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Channel 5 lands gripping new drama The Vanishings with Brassic and Downton Abbey stars

It is based on the cases of women who vanished in Ireland in the 90s

CHANNEL 5 lands a gripping new drama called The Vanishings with Brassic and Downton Abbey stars.

The crime drama starring India Mullen and Allen Leech was filmed in Dublin’s Blackrock in Ireland.

Tuppence Middleton and Allen Leech kissing on a pebbled beach.
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Channel 5 lands a gripping new drama called The Vanishings with Brassic and Downton Abbey starsCredit: BBC/Element Pictures/Hulu
Tom Branson and Lady Mary Crawley in Downton Abbey.
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Allen is well known for his role as Tom Branson in Downton AbbeyCredit: Handout
Still from Bohemian Rhapsody showing Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury in a recording studio with other band members.
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Allen played the role of Paul Prenter in Bohemian RhapsodyCredit: Splash News

The show was first known as The Vanishing Triangle and aired on Virgin Media One in Ireland and on Acorn TV in the UK last year.

It is based on the terrifying cases of women who vanished without trace in Ireland in the ’90s.

Dubliner Allen, 43, plays Detective David Burke, while   stars as reporter Lisa Wallace.

Lisa is desperate to stop the closing of a women's shelter and publishes an article linking her own experience with violence against women which is about her mother’s murder.

CHANNEL 5 DRAMA

As the reactions to the article flow in, so does a letter from her mother’s killer, hinting at the kidnapping of another woman.

Lisa and Detective David start working together through Garda red tape to get to the bottom of the investigation.

Soon, a pivotal discovery is made, pointing to the killer's re-emergence and ties to the recent disappearance of a young woman named Amy Reynolds.

India, 31, is better known for her roles in Irish Soap opera series Red Rock and the Sally Rooney series Normal People where she played Peggy, a friend of Marianne at college.

In the third series of the comedy-drama Brassic she played Samantha, a barmaid who becomes close with the cheeky rascal Vinnie.

She also appeared in the acclaimed science fiction series The Peripheral which awaits a second series.

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Allen is widely known for his role as chauffeur Tom Branson, whose twin beliefs in socialism and Irish Republicanism clash with those of the British upper class in the ITV period drama Downton Abbey.

He also starred as Paul Prenter who was briefly Freddie Mercury's manager and lover in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

His other film roles include parts in Cowboys & Angels, Man About Dog, The Sweeney, and as the spy John Cairncross in The Imitation Game.

The Vanishing Triangle was a term used by the media to refer to the disappearances of women in Ireland in the mid to late 1990s.

The Wives - Cast of Channel 5 drama

Channel 5 mystery drama The Wives features a cast full of familiar faces

  • Jo Joyner - Jo plays Beth in The Wives, but is perhaps best known for playing Tanya Branning in EastEnders and Luella Shakespeare in Shakespeare and Hathaway: Private Investigators.
  • Angela Griffin: Angela, who plays the role of Natasha, rose to fame as Fiona Middleton in Coronation Street. She also plays Kim Campbell in Waterloo Road.
  • Tamzin Outhwaite: Tamzin originally played Mel Owen in EastEnders from 1998 to 2002. She later reprised the role from 2018 to 2019. Her other TV appearances include New Tricks, Death in Paradise, The Fixer and Doctor Who.
  • Jamie Bamber: Playing Charlie in The Wives, actor Jamie is well-known for starring in Law and Order: UK. He also played Archie, Martha's (Sally Bretton) ex on Beyond Paradise.

The women were all seen by witnesses, but they seemed to vanish completely into thin air.

And at every “crime scene,” the Gardaí found no shred of evidence.

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No bodies have ever been found and the victims ranged in age from 17 to 39, and were described as attractive making some people think a serial killer was responsible.

The Vanishing begins Thursday 6th February at 9pm on Channel 5.

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