The Woman in the Wall

Available on BBC iPlayer

Joe Murtagh’s six-part drama is not what it initially appears to be, although it’s debatable whether that’s a good thing or not. When Lorna (Ruth Wilson), a troubled insomniac who lives alone in a rural Irish town, finds a dead body in her home, we are led to believe that The Woman in the Wall will be the sort of gothic murder mystery that the BBC generally churns out on an annual basis.

However, the coinciding and suspicious death of a local priest plus the insertion of Daryl McCormack’s diligent, but no less pained, detective sees the series take an unexpected tonal shift and become focused on the darker elements of Ireland’s storied relationship with Catholicism, specifically the legacy of the heinous Magdalene laundries.

While it is of course commendable that Murtagh would elect to use a prime-time show to shine a light on such a complicated and vitally important topic, it’s questionable whether The Woman in the Wall does it justice. It is a supremely acted affair, with Wilson and McCormack’s dependably excellent lead performances underpinned by stellar supporting work from the likes of Hilda Fay and Simon Delaney, but the undercurrent of trauma caused by it’s character’s experiences within the aforementioned laundries often feels like a mere plot device, as opposed to a genuine attempt to chronicle a dark chapter in Ireland’s unquestionably complex history.

It doesn’t help that the series bears comparison to Peter Mullan’s devastating 2002 film The Magdalene Sisters which, rightly or wrongly, feels like a more authentic examination of the atrocities that occurred within the laundries over a sustained period of time. Nonetheless, the intrigue of Murtagh’s central premise and some stellar performances makes The Woman in the Wall a more than serviceable affair.