Lorna Brady (Wilson) is a woman from the small town of Kilkinure, who wakes one morning to find a corpse in her house. Chillingly, Lorna has no idea who the dead woman is or if she herself might be responsible for the apparent murder. That's because Lorna has long suffered from extreme bouts of sleepwalking, understood to have manifested around the time she was ripped from her life at the age of 15 and incarcerated in The Kilkinure Convent. The Convent was home to one of Ireland's infamous Magdalene Laundries, a place where women were taken when they fell afoul of the social mores of their times - from those accused of committing adultery to teenage pregnancies. When it finally closed its doors, a score of survivors were left suffering in its wake. Very few women were able to go on and lead relatively normal lives, others, such as Lorna, were even less fortunate in their fate. One thing all survivors had in common, is that none of them would ever forget.
Unluckily for Lorna, the extremely ambitious, albeit elusive, Detective Colman Akande (McCormack) is now also on her tail for a crime which is seemingly unrelated to the dead woman she's discovered in her house. Colman quickly rose through the ranks of the Garda Síochána thanks to his natural aptitude for the job. He possesses a dark and sometimes scathing wit but there is a quiet sadness to him that even he doesn't understand, and he's hiding his own secrets from the world...
Joe Murtagh created the drama, with Harry Wootliff set to direct the first block of episodes. They will executive produce with Wilson. Motive Pictures produces in association with Showtime and the BBC. Rachna Suri will direct the second block of episodes.
"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," said Jana Winograde, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks. "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."
"It's a real pleasure to announce this remarkable new series for BBC One and iPlayer," added Ben Irving, Acting Director, BBC Drama. "Joe Murtagh's scripts are surprising, moving, and continually compelling, with two lead characters who I cannot wait to see brought to life by the extraordinary talents of Ruth Wilson and Daryl McCormack. With Harry Wootliff in the director's chair, audiences are in for six incredible hours of drama."
"Lorna Brady is a complex and fascinating character and I'm thrilled to help bring her to life," shared Wilson. "In The Women 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."
"My family is from Mayo, the county in which the fictional 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 kind of institutions and introduce this history to the wider public, so that nothing like it may ever happen again."
