When The Deceived’s leading lady Ophelia Marsh first lays eyes upon a half-burnt down building in a remote corner of Ireland she muses in a voiceover that she should never have gone inside.
And as this new Stan psychological drama continues to unfold, the audience cannot help but begin to agree with her.
Written by Lisa McGee, known for her work on Derry Girls and The White Queen along with her husband, actor Tobias Beer, and produced by New Pictures – the production house behind The Missing and Catherine The Great – The Deceived is a story about lust, manipulation and betrayal.
While studying English at Cambridge University Ophelia (Emily Reid) begins to fall in love with her charismatic lecturer Michael Callaghan (Emmett J. Scanlan), who appears to have quite an overly familiar relationship with many of the students in his class.
Despite the fact that Ophelia is both intimidated by and impressed with his wife, the famous writer Roisin Mulvery (Catherine Walker), she and Michael begin to embark on a secretive and impassioned affair.
Until one day, when Michael disappears from the world of Cambridge and from Ophelia’s life.
Take a look at the trailer for the new Stan drama The Deceived.
With his upcoming book launch canceled and her calls and messages continually going unanswered, a bewildered Ophelia tracks Michael down to his family home in Knockdara, Ireland.
Their reunion is quickly soured, however, as Ophelia begins to feel gradually suspicious and suffocated by both Michael and the tightknit community of Knockdara.
There’s the seemingly easy-going local builder Sean (Normal People breakout star Paul Mescal) who seems intent on guessing her real reason for moving into Michael’s home, instead of accepting the guise that she work’s publishing.
In a less friendly role is Roisin’s suspicious mother Mary (Eleanor Methven), who is rightly aghast at the arrival of Ophelia and appears to know a lot more about her daughter’s troubled marriage then she initially lets on.
