Lydia Wilson plays Matilda Gray, a celebrated London cellist whose mother Janice (Joanna Scanlan) slashes her own throat in the family loft. Among the chaos Matilda finds press clippings about Carys Howell, a three-year-old who disappeared from Penllynith, Wales in 1994, and a photograph that suggests her mother was there. Convinced the two deaths are linked, Matilda and her accompanist Hal (Joel Fry) drive west, renting Dean House from its new owner (James Frecheville) and waking every buried grudge in the rain-soaked village.
Over six episodes writer Kris Mrksa threads a line between psychological dread and outright occultism. Former detective Stephen Kendrick (Brendan Coyle) warns Matilda to leave, local matriarch Sylvia Walsh (Tara Fitzgerald) hosts séances in the manor, and Carys’s childhood friend Trudy (Sian Reese-Williams) keeps the girl’s bedroom exactly as it was. The score by Natasha Khan and Dominik Scherrer layers cello motifs over Welsh hymns, turning Cefn Tilla Court’s corridors into echo chambers of guilt.
Netflix released the full series internationally on 23 March 2018, three weeks after the BBC iPlayer drop, and the show has stayed there ever since, finding new viewers who argue online about whether the final shot answers anything or simply swaps one ghost for another.
Production Details
BBC One / 1 Season / 6 Episodes / 2018
Created by: Kris Mrksa
Showrunner(s): Willow Grylls, Charles Pattinson, Elaine Pyke
Writer(s): Kris Mrksa, Blake Ayshford
Producer(s): Susan Breen
Cinematography: Chloë Thomson
Music: Natasha Khan, Dominik Scherrer
Main Cast
Lydia Wilson as Matilda Gray
Joel Fry as Harlan "Hal" Fine
Joanna Scanlan as Janice Gray
Brendan Coyle as Stephen Kendrick
Claire Rushbrook as Rose Morgan
Tara Fitzgerald as Sylvia Walsh
Clare Calbraith as PC Graves
Sian Reese-Williams as Trudy Franken
Sam Hazeldine as Sean Howell
James Frecheville as Nick Dean
Richard Harrington as Aron Morgan
Simon Kunz as Lloyd Satlow
