Episode 1 | Written by Gwyneth HughesTuesday 23 January 2007, 9pm, BBC One
On a beautiful summer's day, Leanne goes with her youngest two children, Rosie and Ethan, to buy a new dog from the animal shelter. When she pulls up in a lay-by to get some flowers for her granddad, her life slips off the radar.
She disappears, leaving little Rosie and Ethan 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...
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.
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?
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. But Rosie – last seen being offered a lift by Kyle Betts, a local man in a Transit van – is still missing...
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Actor Profiles
 Hugh Bonneville
DSI Iain Barclay
Read more about Hugh »
David Oyelowo
Matt Wellings
David's best known for playing Danny in Spooks, and has also appeared in Shoot the Messenger and Born Equal.
Sarah Smart
Sarah Wheeler
Sarah starred in the much-loved 2002 drama Sparkhouse, and was a regular in At Home with the Braithwaites.
Edward Woodward
"Grandad" Vic Marsham
Star of classic crime dramas Callan and The Equaliser, and the cult movie The Wicker Man.
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