--- title: "The Missing" year: 2014 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-missing-2014" fi1m_score: 83 critics_score: 88 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-17T02:26:00.318549+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T02:26:01.421753+00:00" region: "US" 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." --- # The Missing (2014) Created by Harry Williams, Jack Williams · 59m · MPA TV-14 · Crime, Drama, Mystery **Fi1m score: 83** · Critics 88 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Two timelines, one missing boy, and a father who has made grief his full-time job > Harry and Jack Williams’s drama about a boy who vanishes on holiday in France, told across two timelines, cares more about what waiting does to people than about its answer. The first series is superb; the second is more elaborate and less sure. ## Synopsis Tony Hughes (James Nesbitt) and his wife Emily (Frances O’Connor) are on a family holiday in France with their young son when they stop for the night in a small town. In a crowded bar, Tony lets go of the boy’s hand for a moment, and he is gone. Years later Tony comes back to the town, alone, estranged from Emily, who now lives with Mark Walsh (Jason Flemyng), the police liaison officer from the original case. He has found something he believes is new, and he takes it to the one man still willing to listen: Julien Baptiste (Tchéky Karyo), the retired French detective who led the first search, and whose wife Celia (Anastasia Hille) would rather he let it lie. ## Review On a family holiday in France, Tony Hughes (James Nesbitt) lets go of his young son’s hand in a crowded bar, and the boy is gone. Years later he is back in the same town, convinced he has found something. Harry and Jack Williams, who created and wrote the series, tell both years at once, cutting between the summer the boy was lost and the winter his father returns. Our verdict is plain: the first eight episodes are among the best British crime television of their decade, and the second eight, which move to another family and another country, are more ambitious and less sure. We recommend it, with the warning that it is built to hurt. Nesbitt plays Tony as a man who has turned himself into a nuisance. He shouts at French police officers who stopped listening years ago, he cannot be in a room with his ex-wife without an accusation, and he has made his loss the only thing he is. Frances O’Connor’s Emily has done the harder and less dramatic thing, which is to try to live, and the series does not punish her for it. She has a new partner, Mark Walsh (Jason Flemyng), the police liaison officer from the original case, and the writing lets her be tired rather than tragic. The moment of the disappearance is the making of the series, and it comes at the end of the first hour. Ole Bratt Birkeland shoots the bar at a child’s height, in the amber light of a room full of shouting men, and Tom Shankland, one of the two credited directors, does not slow it down or cut away. Nesbitt turns round, and his face empties. We felt our stomach go, and we have watched a great many television children vanish. It is the ordinariness that did it: no music cue, no stranger in a doorway, just a hand that is not there. The two timelines are told apart by light. Birkeland gives the summer hard sun and warm colours and the winter rain and a grey-blue chill, so a glance tells you which year you are in before anyone speaks. The editors, Danielle Palmer, Úna Ní Dhonghaíle and Fiona Colbeck, cut on places rather than faces: a doorway in summer becomes the same doorway in winter, and Paul Cripps’s production design furnishes the town’s hotel and its streets twice, once as a resort and once as somewhere nobody would choose to stay. Dominik Scherrer’s score is mostly low strings and a piano figure that stops rather than resolves. It is used sparingly, which is the right decision for a series in which everyone is already in tears. The best invention is Julien Baptiste. Tchéky Karyo plays the retired French detective who led the original search as a courteous, limping, patient man who listens to Tony when nobody else will, and whose wife, Celia (Anastasia Hille), would like him to stop. Karyo does almost nothing and holds the screen. He is the thread into the second series, in which Alice Webster (Abigail Hardingham), missing for years, walks back into the town where her parents Sam (David Morrissey) and Gemma (Keeley Hawes) have spent those years not knowing. Morrissey and Hawes are good, Roger Allam and Laura Fraser, as the Stones, are better than the material around them, and Ben Chanan, the other credited director, keeps the same visual grammar. But the plotting grows so intricate that we found ourselves admiring the joinery when we should have been worried about the people. The first series has faults too. The two timelines land their discoveries with a neatness real life would not manage, and by the sixth hour we could feel the pattern: a lead, a dead end, a drink. The French police are thinly written. And Emily’s story is given about half the attention Tony’s is, which the series seems to know and does not fix. Most missing-child dramas are about the detective. This one is about the parents, and about the plain fact that time keeps passing whether or not anyone is found. Watch the first series over a week rather than a weekend; it is designed to be sat with, not gulped. Decide about the second afterwards. It carries a 15 certificate, and its 59-minute episodes will feel longer, which is the point. *Fi1m score 83, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are uniformly warm. Most critics single out James Nesbitt’s performance as the father, and several call it hard to watch and mean that as a compliment. The