It has been announced that Ruth Wilson (The Affair) and Daryl McCormack (Peaky Blinders, Good Luck to You Leo Grande) have joined the cast of the new BBC and Showtime series The Woman in the Wall in leading roles. The series is inspired by Ireland's Magdalene Laundries scandal, also known as the Magdalene asylums.
Wilson is set to play the character Lorna Brady while McCormack will play Detective Colman Akande. The 60-minute, six-episode gothic thriller created by Joe Murtagh will follow Lorna, who awakens one day to find a dead woman in her home, without any idea of who the victim is or if she is the murderer. Lorna suffers from extreme bouts of sleepwalking, which began when she was a teenager and was incarcerated in one of the Catholic Church’s Magdalene Laundries found in Ireland. These were institutions where ‘fallen women,’ or women who "lost their innocence," which would included things like teen pregnancy and adultery, were sent. Detective Akande is in pursuit of Lorna for a crime that is, at least on the surface, not related to the dead body in her home. While he is a skilled detective that has made his way up the police force quickly, he also carries his own dark secrets.
Along with the announcement of the cast, Wilson provided a statement about playing the character of Lorna Brady:
Lorna Brady is a complex and fascinating character and I’m thrilled to help bring her to life. In 'The Woman in the Wall', Joe has created both an enthralling gothic thriller and a moving examination of the legacy of The Magdalene Laundries. It’s a privilege to bring this story to screens.
The Magdalene Laundries began in Ireland during the 18th century and were in operation for over 200 years. The final Magdalene Laundry closed in 1996, three years after the horrific discovery of an unmarked mass grave of 155 women on the grounds of one of the laundries. This led to a large media and public outcry that eventually led to the closure of these asylums, with a formal apology coming from the Irish Government coming two decades later in 2013 with survivors receiving £50 million in compensation.
Series creator, Murtagh, will also serve as an executive producer alongside series star Wilson as well as Sam Lavender, Simon Maxwell, and Harry Wootliff. “My family is from Mayo, the county in which our fictional town of Kilkinure is set, and it deeply frustrates and saddens me that it feels so few people have heard of the Laundries that existed across Ireland," said Murtagh. "I hope that by making something that has the familiarity of a genre piece we are able to shed some light on the awful things that occurred within these kinds of institutions and introduce this history to the wider public, so that nothing like it may ever happen again.”
The series will be produced by Motive Pictures, backed by Endeavour Content. A set of episodes for the series will be directed by Wootliff as well, with the other block of episodes being helmed by Rachna Suri. The series was commissioned by BBC Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore and former Director of BBC Drama Piers Wenger as well as President of Entertainment at Showtime Networks Jana Winograde and Gary Levine for Showtime. Winograde also provided a statement, saying:
'The Woman in the Wall' takes on a startling story about a notorious and heartbreaking scandal in Ireland, one that destroyed the lives of women for more than 200 years. We are thrilled to bring the incomparable Ruth Wilson back to Showtime with such a powerful, moving series that is also incredibly relevant to our culture today.
The Woman In The Wall does not have an announced release date yet, though it will air on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK and on Showtime in the U.S., with it being distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution in all other territories.