Joanna Scanlan plays Sharon Roberts, still trapped in grief 18 years after her daughter Ela vanished. Alexandra Roach is Cat Donato, a journalist who shared Ela’s childhood and never stopped asking questions. When gardener Iwan Rheon’s Joe Pritchard, convicted on his own confused confession, is granted parole, both women must look again at the gaps in the story that sent him to prison without a body ever being found.
Set and shot in Carmarthenshire’s Tywi Valley, the bilingual thriller keeps its action in Llandovery, Llandeilo and a farmhouse outside Llanegryn where secrets stay damp. Regina Moriarty’s scripts move between Welsh and English without subtitles, letting accents carry the class tension between landowning families and the town kids who never left.
The six-episode first series premiered on S4C in May 2022 before Channel 4 gave it a UK-wide slot in January 2023; a second run has already wrapped filming and is scheduled for late 2025. Critics praised the quiet power of Scanlan’s performance, particularly her scenes with Morgan Hopkins’s Dai, the dead girl’s uncle who refuses tidy closure. Rotten Tomatoes lists the show at 71% positive, with viewers scoring it slightly higher at 75%.
Production Details
S4C / 2 Seasons / 12 Episodes / 2022 - Present
Created by: Regina Moriarty
Showrunner(s): D. Gethin Scourfield, Laurent Boissel, Alec Spiteri
Writer(s): Regina Moriarty
Producer(s): Jane Dauncey, Eryl Huw Phillips
Main Cast
Sian Reese-Williams as Caryl
Joanna Scanlan as Sharon Roberts
Iwan Rheon as Joe Pritchard
Alexandra Roach as Cat Donato
Mark Lewis Jones as Rhys Owen
Nia Roberts as Eve Davies
Robert Glenister as Robert Davies
Annes Elwy as Greta
