Where's Ollie?

For the past 5 Tuesdays, between the hours of 9pm and 10pm, I have been glued to my TV muttering “what the F*@&?” every ten minutes. Yes, I’ve been watching BBC One’s The Missing.

This program follows the story of Tony Hughes and his hunt to find out what has happened to his son, Ollie, who went missing when they were on holiday in France eight years ago. Flicking back and forth to 2006 and present day, every scene unveils another piece of the puzzle, and leaves my mind well and truly blown at the intricacies of this complex story. The program is 5 episodes in and I’m probably just as confused as I was at the start, but it’s a confusion that I am very much enjoying. I’m torn between wanting the series to be over to find out what on earth has gone on, and not wanting it to end as my Tuesday night TV viewing will return to its original bleakness.

The character of Tony Hughes is played by James Nesbitt, who fully embodies the role of someone with a missing child. I feel every ounce of his pain, every pang of guilt and every flicker of anger he endures throughout the terrible ordeal. Luckily most of us have never experienced something like this but, although this particular story is fictional, it gives us a small glimpse of what this shattering situation can be like for unfortunate sufferers. And fair play to Tony Hughes- this guy doesn’t quit. I’m looking forward to joining him again next week on his relentless quest to find the whereabouts of little Ollie, and to uncover more of what happens along the way.