Riot Women Fans, Don’t Miss Joanna Scanlan’s New Drama

Entering the world of acting in the late ‘90s, aged 34, BAFTA-winning British star Joanna Scanlan quickly became a familiar face across the big and small screens. But most recently you’ll know her from her leading role in Sally Wainwright’s Hebden Bridge-set drama Riot Women, which she led as menopausal, suicidal divorced mother Beth who finds unexpected release and catharsis in making punk music with local women Jess (Lorraine Ashbourne), Kitty (Rosalie Craig), Holly (Tamsin Greig) and Yvonne (Amelia Bullmore).

Like much of the British public, we at Country and Town House are impatiently awaiting season 2. Until then, there’s a gripping new drama to binge on Channel 5, again led by Scanlan. But this time she has a missing person to deal with – her daughter, no less.

Here’s everything we know so far about Missed Call, set to air on Channel 5 next week.

Joanna Scanlan as Sarah Gleason in Missed Call. (Channel 5)

Missed Call: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

We’ve all missed a phone call in our lives. In fact, with data leaks and spam calls increasingly rife, we often miss them on purpose. But have you ever missed a call that would turn out to be crucial?

This is the fear at the centre of Missed Call, Channel 5’s new drama about missing teenager Katie (Emily Coates) which sees her single mother Sarah (Scanlan) launch a desperate investigation to find her child.

Missed Call is the latest in Channel 5’s slate of splashy, bingeable dramas that includes The Game, The Feud and the soon-to-return The Teacher.

Claire Keim as Virginie Taylor & Joanna Scanlan as Sarah Gleason in Missed Call. (Channel 5)

The Plot

Set mainly in the sleepy southern France town of Saint-Michel, in the first episode of Missed Call we see that game changing phone call. Despite being trepidatious about sending her 17-year-old abroad without her, Sarah has sent Katie off on a French exchange, and, asleep at home after a quiet weekend, she misses Katie’s call. It comes in the middle of the night, with Sarah seeing it only when she wakes.

In the morning, Sarah tries to contact Katie, but her daughter doesn’t reply. Her host family, school and teacher all insist she is fine, out with friends – but something feels off.

Sarah rushes to Saint-Michel, where ‘no one else is prepared to kind of really take it seriously,’ Scanlan tells C&TH. There she meets the Morvans, Katie’s powerful yet strangely hostile host family, as well as the evasive local police, led by detective Lieutenant Virginie Taylor (Claire Keim).

But Sarah is not one to be intimidated. ‘Oh, she’s tough,’ Scanlan tells us. ‘She’s determined. She’s a challenger, and she’s unapologetic.’ As she grapples to find her daughter, Sarah uncovers something unexpected in this supposedly innocent, tight-knit town: buried secrets, abuse, corruption – and even a history of trafficking.

Bodies surface and no one is safe from Sarah’s suspicion – including detective Virginie. But with Katie still presumably alive, it’s a race against the clock to save her and find justice.

François-Xavier Demaison as Jerome Ricard & Claire Keim as Virginie Taylor in Missed Call. (Channel 5)

The Cast

Scanlan leads the cast as determined mother Sarah, joined at the fore by her boyfriend Jason (Rupert Graves) who coincidentally drove the students to France, the class’s teacher Neil Scott (Dean Fagan) and local detective Virginie (Claire Keim) who leads the search to find Katie (Coates).

The full cast is as follows:

• Joanna Scanlan as Sarah Gleason
• Claire Keim as Virginie Taylor
• François-Xavier Demaison as Jerome Ricard
• Rupert Graves as Jason Bradley
• Robert Lindsay as Andrew Taylor
• Emily Coates as Katie Gleason
• Lise Laffont as Audrey Lambert
• Dean Fagan as Neil Scott
• Lya Lessert as Emma Morvan
• Xavier Lemaitre as Serge Henin
• Célia Diane as Caroline Morvan
• Hélène Azema as Yvette Henin
• Cole Martin as Ben
• Nicolas Van Beveren as Fabien Morvan
• Andrew Lee Potts as Mark Jones
• Daisy Axon as Lucy
• Thorian De Decker as Officer Remy
• Maxime Pipet as Xavier Henin
• Sandra Teles as Rebecca
• Arthur Combelles as Gabriel (The Pathologist)
• Oliver Jenkins as British Reporter

Joanna Scanlan as Sarah Gleason in Missed Call. (Channel 5)

Where Was It Filmed?

‘Every single moment was filmed in France, even the bits that are supposed to be British,’ lead star Scanlan says. ‘We shot near Montpellier, where there are some very beautiful villages and towns.’

Filmed in summer 2025, fittingly, most of the cast and crew were also French, and Missed Call will also air in France with Scanlan’s voice dubbed.

Emily Coates as Katie Gleason in Missed Call. (Channel 5)

Release Date

Missed Call will kick off at 9pm on Monday 13 April 2026 on Channel 5. Each an hour long, the series’ five episodes will air on consecutive evenings that week.

The episode schedule is as follows:

• Episode 1: 9pm, Monday 13 April 2026
• Episode 2: 9pm, Tuesday 14 April 2026
• Episode 3: 9pm, Wednesday 15 April 2026
• Episode 4: 9pm, Thursday 16 April 2026
• Episode 5: 9pm, Friday 17 April 2026

Episodes will be available to stream on channel5.com