ITV Sets September Premiere Date For ‘A Confession’ Starring Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton, Siobhan Finneran and Joe Absolom
ITV has set a September premiere date for ‘A Confession’, from acclaimed screenwriter, Jeff Pope, starring Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton, Siobhan Finneran and Joe Absolom it has been announced.
Set in Swindon, Wiltshire, the series details the disappearance of 22-year-old Sian O’Callaghan in March 2011. On a night out with girlfriends, Sian left a nightclub in Swindon Old Town to walk the 15 minutes home to boyfriend Kevin Reape, played by Charlie Cooper (‘This Country’). Worried for her safety, Kevin reports Sian missing when she fails to come home in the early hours or respond to his increasingly frantic texts.
With the police investigation underway, officers arrive on the doorstep of Sian’s mother, Elaine O’Callaghan, played by Siobhan Finneran (‘Cold Feet’, ‘The Moorside’, ‘Happy Valley’), who at first thinks her daughter must have stayed overnight with a girlfriend. Described as a ‘family girl’, it was uncharacteristic of Sian to be out of touch with her loved ones.
Senior Investigating Officer Steve Fulcher (Freeman) leads a team which begins to piece together Sian’s last movements, scouring CCTV footage from the club and re-tracing her steps home. Cell-site analysis reveals her mobile phone signal bouncing off a mast 14 miles away in Savernake Forest. With the missing person’s enquiry in full swing Fulcher, orders a full-scale search operation.
Believing Sian may still be alive, Fulcher operates on the premise that Sian is being held somewhere against her will. If she is, he knows it will be a race against time. Through diligent and painstaking police work Fulcher and his team discover CCTV footage of her in the High Street, which leads to vital clues in the investigation.
Meanwhile, Karen Edwards, played by Imelda Staunton (‘Maleficent’, ‘Paddington’, ‘Harry Potter’), the mother of Becky Godden, a 20-year-old who disappeared eight years previously in 2003, is watching the investigation unfold on the local news and in the town centre. Reminded of Becky’s disappearance, she becomes gripped by fear that her daughter will somehow be involved in what is unfolding before her eyes as the search for Sian goes on.
A known drug addict and prostitute, Becky had disappeared many times before and although Karen had tried to help her daughter, staging interventions and paying for rehabilitation, sadly Becky continued to lapse back into addiction.
Coincidentally, the property where Karen lives with her second husband, Charlie, backs on to the home of Elaine O’Callaghan and her then partner. Although they don’t know one another, their lives become tragically intertwined when Fulcher and his team edge closer to their chief suspect, local taxi driver Christopher Halliwell, played by Joe Absolom (‘Doc Martin’, ‘Suspects’).
‘A Confession’ was filmed in Wiltshire and the Home Counties with Paul Andrew Williams (‘Strangers’, ‘Broadchurch’) directing each of the six episodes. The drama is executive produced by Jeff Pope (‘Little Boy Blue’, ‘Cilla’) for ITV Studios, Johnny Capps (‘Merlin’, ‘Atlantis’) and Julian Murphy (‘Atlantis’, ‘Merlin’) for Urban Myth Films with Tom Dunbar as Producer.
‘A Confession’ premieres Monday, 2nd September 2019 at 9pm on ITV.
