Looking for a new murder mystery obsession to kick off 2024? We suggest you start tuning into Showtime’s newest drama The Woman In The Wall, which hits Paramount+ today (January 19) followed by the network on Sunday (January 21).
The six-episode thriller — which aired on BBC One in the U.K. last year — is inspired by the terrible true history of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby homes that ran from the 18th to the late 20th centuries. Young pregnant women, who were referred to as “fallen women,” were forced to give up their babies and endure cruel punishment under the eye of unforgiving nuns. It’s a dark story that many Americans don’t know, and that’s why BAFTA Award nominee Joe Murtagh, who is the series’ executive producer and showrunner, wanted to bring his vision not only to viewers in Europe, but across the pond in the United States.
“I only learned about [the Magdalene Laundries] in my early twenties. I watched a film called ‘The Magdalene Sisters’ by Peter Mullen, and that was my introduction to this part of Irish history,” Murtagh tells Celeb Secrets reporter Juliet Schroder on the red carpet at the series’ New York City premiere at Metrograph on Wednesday (January 17). “My whole family is Irish and I knew nothing about this until I was 21 or 22; but when you look into the history and you start to read into it, the scale of it is unimaginable. It’s horrific the amount of lives this is touched. And yet, you mention these words, Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby homes outside of Ireland and people have no idea what you’re talking about. I couldn’t… and still can’t compute that. So my desire for writing the series was to attempt to rectify that if possible.”
Series star Ruth Wilson, who also has a hand in executive producing, echoed Murtagh’s comments when asked what made this role and story stand out to her, saying The Woman In The Wall is both “educational and entertaining.”
“I think it was how important the story is and how so few people know about it, but also I loved how surprising and entertaining the material was,” the 42-year-old told Celeb Secrets. “It’s educational and entertaining, and I thought, ‘wow, it’s got great potential to get this story out to a wider audience.'”
The BAFTA and Golden Globe Award winner stars alongside BAFTA Award nominee Daryl McCormack in the series, which centers around Lorna Brady (Wilson), a woman from the small, fictional Irish 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 ever since she was ripped from her life at the age of 15 and incarcerated in The Kilknure Convent, a (fictional) home to one of Ireland’s most infamous Magdalene Laundries for women. There, Lorna gave birth to her daughter Agnes, who cruelly was taken from her and whose fate Lorna never has known.
Detective Colman Akande (McCormack) is now on Lorna’s tail for a crime seemingly unrelated to the body she has discovered in her house. His scathing wit hides a quiet sadness, and when he meets Lorna, he finds himself forced to confront his own haunting secrets. As Colman searches for a murderer and Lorna searches for her daughter, their paths collide in ways they never could have anticipated.
And while The Woman In The Wall is unique in itself, Murtagh, along with fellow executive producer Simon Maxwell, made sure to cast women who had a true connection to the tragedy, giving the fictional story a real, authentic feel.
“Working with the women was my favorite memory,” Ruth shares. “The women that represented the survivors was where we really grounded the show, what felt important, and why we’re doing it. Lots of those Irish actors have real direct connections to this story; they knew someone or an aunt or someone had been through these places, so it felt quite personal in that way.”
For more on The Woman In The Wall, watch our interview with Ruth Wilson below and let us know if you plan on catching the premiere when it premieres on Paramount+ with Showtime today (January 19) by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sliding into our DMs on Instagram at @celebsecrets.
