The hit BBC drama is back for its second series.

As the search for the abductor gathers pace, Alice (played by Abigail Hardingham) also appears to hold vital clues to the whereabouts of a second missing girl, Sophie Giroux, whose disappearance was investigated back in 2003 by French detective Julien Baptiste.

In the present day, Alice's parents Sam and Gemma are barely speaking, whilst Alice's brother, Matthew, has become violent and withdrawn. Meanwhile Julien is in Iraq, following a clue that he believes is key to finding the person who abducted the girls.

The BBC drama The Missing will returns tonight, two years after the first thrilling season. The first season saw Tchéky Karyo as Detective Julien Baptiste attempting to discover what happened to the missing son of parents played by James Nesbitt and Frances O'Connor, and it concluded with what many viewers and critics believed was a cliff-hanger.

Season two, however, will begin a whole new case starring Keeley Hawes and The Walking Dead's David Morrissey, as two parents whose daughter Alice disappeared and who suddenly are reunited with her when she makes a shock reappearance.

The series will once again be written by Harry and Jack Williams, who admitted that during the first season they were already having ideas about season. 'We began talking about what the show would have been had Oliver Hughes been found,' they said.

'This story grew out of that discussion. It's the other side of the coin to series one – an exploration of loss, of freedom, of how the past can shape the present in a myriad ways that we cannot fully understand. To lose somebody can destroy a person. But to find them again, when so much has passed...that can be worse.'

The story will be told in dual timelines between 2014 and the present day in a similar style to the first series.

The Missing returns to BBC1 at 9pm tonight

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