New crime drama Chasing Shadows, featuring Doctor Who stars Alex Kingston and Noel Clarke, airs on ITV this autumn.
Created and written by Rob Williams (DCI Banks, Holby City), the four-part series focuses on the work of a missing persons field unit charged with tracking down serial killers who prey on impressionable and vulnerable people.
Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen) plays DS Sean Stone and Alex Kingston plays his partner, Ruth Hattersley. Noel Clarke (Star Trek Into Darkness) plays DI Prior.
> Order Chasing Shadows on DVD on Amazon.
Episode 1
Thursday 4 September 2014, 9pm
On the face of it Sean is intense, socially awkward and a misfit. Get to know him and you realise he’s a man on a mission even if it leads him to self destruction and his eccentric manner frequently lands him in hot water. He’s obsessed with deciphering codes and uncovering patterns of behaviour particularly in relation to those most at risk, vulnerable missing persons.
Ruth, on the other hand, is a stabilising influence. Maternal, but not mumsy, she’s an analyst from the Missing Persons Bureau tasked to work alongside Sean. In effect his bosses have sidelined him and she is his lifeline.
Sean refuses to be tethered to Ruth, but eventually learns that he and Ruth make an awesome team. She has the ability to connect with people and has the expertise to trace missing persons. He is socially awkward and struggles to communicate; yet their strengths strike the perfect balance. On paper. In reality, it is a rocky partnership.
After criticizing police procedure in the aftermath of the eventual capture of a serial killer, DI Sean Stone is seconded to the Missing Persons Bureau, assigned to a new ‘unit’ with MPB analyst Ruth Hattersley. In reality, Sean’s new assignment is made with the intention of keeping him out of the way. But when Sean comes across the case of a missing 16 year old girl, Taylor, he’s soon back out in the field.
Episode 2
Thursday 11 September 2014, 9pm
After criticizing police procedure in the aftermath of the eventual capture of a serial killer, DI Sean Stone is seconded to the Missing Persons Bureau, assigned to a new ‘unit’ with MPB analyst Ruth Hattersley. In reality, Sean’s new assignment is made with the intention of keeping him out of the way. But when Sean comes across the case of a missing 16 year old girl, Taylor, he’s soon back out in the field.
As far as the police are concerned, Taylor is a routine runaway. Investigating the girl’s disappearance, Sean finds out that Taylor was holding a secret – from her school, from her friends, from her family. Digging deeper, he discovers that Taylor was a member of an online suicide ‘social network’.
When it emerges that several other members of the network have recently committed suicide, and that there are unsettling correspondences between the deaths, Sean suspects that something more sinister is going on. A serial killer, posing as a teenage girl, is preying on vulnerable teens on the network, killing them, and making it look like suicide.
If he’s going to find Taylor before it’s too late, Sean has to use his unique pattern-reading intelligence to work out the killer’s method. But as more victims emerge, and Sean’s net closes in, he is faced with a startling discovery about the killer’s identity.
Episode 3
Thursday 18 September 2014, 9pm
Sean homes in on a missing person who fits none of the five most common categories of missing people. The only thing more interesting than a pattern to Sean, is someone who fits no pattern.
Stephen Eli – a lawyer and single father raising a teenage son – went missing without a trace a year ago. Looking into his last known movements, Sean spots a connection with two other deaths: both victims of an imprisoned serial killer, Leonard Vance.
Sean believes Stephen Eli is Vance’s third victim.
Episode 4
Thursday 25 September 2014, 9pm
Sean homes in on a missing person who fits none of the five most common categories of missing people. The only thing more interesting than a pattern to Sean, is someone who fits no pattern. Stephen Eli – a lawyer and single father raising a teenage son – went missing without a trace a year ago. Looking into his last known movements, Sean spots a connection with two other deaths: both victims of an imprisoned serial killer, Leonard Vance. Sean believes Stephen Eli is Vance’s third victim.
Despite police reluctance, Sean and Ruth travel to Crowley secure psychiatric hospital to interview Vance. He is a dangerous schizophrenic, destined to spend his life behind bars for two random, savage murders.
Confronted with the evidence about Steven, Leonard eventually confesses to the murder. Sean is congratulated on cleaning up another case. But when Vance is unable to lead them to the site where he buried Stephen Eli, Sean becomes uneasy. Is Leonard telling the truth about killing Stephen Eli?
Sean starts looking into the murders of Leonard’s other victims. If Leonard is lying about killing Steven, maybe he’s lying about the other murders as well? And if Leonard isn’t responsible for those deaths, then the real serial killer is still out there…
> Order Chasing Shadows on DVD on Amazon.
Watch the trailer…
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