is the officer who sits with the family, and she plays the job as it must actually be, a kindness that is also surveillance. Charlie Creed-Miles’s DC Stephen Beam does the legwork on the road and the stall. David Oyelowo’s Matt Wellings, the husband, is the man everyone looks at first, and Oyelowo lets us look without telling us what to think. Sarah Smart’s reporter, Sarah Wheeler, is the weakest strand; the series knows the press is part of these cases and is not sure what else to say about it. It is plainly made. Three directors, Otto Bathurst, Simon Curtis and Peter Hoar, share the five episodes, and we could not see the joins: flat daylight, ordinary semi-detached houses, incident rooms with the lights left on, and almost nothing on the soundtrack that is not someone talking. Curtis also produces, which may explain the consistency. There is no music telling us a scene is sad. The scenes are sad because of what is in them, and the camera waits. The trouble is the last hour. For four episodes the structure does the work, each jump landing us somewhere worse without having to show the fall. In the fifth the series has to produce an answer, and it produces one in a hurry, with a run of explanations that arrive faster than the preceding four hours had taught us to expect. We will not say what it is. We will say that the first four episodes did not need it, and that a version which trusted the gaps right to the end would have been braver. Anne Reid and Al Weaver have small strands of their own that we will leave for you to find, and that are better than the resolution they feed into. Most critics have liked it, and so do we; the one mixed review we have read makes the same complaint about the ending and is right to. A second series followed on 1 March 2010 with a different case, and this verdict does not include it. Set against the run of British missing-child dramas, this one is unusual for how little it shouts and how much it leaves out, and that is a recommendation. Watch it over two evenings rather than five. The jumps land harder when the previous day is still in your head, and you will mind the last hour less if you have not spent a week waiting for it. *Fi1m score 76, published 7 October 2026.* ## What the critics say With only 4 reviews in so far, the reviews lean positive, with most critics calling the series compelling and well written, and praise clustering on the ensemble cast, the subtle tensions between characters and the unusual structure of telling the investigation across five separate days. The one real reservation comes from Empire, which finds the suspense draining away as the facts emerge and faults the final revelation as rushed and contrived, while The AV Club notes the opening episode is slow to take hold before its cliffhanger does the work. ## Straight answers **Is Five Days worth watching?** *Five Days* is worth watching for anyone who prefers a missing-person drama built on waiting rather than chasing, and we scored it 76. Penelope Wilton and Patrick Malahide, as the parents left in the house, are the reason to see it. The last of the five hours hurries to an answer the first four did not need, so expect a slight let-down at the end. **How long is Five Days, and what is it rated?** *Five Days* has episodes of about 1h 00m. It is a crime and drama series. **Where can I watch Five Days in the UK?** *Five Days* is streaming on ITVX and Amazon Prime Video in the UK. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Five Days, and is it suitable for children?** *Five Days* carries no certificate in the UK and is unrated in the US, and it is a drama for adults and older teenagers rather than children. The subject is a mother and two children who vanish, and the series is upsetting in a quiet way, through grief in ordinary kitchens, not through anything shown on screen. We saw nothing graphic; the worst days happen in the gaps between episodes. **How does Five Days compare to The Vanishing?** *Five Days* and [*The Vanishing*](https://film.one/film/the-vanishing) are both about someone who stops at a roadside and is never seen again, but they work in opposite ways. Sluizer's film tells you who took her almost at once and is the colder, more frightening and more exact of the two. *Five Days* withholds, spends five hours with the family waiting, and is warmer and better acted, though its ending is the weaker. **What should I watch after Five Days?** After *Five Days*, try [*The Vanishing*](https://film.one/film/the-vanishing) (1988, Fi1m 88): A Dutch missing-person story that answers its question and makes you wish it hadn’t. Then [*Prime Suspect*](https://film.one/tv/prime-suspect) (1991, Fi1m 88): Procedure as exhaustion, with Helen Mirren doing the paperwork and the politics; and [*Top of the Lake*](https://film.one/tv/top-of-the-lake) (2013, Fi1m 82): Jane Campion’s missing girl, with a landscape that is in on it. ### Reviews we read (4) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Ray Richmond (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the miniseries a riveting mystery that holds viewers in its thrall. They praise its concise, consistent writing and the way the investigation’s twists build across the five installments. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/five-days-158949/) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (B+): Tobias finds the premiere slow to draw viewers in, but says its cliffhanger leaves him hooked. He praises the subtle character tensions and the promise of the series’ unusual structure. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/five-days-day-one-1798203156) - **The Guardian**, Lucy Mangan (80/100, inferred): Mangan finds Five Days compelling and says it leaves her in very competent hands. She particularly praises Cornell John’s warm yet chilling performance in a strong ensemble cast. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/mar/02/five-days-lucy-mangan-review) - **Empire**, Liz Moody (65/100, inferred): Moody finds the drama compelling and emotionally perceptive, though its suspense fades as the facts emerge. She praises the supporting characters but faults the rushed, contrived final revelation. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/five-days-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** Otto Bathurst, Simon Curtis, Peter Hoar - **Director:** Otto Bathurst, Simon Curtis, Peter Hoar - **Producer:** Simon Curtis - **Cast:** Hugh Bonneville as DSI Iain Barclay; Patrick Malahide as John Poole; Penelope Wilton as Barbara Poole; Edward Woodward as Vic Marsham; David Oyelowo as Matt Wellings; Sarah Smart as Sarah Wheeler; Richard Harrington as Daf Parry; Charlie Creed-Miles as DC Stephen Beam - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Release (the UK):** 23 January 2007 - **Genres:** Crime, Drama ## Where to watch in the UK - ITVX: streaming - Amazon Prime Video: add-on *Checked 2026-10-07.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HR, HU, ID, IL, IS, IT, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Vanishing* (1988), Fi1m 88: A Dutch missing-person story that answers its question and makes you wish it hadn’t — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-vanishing.md) - *Prime Suspect* (1991), Fi1m 88: Procedure as exhaustion, with Helen Mirren doing the paperwork and the politics — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/prime-suspect.md) - *The Killing* (2007): Danish, twenty days of one case, and the family’s grief given equal time with the police - *Top of the Lake* (2013), Fi1m 82: Jane Campion’s missing girl, with a landscape that is in on it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/top-of-the-lake.md) - *Broadchurch* (2013), Fi1m 81: A small-town child death and the slow spoiling of everyone who knew him — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/broadchurch.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/five-days