The True Story Behind the 'The Woman in the Wall'
'The Woman in the Wall.'
The Affair's Ruth Wilson is returning to Showtime with a new drama series.
The Golden Globe-winning actress stars alongside Daryl McCormack in the gothic thriller The Woman in the Wall. The series, created and written by Joe Murtagh, examines "the legacy of one of Ireland’s most shocking scandals"... The Magdalene Laundries, where thousands of girls and women were forced into unpaid labor under cruel conditions.
Murtagh has said that it "deeply frustrates and saddens me that it feels so few people have heard of the Laundries that existed across Ireland," adding, "I hope that by making something that has the familiarity of a genre piece we are able to shed some light on the awful things that occurred within these kind of institutions and introduce this history to the wider public, so that nothing like it may ever happen again."
While the show has already aired in the UK, it is heading to the U.S. in 2024. Before its debut stateside, here is everything to know about The Woman in the Wall.
How to watch The Woman in the Wall?
The show will air on Showtime, as well as on Paramount+ with Showtime.
What is The Woman in the Wall release date?
The Woman in the Wall will debut in the U.S. first on Paramount+ with Showtime on Friday, Jan. 19, and premiere on Showtime on Sunday, Jan. 21, at 9 p.m. ET.
Showtime
Who is in The Woman in the Wall cast?
The drama stars Ruth Wilson as Lorna Brady and Daryl McCormick as Detective Colman Akande. Wilson, who also served as an executive producer, has called Lorna "a complex and fascinating character."
The cast of The Woman in the Wall also includes The Conjuring 2's Simon Delaney, The Nevers' Philippa Dunne, Band of Brothers' Mark Huberman, Float Like a Butterfly's Hilda Fay, The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard's Frances Tomelty and Luther: The Fallen Sun's Dermot Crowley.
Related: Ruth Wilson to Star in A Very Royal Scandal
How many episodes of The Woman in the Wall are there?
Season 1 is comprised of six episodes.
Showtime
What is The Woman in the Wall about?
“The Woman in the Wall takes on a startling story about a notorious and heartbreaking scandal in Ireland, one that destroyed the lives of women for more than 200 years," former Showtime President Jana Winograde said in a previous press release.
The drama centers around the character Lorna, who is from the small, fictional town of Kilkinure. One morning, Wilson's character wakes up to find a dead woman in her house, but does not know who she is or if she might have been responsible for her death.
"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 Kilkinure Convent, a (fictional) home to one of Ireland’s 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," per the BBC, which commissioned the series with Showtime.
Meanwhile, Detective Colman Akande is 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."
What were the Magdalene Laundries?
According to Justice for Magdalenes Research, the Magdalene Laundries "were operated by four religious orders (The Sisters of Mercy, The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity, and the Good Shepherd Sisters)" and have been described as "carceral, punitive institutions that ran commercial and for-profit businesses, primarily laundries and needlework."
Thousands of girls and women "were imprisoned, forced to carry out unpaid labour and subjected to severe psychological and physical maltreatment in Ireland’s Magdalene Institutions." The women and girls "were perceived to be ‘promiscuous,’ unmarried mothers, the daughters of unmarried mothers, those who were considered a burden on their families or the State, those who had been sexually abused, or had grown up in the care of the Church and State."
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Sinéad O’Connor's unreleased song was used in The Woman in the Wall
The Woman in the Wall used the late Sinéad O’Connor’s unreleased "The Magdalene Song" in the finale, which aired on BBC One in 2023. "The first half of the track is completely heartbreaking, and the second half is pure defiance," David Holmes, who produced O’Connor’s music in her final years, told The Guardian. "I stripped the song away to just Sinéad’s voice and then let the full power come in for the second half. It’s incredible how the meaning of the song came together with this story It was just meant to be. There’s a certain magic when you bring music to an emotive story."
Holmes revealed that the singer had "sanctioned the track for use before they had even started shooting, and when the producers heard it they were amazed to have something so strong. We all felt the only place this can go is at the end."
In a 2013 interview, O’Connor opened up about being sent to the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity laundry when she was a teenager. "It was a prison. We didn’t see our families, we were locked in, cut off from life, deprived of a normal childhood," she recalled (via Irish Central). "We were told we were there because we were bad people. Some of the girls had been raped at home and not believed."
Is there a trailer for The Woman in the Wall?
The BBC released the official trailer for the drama on Aug. 11.
That same day, Showtime shared a chilling teaser for the series featuring Wilson's character reciting lines from Clare Harner's bereavement poem "Immortality."
