Entertainment
There's one question echoing around British households of a Sunday night (aside from "are there any Yorkshires left?") What really happened to Noah, the missing baby at the heart of BBC psychological thriller The Cry? Did Jenna Coleman's new mother Joanna, subsequently lambasted by her husband for not grieving visibly enough, harm her son? Did father Alistair plot to disappear his second child? Was it Alistair's ex-wife Alexandra, locked in a bitter custody battle over their daughter, Chloe? And above all, what can you watch to fill the days between each episode? These five TV shows like The Cry will keep you satiated while you wait for a new instalment — and start your brain churning over a whole new set of mysteries.
The Cry's defining elements include a missing child, a complex prosecution case, a twisty plot, and familial crisis, and the following TV shows all incorporate one or more of those characteristics. Try HBO's The Night Of, starring Riz Ahmed, for a harrowing insight into the racist injustice of the U.S. prison system, or watch the BBC's The Missing for another take on the suspicion that descends when a child disappears. Just keep reading to discover five more astonishing crime thrillers fans of The Cry will appreciate.
The Missing
There are two series of The Missing to burn through, both centred around the disappearance of a child and the resulting psychological turmoil. In the first series, couple Tony and Emily Hughes (played by James Nesbitt and Frances O'Connor) take their son Oliver to France during the 2006 World Cup. Oliver disappears, and the search goes cold for eight years. When the the police, under Tchéky Karyo's lead detective Julien Baptiste, reopen the case, everyone — including Tony himself — falls under suspicion.
The Night Of
College student Nasir Khan, played by the rightfully Emmy-winning, Golden Globe-nominated Riz Ahmed, wakes after a wild night out in New York to find Andrea, who he slept with, stabbed to death. And so Naz, despite maintaining his innocence, is thrust into the horror of the American criminal justice system, his ordeal compounded by racism, Islamophobia, and legal costs his family struggles to pay. Naz, who has no memory of the night in question, is detained at Rikers Island, an experience that will leave him profoundly altered.
Apple Tree Yard
Apple Tree Yard, a BBC adaptation of Louise Doughty's novel of the same name, begins as the story of an affair, as scientist Dr. Yvonne Carmichael (Emily Watson) seeks refuge from her unhappy marriage with the mysterious Mr. X (Ben Chaplin), who may or may not be a spy. But after Carmichael experiences a harrowing trauma, her life takes an entirely unanticipated turn — and Mr. X's true identity eventually comes to the surface.
Broadchurch
Listen: if you're watching The Cry, you've almost certainly seen Broadchurch. But in the rare event you haven't, please head directly towards the nearest computer and watch all three series of the drama, set in a quiet Dorset town upended by the murder of an 11-year-old boy. The first (and best) series sees detectives Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) and Alec Hardy (David Tennant) unearth horrifying secrets and impossible betrayals in the tight-knit, sleepy town, as they inch ever closer to finding Danny Latimer's killer.
Undercover
Sophie Okonedo's Maya Cobbina, a human rights barrister and the first black woman in the role of Director of Public Prosecutions, is enmeshed in three mysteries — but she's only aware of two. Cobbina is attempting to save the falsely accused Rudy Jones (Dennis Haysbert) from the death penalty, while pinpointing who's responsible for the death of Michael Antwi (Sope Dirisu), an anti-racist activist who died 20 years ago in police custody. But there's another buried secret in her family home, courtesy of husband Nick Johnson (Adrian Lester) — once an undercover police officer.
That's five new series to sink your teeth into before the next episode of The Cry airs on Sunday, October 14. That's exactly five nights to go — a show an evening, anyone?
