The BBC drama The Woman in the Wall, starring Ruth Wilson, has surged into Netflix's top 10 TV shows ranking. The six-part series, originally broadcast in 2023, combines a murder investigation with the harrowing history of Ireland's Magdalene laundries.
Plot and historical context
Set in a small town in west Ireland, the show follows Lorna Brady (Wilson), a survivor of a Magdalene laundry. These church-run institutions, named after Mary Magdalene, were used to house young women deemed to have fallen from grace, often sent by their parents to conceal out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Newborns were frequently taken from their mothers for adoption, and infant mortality rates were shockingly high. Lorna, decades later, seeks to discover if her daughter Agnes survived.
The plot thickens when Lorna receives a letter stating, 'I know what happened to your child,' with a phone number. The next day, she finds the corpse of the woman who sent the letter in her home and hides it behind a wall, giving the show its name. Meanwhile, Detective Colman (Daryl McCormack) investigates the murder of a priest, bringing him into Lorna's path.
Critical reception and performances
The show has been praised for its genre-blending approach, mixing psychological horror, black comedy, and gothic undertones within a crime drama framework. Critics have highlighted Wilson's performance and the sensitive handling of the subject matter. The Wall Street Journal noted the show 'tightens its grip on the viewer’s neck and moves him toward the edge of his seat.' The Post NZ called it 'addictive appointment viewing,' while The Guardian described it as 'beautiful' and 'harrowing,' adding that the gothic elements feel integral.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 77% rating. One character in the show remarks, 'People think that this couldn’t happen again. Then they forget that the last laundry closed in 1996. It wasn’t medieval times. The f**king Macarena was in the charts.'
Availability and impact
The Woman in the Wall is now available to stream on Netflix. Its inclusion in the top 10 has brought renewed attention to the Magdalene laundries, which operated until 1996. The series dramatises the collective efforts of survivors to have the convent recognised as a Magdalene laundry, reflecting Ireland's ongoing reckoning with this history.
