I will admit I am probably biased - I am retired Police. I am amazed at how many good reviews I have seem for this. NO way in a million years would the victim be interviewed by police in the way portraid. To begin with, she would be de-briefed by trained psycologist - a victim of this type would be so traumatised she would be retreating inwards as a self defence mechanism, afraid to talk and afraid to communicate. The acting is wooden and completetly unrealist, and most of the proceedures and interviews shown would not comply with any guidelines, would be inadmisable in any court, and so it goes on. Perhaps worst of all, from the very start, we have a potential traumatised victim being treated as a suspect, in a barely repectful way. No modern police service would get away with such inept investigation or interview techniques. Clearly, whoever wrote this knows little about such offences, and even less about how police would go about investigating it. I find this series offensive to the hard efforts and selfless work put into such investigations by real police, who do investigate such things.

It's captivating and makes you want to continue to come back for the next episode just to see how it all pans out but it is all so depressing. The problem is that every single character has no redeeming features, they are all unlikeable with the men being the weakest. The most common word used must be'sorry', every one seems to be sorry for one thing or another and they continue to make apologies just about every five to ten minutes.

Ivy Moxam (Jodie Comer) escapes from her captor. She's 26 and has been a prisoner since being kidnapped at 13. Her family is uncertain but a DNA test confirms that she's the real Ivy. Her parents are scared to reveal their separation. Her little sister Emma is now grown with her own boyfriend. She is reunited with childhood boyfriend Tim and he's scared to reveal that he's married. Eloise feels guilty about not meeting on the faithful day. The kidnapper is identified as Mark White as he goes on the run. He kidnaps a new girl, 10 year old Phoebe. The police is desperate to find him and Phoebe but Ivy's story does not all add up.This is a 5 part BBC mini-series. Its 5 hour running time is probably a little over-extended. It doesn't really have the twists to justify the length. There are some compelling relationships but they don't go too far with them. The police investigation is lackluster. Even Ivy giving herself up to Mark White is somewhat unrealistic in its execution. Jodie Comer is a perfectly good troubled mercurial girl. Other than some of the relationships, there is a lack of sharpness to the writing. Tim is probably the most compelling but even that fades at some point.

Really enjoyed this mini series..... Ivy was very convincing as a 26yr old who'd been shut away for 13 years. Acting was great, all the characters were good. The very end scene was so disappointing though. Almost as if the writer just had to end the story in two minutes flat. Everything was plausible except that final scene with the explosion. A fire without the explosion would have been more convincing. More of an effort could have been made there.Being familiar with Bristol made it doubly enjoyable as i saw familiar places on screen.Other than that... it's good. well done.