Drama Spy: Missing Week Two

Pauline Quirke returned last week as DS Mary Jane Croft in the second series of the critically acclaimed daytime drama Missing. The new series has an extended run of ten episodes rather than the original week-long series format previously. Set in a busy Missing Persons Unit Pauline plays detective MJ, who runs the under-resourced unit, and is joined once again by radio DJ Danny Hayworth – played by popular former The Bill star Mark Wingett, ambitious DC Jason Doyle and Amy Garnett, the civilian on the team.


This week’s episodes see on Monday Jason surprise MJ and Amy when he returns early to work from his enforced leave, genuinely convinced that he is unaffected by the suicide of his old school friend Lee. When DCI Ford questions him during the official enquiry, she is unimpressed with Jason’s clinical manner and berates him for not considering how Lee’s death has affected his family.

 

 

Meanwhile the work of the unit continues, and when Judy reports that her fiancé Neville has gone missing on his stag night, she is forced to admit that she suspects he is having an affair.

 

But when his boat is discovered drifting at sea the assumption is that Neville has had a fatal accident. A radio appeal, however, reveals otherwise. Could he have tried to fake his own death?

 

On Tuesday the discovery of an ultrasound scan, discarded in a waste bin, leads MJ to conclude that she has discovered the reason for the disappearance of young au pair, Helen. Her employers Jenny and Guy have reported her missing, and MJ suspects that Guy might be the father, but when Jenny tells MJ that the last time she spoke to Helen, it was in fact she who had confided in Helen that she was pregnant and that she was in two minds about whether to keep it, MJ realises that she has jumped to the wrong conclusion.

 

The team trace a therapist that Helen was seeing and discover that she’s been in post-adoptive counselling. When the couple’s young son disappears from school, it is MJ who finally confronts Helen.

 

By Wednesday Josh Kemplin has joined the MPU and he’s keen to get his teeth stuck in. So, when 14-year-old musician Bobbie Sotherton goes missing just days before an important violin recital, MJ pairs Jason with Josh on the strict understanding that Josh sticks to Jason like glue.

 

She is, therefore, unimpressed when she discovers that they have ignored her orders and as the case unfolds she does not appreciate Kemplin’s hard-line approach.

 

However, there is no denying that Josh Kemplin is charming and Amy soon agrees to a date and even Jason finally warms to him.

 

The team fear that Bobbie has been put under intolerable pressure by his father but the appearance of an estranged grandmother (Jean Boht), and an older brother who has escaped from custody at a youth offenders’ institution, raises other questions.

 

Workaholic Des reports his PA Paula missing – Des has worked hard to build up the company and Paula has a lot to do with the success but, despite working so closely for years, Des realises that he doesn’t seem to know anything about her personal life.

Thursday’s edition sees MJ reluctantly agree to put Jason in charge of an investigation. New officer on the MPU team Josh Kemplin has been needling Jason about MJ never letting him take the lead, so Jason has pushed for this extra responsibility with his boss.

 

But when the case is successfully concluded Kemplin shows his true colours; seeks to undermine Jason, and realising he has been set up, Jason finally loses his cool.

 

The final episode of the series starts with Kath Walters and husband David arriving in the MPU, desperate to see MJ. Kath believes she has seen Evie, her five-year-old daughter who disappeared eight years ago, believed to have been abducted. Kath has never given up hope and is now convinced that 13-year-old Anna , a girl she bumped into on the beach, is actually her daughter.

 

 

But husband David struggles to muster the same optimism. What he and his wife actually need is closure so they can move on.

 

 

When Kath steals a hair sample from Anna’s bedroom, she is convinced they can rely on DNA to prove that it is Evie, but MJ refuses as the sample has been taken illegally.

 

Suspicion soon turns to Jim Kelly, Anna’s step-father, who seems to be telling them a pack of lies. Jason, however, helps to uncover some other vital evidence and Josh is revealed to be the one behind the illegal test. MJ hopes that this is her opportunity to get Kemplin out of her department.

 

Guest actors this week include former EastEnder Gillian Taylforth, comic impersonator John Culshaw and Susannah York.