# Chasing Shadows (2014)

> A socially awkward English detective who reads data better than people is assigned to a missing persons unit hunting for lost souls.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/54661

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Created by: Rob Williams
- Network: ITV1
- Cast: Reece Shearsmith, Alex Kingston, Noel Clarke, Don Warrington, Adjoa Andoh, Alfie Field, Myriam Acharki, Lynda Baron
- TMDB rating: 7.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3585270/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: tense, melancholic, bleak, atmospheric

## What critics say

Audiences rated this four-episode British crime miniseries positively, with its tense missing persons investigation and lead performances receiving the most approval.

## Synopsis

Chasing Shadows (2014) is a British four-episode limited series created by Rob Williams for ITV1. Reece Shearsmith plays DS Sean Stone, a socially awkward detective who deals far better with data than with people, and he is assigned to a missing persons unit searching for people who have slipped out of ordinary life. Alex Kingston plays Ruth Hattersley, whose own family history is bound up with the vanished, and Noel Clarke plays DCI Carl Pryor, the senior officer pressing the investigation forward. Don Warrington and Adjoa Andoh fill out the investigative team. Each episode works through a fresh disappearance, following records, hotel leads and quiet interviews while the shadow of a serial killer grows over the cases. The tone is tense and melancholic, with a grim, grounded English atmosphere and a steady undercurrent of dread about what becomes of people who go missing. The engine is Stone's obsessive method against the emotional resistance of the people he is trying to help. Fans of Broadchurch, Sherlock and The Fall will find resonance in its British crime tradition, its unusual detective and its patient, character-driven unease.

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