
*Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Light in the Hall*
The Light in the Hall is a riveting new crime thriller on Channel 4 that follows Sharon Roberts (Joanna Scanlan), who is haunted by her past.
Her daughter Ela (Ella Peel) vanished from a Welsh village 18 years before, with calm gardener Joe Pritchard (Iwan Rheon) confessing to her murder.
Despite admitting to the murder, Joe has no knowledge of the circumstances leading up to Ela’s death, including where her body is, a fact that has vexed Sharon for the past two decades.
Joe gets released from prison and returned to his hometown, but in addition to Sharon, who would stop at nothing to uncover answers, tenacious journalist Cat Donato (Alexandra Roach) is now on his case.
What they uncover will unravel a web of lies and mystery and offer new light on Ela’s disappearance.
Among the new revelations is Joe’s true nature, which is no longer revealed at the end of episode 4 when he dashes into Sharon’s burning home in an attempt to save her.
Devastated by sorrow, Sharon hits the bottle hard and smokes a cigarette during an altercation with her second daughter Greta (Annes Elwy), before accidently setting fire to her home.
At the end of the episode, after making it to the front door, both Joe and Sharon are knocked out by smoke, with Joe risking his life to save Sharon’s.
Regina Moriarty, the creator and writer of The Light in the Hall, explains why she chose to include the sequence in the six-part play.
When asked if it had been included to hint to the viewers’ minds Joe may not be guilty of murdering Ela, she replied: ‘Yes, it was to show that perhaps he is different and little bit more to him than the man Sharon thought he was.
‘I suppose there was a certain amount of humanising [to show that] you could be one person and also have other facets to you. He was a hero, I guess, in that moment.’
Regina previously told Metro.co.uk that The Light in the Hall wasn’t based on one specific crime or a true story.
She explained: ‘It wasn’t inspired by a particular crime. But there have been a few cases where murderers haven’t disclosed the whereabouts of the body after being convicted.
‘There have been a few cases like that, that I’ve heard about and it’s one of those things that kind of stuck in my head, because I just thought that must be the worst thing ever to know that somebody knows.
‘And also, just to not know where your loved one is, I can’t imagine it. It lodged in my brain.’
The Light in the Hall is available to stream on All4.