The six-part series is filmed and set in Bristol
Eve Myles, left, and David Morrissey, right, star in a new six-part ITV series called Gone. The series was filmed and is set in Bristol, and tells the story of an upstanding private school headteacher Michael Polly (Morrissey) who slowly becomes a suspect in the disappearance of his wife, after the work of Detective Annie Cassidy (Myles). The character of Annie Cassidy is inspired by Avon and Somerset detective Julie MacKay, who in 2015 solved the 1984 murder of Melanie Road in Bath(Image: ITV)
A new primetime police series starting on ITV next month is not only filmed and set in Bristol, but the ‘super-bright, gutsy detective’ in the lead role is based on and inspired by a real-life detective who cracked one of Bristol’s longest-running cold case murders.
The six-part ITV series is called Gone. It was filmed in and around Bristol last year, and is coming to the nation’s living rooms in early March.
It tells the fictional story of an upstanding headmaster called Michael Polly, played by David Morrissey, who becomes the prime suspect in the mysterious disappearance of his wife Sarah.
The detective investigating the case, Annie Cassidy, is played by Eve Myles, and her character is based on and inspired by real-life now-retired detective Julie MacKay.
Det Supt MacKay won awards for painstakingly solving the 32-year-long murder case of Melanie Road, a 17-year-old killed on her way home after a night out in Bath back in 1984.
It wasn’t until 2009 that Det Supt MacKay, recently transferred to Avon and Somerset’s cold case review team, reopened the case, pledging to Melanie’s mum that she would not stop until she found her daughter’s murderer.
That took six years, and a lot of piecing together primitive evidence from the original 1984 case to extract more modern DNA samples. Eventually, in 2015, a young woman was arrested after she had a row with her boyfriend and broke his necklace. Her DNA was taken and, thanks to the work of Julie MacKay, a DNA match was triggered.
Melanie Road was aged 17 when she was murdered in Bath
The young woman, who wasn’t even born at the time of the murder, led Det Supt MacKay to her father – and in 2016, Christopher Hampton, from Fishponds in Bristol, changed his plea to guilty at the start of his trial. He was jailed for life and must serve at least 22 years.
The story of tracking down Melanie’s killer became a book written by Julie Mackay and ITV crime correspondent Rob Murphy, and it is that book that inspired Evy Myles’ character Annie Cassidy.
Both Julie MacKay and Rob Murphy worked as consultants on the series, and while the fictional story of the case in the first series is nothing like the Melanie Road case, the character of the strong female detective is based on the real-life Julie MacKay.
Detective Supt Julie Mackay
“Set against the backdrop of a prestigious private school, a foreboding forest and the quiet sprawl of Bristol, Gone is a chilling mystery focusing on local Headmaster Michael Polly, played by David Morrissey, who becomes the prime suspect in his wife Sarah’s disappearance,” a spokesperson for ITV said.
“An upstanding member of the community, Michael Polly is inscrutable and likes order and precision in his working life. Until, that is, he encounters super bright, gutsy Detective Annie Cassidy, played by Eve Myles, and a compulsive game of cat and mouse begins as she chips away at his veneer in search of the truth,” he added.
“Gone is a fictional series, partly inspired by the book “To Hunt a Killer” and the career and work of respected former Detective Superintendent for Gloucestershire Police, Julie Mackay, and ITV Crime Correspondent Robert Murphy who has reported on some of the biggest and most complex cases in the West of England. Both Mackay and Murphy serve as consultants on the series,” he said.
Eve Myles said she couldn’t wait for people to see the series. “I’m thrilled to be playing Detective Annie Cassidy in George Kay’s brilliantly written drama Gone,” she said.
READ MORE: Detective who solved 32-year murder mystery tells remarkable story in a new bookREAD MORE: How Christopher Hampton lived with a very dark secret for nearly 32 years
“Annie is a fascinating character, intuitive, gutsy and doesn’t suffer fools, but she has met her match in Michael Polly who is a formidable adversary played by David Morrissey. It’s wonderful to be directed by Richard Laxton and I can’t wait for the audience to see it,” she added.
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