Downton Abbey star's new true-story Channel 5 thriller looks incredible

Downton Abbey star Allen Leech is leading Channel 5's new thriller, The Vanishings – and we can't wait for this one!

The six-part series is loosely based on the real-life terrifying disappearances of women in Ireland in the 1990s. It follows investigative journalist Lisa Wallace, played by India Mullen, who publishes an article about her mother's murder only to receive a chilling letter from the killer. Intrigued? Keep reading to find out more.

The full synopsis reads: "After publishing an article about her mother's murder, Journalist Lisa Wallace gets a chilling letter from the killer, taunting her with pictures of the murder and of a new victim. Soon, news comes of Amy Reynolds, a woman who's gone missing. Lisa and Detective David Burkely (Leech) begin fighting through Garda red tape as more girls go missing.

"Meanwhile, the killer plays psychological torture games with Lisa, making her choose his victims and even threatening her in person. Lisa and David’s path leads them into the crosshairs of the deeply corrupted core of the Garda. To cover their tracks, high-ranking Garda members blackmail David with his own secrets. This threatens to destroy them both as they get closer to facing off with the killer who murdered Lisa's mother all those years ago."

Ahead of the series, India, who is known for her roles in Normal People and Brassic, described her character as "an extremely driven, lone ranger" who is "very committed to her work" at the Dublin Evening Mail. "This particular story follows Lisa and David as they both try to uncover cases that have been ignored by the police and the press," explained the actress.

Meanwhile, Allen revealed how his character comes into the story. "Detective David takes on the case of the first missing girl and it just snowballs because the more notoriety he killer gets, the more he wants to do it and the more he feeds off of it," said the actor.

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The series, which first aired on Virgin Media One in Ireland and Acorn TV in the UK last year, also stars Aaron Monaghan as Gareth Brennan, Laoise Sweeney as Susan Reynolds, Derbhle Crotty as Barbara Adams, Philip O'Sullivan as DCS Gill, Gráinne Good as Amy Reynolds and Brian Moore as Mark Bulger.

Rounding out the cast are Jana Mohieden as Mandy Clarke, Adam John Richardson as Tommy Stephens, Stuart Dunne as Chris Wallace and Stephen Hogan as Ger Gough.

The Vanishings begins on Channel 5 on Thursday 6 February at 9pm.