A woman wakes to find a dead body inside her home. A detective arrives in a remote Irish town investigating the murder of a priest. But behind those two mysteries lies a story far darker than either initially suggests.
The Woman in the Wall, the six-part BBC One gothic drama starring Ruth Wilson and Daryl McCormack, has found a new streaming home on Netflix.
Set in the fictional Irish town of Kilkinure, the series blends psychological thriller, murder mystery and gothic drama while confronting the legacy of one of the most troubling chapters in modern Irish history.
A disturbing discovery begins the mystery
Wilson stars as Lorna Brady, a woman still living with the consequences of what happened to her decades earlier.
As a pregnant teenager, Lorna was sent to a Magdalene Laundry. Years later, the trauma of that experience continues to affect her life.
Then one morning, everything changes again.
Lorna wakes to discover a dead body inside her house, leaving her caught in a mystery she struggles to understand.
Meanwhile, Detective Colman Akande, played by Daryl McCormack, arrives in Kilkinure with a separate investigation of his own: the murder of a priest.
What initially appear to be individual incidents gradually begin opening the door to something much larger.
As Lorna and Colman search for answers, the story moves beyond the immediate crimes and into a history shaped by institutional abuse, mothers being separated from their babies and a culture of secrecy surrounding the Church.
The real history behind the drama
The Woman in the Wall is fictional, but the history underpinning its story is very real.
The series draws upon Ireland’s Magdalene laundries, institutions where thousands of women deemed “fallen women” were confined, often in harsh conditions.
Among those sent to the institutions were unmarried and pregnant women.
The history gives Lorna’s story a particularly disturbing dimension. Rather than using the past simply as a backdrop for a crime thriller, the series places its lasting consequences at the heart of the mystery.
The laundries continued operating until the late 1990s, making the history explored by the drama far more recent than some viewers might expect.
Ruth Wilson and Daryl McCormack at the center of the story
Wilson leads the cast as Lorna, whose memories, trauma and uncertainty become crucial to the unfolding mystery.
Opposite her is McCormack as Detective Colman Akande. The actor is also known for appearances in Peaky Blinders and Bad Sisters.
Their characters approach the events in Kilkinure from very different positions, but the search for answers gradually draws them into an increasingly complicated story.
As more of the town’s secrets emerge, the investigation begins revealing connections to a past that has never truly disappeared.
More than a conventional murder mystery
The Woman in the Wall currently has an average rating of 77% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Guardian awarded the series four stars, describing Wilson’s performance as “mesmerising” and the drama itself as a “beautifully made gothic mystery.”
Its combination of crime and psychological suspense gives the series the structure of a murder mystery, but the historical story beneath it provides much of its emotional weight.
Rather than focusing only on identifying who committed a crime, the six episodes examine what happens when buried trauma, institutional secrecy and unanswered questions continue affecting people decades later.
For viewers looking for a darker mystery built around atmosphere, character and gradually unfolding secrets, The Woman in the Wall offers something considerably different from a traditional detective drama.
All six episodes of The Woman in the Wall are now streaming on Netflix.