³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and HBO tackle crucial Five Days in a gripping investigation
Synopsis
Episode 1: Day 1
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Leanne Wellings is a beautiful mother of three, living in a busy Hertfordshire town, who seems to enjoy a picture-perfect family life. It's a bright summer's day when she sets off with her youngest two to buy the family a dog from the animal shelter. But when she pulls up in a lay-by to get some flowers for her grandad, her life slips off the radar. She disappears, leaving little Ethan and Rosie alone in the car on the edge of the motorway. As the two children climb out of the car with the dog and wander off to find their mum, there is no doubt that something is terribly wrong.
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Leanne's grandfather, Vic Marsham, calls the police when she fails to visit him at his retirement home. What starts as a routine inquiry soon turns into a more serious missing person's investigation. As night falls, Leanne's husband Matt waits at home with his teenage step-daughter Tanya. Meanwhile, Leanne's parents, John and Barbara, also struggle to come to terms with the day's shocking events.
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Detectives gather at the lay-by, piecing together the possible movements of the missing family. They are led by DCI Iain Barclay who will spearhead the enquiry. The assumption is that Leanne has taken her children with her, but closed-circuit images reveal the children left alone. Did Leanne abandon her children, or was she abducted?
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A day after their disappearance, the case takes a further twist when young professional Sarah Wheeler discovers Ethan, the eldest of the two children, hiding in her bin sheds. Rosie – last seen being offered a lift by Kyle Betts, a local man in a Transit van – is still missing.
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Episode 2: Day 3
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The disappearance of Leanne and Rosie is now headline news. The media moves through their neighbourhood as Police Press Officer Defne Topcu ("Tops") tries to enlist both the family and DCI Barclay to attend a major press conference. Husband Matt refuses to go and Barclay seems at best indifferent.
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The media attention has put the case under intense pressure. The police have been unable to trace either the East European flower seller, last seen in the lay-by, or the man who abducted Rosie.
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The press conference is a painful fiasco. Barclay, busy with a lead from a journalist, doesn't appear. Matt agrees to come after Sarah – the young woman who found Ethan – intervenes. He is then thrown by a question from ambitious local journalist Josh, who asks how he feels about the fact that his missing wife is pregnant. This is news, not just to Matt but to all the family – and a despairing Matt leaves the conference without a word. It's left to Leanne's mother, Barbara, to make an emotional appeal for Leanne's return.
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Her very public breakdown is the lead story on the national news that day. Increasingly isolated, Matt starts to feel like a suspect himself.
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Meanwhile, local care worker Hazel Betts – who works in Vic's retirement home – is beginning to suspect her son Kyle may have been involved in Rosie's abduction. He has a Transit van like the one described in the news, which he is constantly washing. He also has what looks like a dog bite on his hand. Claiming to be a neighbour, she calls the police to accuse him. The net starts to close in around Kyle.
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The police then receive some good news. The missing flower-seller Branko is picked up and arrested at a local flower market. And reporter Josh – looking for photos in the caravan owned by Leanne's grandfather, Vic – finds Rosie. She doesn't know what happened to her, but she is at least alive and physically unharmed.
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Episode 3: Day 28
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Barclay is under pressure. Today he has to defend the course of his inquiry to an independent 28-day police review. Despite the lack of evidence, Barclay has turned the case into a murder inquiry. Kyle has been charged with Rosie's abduction. He maintains he never touched Rosie and claims to know nothing about Leanne's disappearance.
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Today is also Matt's birthday. Over the past few weeks he's grown close to the attentive Sarah, who spent last night in Tanya's bedroom. Tanya is currently in France, staying with her father, Daf Parry, Leanne's unscrupulous ex-husband. Matt no longer knows who to trust. In many ways, he's right to be wary. Unknown to him, his oldest friend, Gary, a fellow Army veteran, has been seconded as an informant – and his in-laws are growing increasingly critical of his friendship with Sarah.
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Matt and police liaison officer Simone Farnes make a disquieting discovery: a matter of days before Leanne disappeared she bought a one-way flight to France, where Daf Parry now lives. Could Leanne have planned to go missing after all? Barclay wants Tanya and Daf on the first flight back to Britain.
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In the local woods, a body is discovered. Detectives gather at the scene while the family wait through the night, expecting to hear the worst. But the corpse is not Leanne. It's Branko, the flower-seller...
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Episode 4: Day 33
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It's August Bank Holiday and Leanne is still missing. Determined to have a normal day, Barbara and John have promised to take the family out. But when Barbara reaches Matt's home earlier than scheduled, she's horrified to find Matt giving an interview to a documentary team. She feels Matt is seeking to make money from her daughter's disappearance. A rift is developing between them.
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Matt takes his children to the local fair and fun run with Sarah and the family's police liaison officer, Simone Farnes. Also at the fair are Tops, who has been training hard for the fun run, and Matt's friend, Gary. But Matt doesn't stay long. Feeling paranoid, he mistakes a passing blonde for Leanne and becomes deeply distressed. Sarah takes him back to her flat for some privacy...
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Across town, Leanne's older daughter, Tanya, spends the day at the shopping-mall with her adored father, Daf. She's desperate to live with him in France.
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Meanwhile, Simone is looking after the youngest siblings at the fair. She takes them to the lakeside to look at the boats, where they are disturbed by a man calling out from the middle of the water. Something has surfaced out on the lake. Finally, 34 days after she went missing, Leanne's body is discovered.
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As the family is left reeling with shock, the police struggle to make sense of Leanne's murder. They may have found her body, but are no closer to finding her killer...
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Episode 5: Day 79
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The hunt for Leanne's killer seems to be running dry, until the chance discovery of deceased flower seller Branko's burnt-out van offers Barclay evidence linking Kyle with Branko in a small-time cigarette smuggling scam.
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But, to Barclay's dismay, he can't get to his suspect; Kyle has just been released from custody for his bail hearing and has escaped from the police van.
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Matt is furious that the man who abducted his daughter has escaped. He spends the night staking out Kyle's home with his friend Gary, who encourages him to exact some rough justice of his own.
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Meanwhile, Tanya visits her grandfather, John, at a psychiatric hospital, where he has been admitted following his suicide attempt. The tragic loss of their daughter seems to have led to the breakdown of John and Barbara's marriage.
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Today is also the day of Det Sgt Amy Foster's retirement, the last day of a 30-year career. At her retirement do, Foster makes a wild, drunken speech but is spared further blushes when Det Supt Barclay takes her home. Through the course of the investigation, the two have become friends.
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As dawn breaks, Foster makes a breakthrough. A routine forensic inquiry leads her and Barclay to the place where Leanne spent her last hours before she died: Vic's caravan. Leanne was there with Rosie, at least for a few hours…
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At the same time, Kyle appears outside Matt's house and ushers Rosie down to the garden. It becomes clear that, for all this time, Rosie has believed her mother to be asleep, not dead. She has kept a promise to Kyle not to tell anyone what happened to her and her mother. Kyle is moved by the child's loyalty to him. He runs off before Sarah and Ethan see him, escaping to another hiding-place: the gym, where Matt works.
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Finally, all the pieces begin to come together and the net closes on the killer.
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