Allen Leech has lined up his next role following the second Downton Abbey film, and it sounds absolutely brilliant.
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The 41-year-old actor, who has been playing Branson in the hugely popular period drama franchise since it began back in 2010, will lead the cast of a brand new Irish drama titled The Vanishing Triangle alongside Normal People actress India Mullen. While not much is known about the drama at the moment, it’s based on a series of real disappearances that shook Ireland in the 1990s.
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According to Deadline, while “the characters and events in the series are fictional, the producers have spoken to several of the real-life victims’ families and hope the show will keep their stories in the Irish public’s mind”.
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The show’s title references the nickname that Irish media gave the high-profile case that has never been solved. The mysterious disappearance of an American woman named Annie McCarrick was the first case in 1993, and by 1998, six young women had been reported missing in similar circumstances in Eastern Ireland.
© Photo: RexAllen is best known to viewers for playing Branson in Downton Abbey
However, the number of cases has been disputed as there are possible links to cases going as far back as the 1980s and as recent as the 2010s.
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India will play a reporter by the name of Lisa Wallace, who is working in the face of prejudice and police incompetence to investigate the mysterious murder of her own mother nearly 20 years earlier. Meanwhile, Allen plays David Burke, a detective helping with her case, but whose struggles with his sexuality are a constant burden.
Given that casting for the series has only just been announced, it’s likely that viewers won’t see it land on screens for some time. When it does, it will air on AMC Networks’ Sundance Now in the US and Virgin Media Television in the UK.
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