dual-timeline structure draws consistent approval for the way it lets the drama trace grief over years rather than weeks, and the consensus is that the series works as both an emotional drama and an investigation thriller, with the pain of the parents kept in front of the mystery rather than behind it. The spread is narrow. Nobody dismisses it, and the reservations are about familiarity rather than failure. The AV Club finds it too close to other crime dramas of its kind and short on a personality of its own, and IndieWire agrees that it handles well-worn territory without rising above it. Both still think it worth an evening. The remaining critics regard it as unusually strong television and are untroubled by the comparisons. ### Reviews we read (7) - **The Times**, Ed Potton (5/5): This is a five-star drama and masterpiece of agony that could be another Broadchurch. The premiere is emotional dynamite, deftly plotted across time frames with intense, unwatchable performances from James Nesbitt as the devastated father. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/france/paris/tv-review-the-missing-life-is-toff-v8nl82dff2z) - **The Guardian** (90/100, inferred): The eight-part thriller is hauntingly brilliant and very human, focusing on profound loss and pain rather than sentimentality. It excels as both an emotional drama and a gripping investigation thriller, with James Nesbitt's raw portrayal of a father's anguish singled out. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/oct/29/the-missing-james-nesbitt-review) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (90/100, inferred): The review describes the series as riveting and haunting, a remarkable piece of television that excels in originality over remakes like Gracepoint. It singles out the emotional stages of grief, the dual timelines, and strong performances for praise. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/missing-tv-review-748786/) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it Starz’s most compelling program, a twisty dark limited series anchored by James Nesbitt’s intense performance as the tormented father. The time-bending narrative and emotional depth from the grieving parents’ perspective stand out as strengths. [Read](https://variety.com/2014/tv/reviews/tv-review-the-missing-1201349716/) - **Vulture**, Matt Zoller Seitz (90/100, inferred): The series is exceptional television that precisely evokes the range of responses to trauma through its time-shifting structure and honest emotional depth, making it one of the year's best TV programs despite being hard to watch. It stands out for its beautiful imagery and refusal to judge any character's response as definitively right or wrong. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2014/11/tv-review-the-missing.html) - **IndieWire**, Ben Travers (B): The series is a compelling mystery built on a parent's relentless search, with a dual-timeline structure that keeps viewers engaged through layered questions and strong emotional pull. It handles familiar territory with grace and is worth watching despite not fully transcending the genre. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/article/review-starzs-the-missing-is-compelling-but-is-it-great-20141112) - **The AV Club**, Kate Kulzick (B): The miniseries blends character introspection with thriller pacing through its dual timelines and strong performances from James Nesbitt and Frances O’Connor, while exploring the long-term effects of trauma on multiple characters. It delivers satisfying momentum and revelations but feels familiar and lacks distinctive personality compared to similar crime dramas. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-missing-blends-character-piece-introspection-with-t-1798181917) ## Details - **Created by:** Harry Williams, Jack Williams - **Creator:** Harry Williams, Jack Williams - **Director:** Ben Chanan, Tom Shankland - **Writer:** Jack Williams, Harry Williams - **Cinematography:** Ole Bratt Birkeland - **Editor:** Úna Ní Dhonghaíle, Fiona Colbeck, Danielle Palmer - **Music:** Dominik Scherrer - **Production design:** Paul Cripps - **Costume design:** Rachel Walsh, Ann Lauwerys - **Producer:** Chris Clough - **Cast:** David Morrissey as Sam Webster; James Nesbitt as Tony Hughes; Keeley Hawes as Gemma Webster; Abigail Hardingham as Alice Webster; Frances O'Connor as Emily Hughes; Tchéky Karyo as Julien Baptiste; Anastasia Hille as Celia Baptiste; Joséphine de la Baume as Monique - **Runtime:** 59m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-14 - **Release (the US):** 28 October 2014 - **Genres:** Crime, Drama, Mystery ## Where to watch in the US - Starz: streaming - Amazon Prime Video: free - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Hulu: add-on, hd - Apple TV: buy, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AT, AU, CA, FR, GB, IE, NL, NZ, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Golden Nymph for Best Mini Series 2015: Golden Nymph for Best Mini Series (won) ## If you liked this - *Broadchurch* (2013), Fi1m 81: A dead boy on the Dorset coast, and a town that cannot look at itself — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/broadchurch.md) - *The Returned* (2012): French mountain town where the missing come back, which turns out to be worse - *The Vanishing* (1988): Dutch thriller about a boyfriend who needs to know what happened; brutal and unsparing - *Prisoners* (2013), Fi1m 81: Villeneuve’s abduction drama, with Hugh Jackman as the father who refuses to wait — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/prisoners.md) - *Top of the Lake* (2013): Jane Campion’s New Zealand missing-girl drama, colder and stranger than the genre asks --- © 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/the-missing-2014