Torn (TV series)

Torn
The two families of Torn
Genre	Drama/Thriller
Created by	Chris Lang
Directed by	Sarah Harding
Starring	Holly Aird Adam Kotz Jo Woodcock Emma Natasha Miles Owen Donovan Bradley Walsh Nicola Walker Poppy Miller
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	3
Release
Original network	ITV, STV, UTV
Original release	19 September – 3 October 2007
External links
Website

Torn was a three-part original television drama series, which was broadcast on ITV from 19 September 2007 to 3 October 2007. The drama was controversial because reportedly based on real events, and was criticised because of its similarities to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in May 2007. ITV denied any connection between the two, insisting that the series had been inspired by recent cases in the United States and had been written and filmed before Madeleine's disappearance.

The series begins in 1996 with a married couple, Sarah (Holly Aird) and David (Adam Kotz) Hooper, going to a busy beach with their young children Alice (Jo Woodcock), Jasmine (Emma Natasha Miles) and Sean (Owen Donovan) on a bank holiday. After some time three-year-old Alice is accidentally left alone and vanishes when her father goes to get ice cream and her mother fails to hear his cries to watch her and presumes she is with him. A frantic search fails to yield any results, and Alice is presumed dead by drowning and is remembered through a commemoration plaque near the beach.

The series then moves forward eleven years, with Sarah refusing to believe her daughter is dead. Whilst in a shopping centre several miles away from her home, she sees a girl who she believes is remarkably similar in appearance to Alice, and faints with shock. She later tells her husband, who maintains that Alice is dead and refuses to entertain Sarah's theories. Sarah returns to the centre, and after several hours of waiting, finds the girl again and follows her to her flat on an estate. The following day Sarah returns to the estate where she confronts the girl and her stepfather Stephen Turner (Bradley Walsh), and after a physical altercation is arrested. She receives a warning on the premise she does not approach the girl or the family again.

Sarah, however, is determined that the girl (revealed to be called Lori) is actually Alice, and the depth of her belief appeals to D.S. Sally Bridges (Poppy Miller) who takes up the case. She visits the Turners' household where she sees photos allegedly of Lori as a baby and, on the way out, meets Lori and her mother Joanne Taylor (Nicola Walker) who reveals she has finally relented and let her daughter get a tattoo on her upper right arm. Thinking this overcompensation for the "ordeal", Bridges asks Sarah if Alice had any distinguishing marks and is told she had a small birthmark on her arm, supposedly in the same place as the tattoo on Lori. With this information, Bridges returns to the Turner/Taylor home and requests a birth certificate and, after to failing to provide one, Joanne breaks down revealing she kidnapped Alice after becoming depressed having found that she was not able to have her own children.