News / Published 2026-11-04

Keeley Hawes Boards Season 2 of ITV's Gone

She will play Ruth Manning, a paediatric surgeon at Bristol's Makeway Hospital, who comes into the crosshairs of DS Annie Cassidy, the detective played by Eve Myles, once it becomes apparent that she could be hiding the dark truth about a series of historical crimes.

(See the reader poll and source context below).

Keeley Hawes will play a Bristol paediatric surgeon opposite Eve Myles in the second season of ITV's Gone, a six-part order from writer George Kay that arrives with no announced air date.

A flat vector illustration of a quiet interior corridor in one-point perspective with deep green panels and a single lit doorway at the far end casting a warm rectangle on the floor, with the words "Another case for season two" in the lower-left corner.
Conceptual editorial illustration; not a photograph of the people or event described.

What do the sources establish?

Recorded source context. No verified social reaction quotes or aggregate vote results are supplied.
Platform / SourceCore Stance / QuoteEngagement MetricTimestamp
'The Assassin' Star Keeley Hawes Joins Season 2 Of George Kay's ITV Thriller 'Gone' — DeadlineReported context: [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object]Not recordedNot recorded
ITV renews Keeley Hawes crime drama Gone for S2 — C21MediaReported context: [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object]Not recordedNot recorded

THE SHORT VERSION

  • Keeley Hawes has joined the second season of ITV's Gone, Deadline reports, playing Ruth Manning, a paediatric surgeon at Bristol's Makeway Hospital who falls under the suspicion of DS Annie Cassidy, played by Eve Myles.
  • C21Media reports that ITV head of drama Polly Hill has greenlit a six-part season created and written by George Kay, coproduced by New Pictures and Observatory Pictures with Banijay Rights handling international distribution.
  • Neither report gives a premiere date, an episode title or a second-season synopsis, and neither confirms whether David Morrissey returns after playing the headmaster suspected in his wife's disappearance in season one.

Keeley Hawes joins the second season

Keeley Hawes has boarded the second season of the ITV thriller Gone, the series from Lupin creator George Kay, Deadline reports. She will play Ruth Manning, a paediatric surgeon at Bristol's Makeway Hospital, who comes into the crosshairs of DS Annie Cassidy, the detective played by Eve Myles, once it becomes apparent that she could be hiding the dark truth about a series of historical crimes.

Deadline calls the part pre-eminent and devoted, and puts the pressure on her patients rather than on herself: the surgeon falls under suspicion for what she may have done for their benefit. The same report notes that the casting lands a day after Hawes was revealed to be joining the second season of Sky's Prisoner, and two days before her Prime Video series The Assassin launches. Neither paper says when the new season begins shooting, and neither gives it an air date, so the announcement fixes a cast and nothing else.

A surgeon at the centre of a case

Only Deadline describes the part in any detail. It gives Manning a hospital, a specialty and a position inside the plot, and it names the detective who will be investigating her. Eve Myles is the only returning cast member that either report attaches to a character. Hawes, the paper notes, is a three-time BAFTA nominee, and the second report does not carry that detail.

C21Media does not mention Ruth Manning, Makeway Hospital or Annie Cassidy at all. Its brief is built around the renewal and the order rather than the role, so the character exists in one account and not the other. Read together, the two pieces establish a casting and a commission in separate halves, and neither supplies a second-season synopsis. Nothing in either file says what the new case is, how many of the six episodes Manning appears in, or where the story picks up after the first run. The gap matters, because a character description is the only part of the file that tells a reader what the new season is about, and only one of the two reports offers one.

Six parts, and no air date

C21Media reports that ITV has renewed Gone for a second season. ITV head of drama Polly Hill has greenlit a six-part run starring Hawes, created and written by George Kay, the trade paper says. The season is coproduced by New Pictures and Kay's Observatory Pictures in association with Banijay Rights, which C21Media names as the international distributor.

Deadline gives Hill a different title, Director of Drama, and says she will oversee production from the broadcaster's perspective. It prints no episode count. The two credit lists for Kay also differ by a title each: C21Media cites War, The Long Shadow and Hijack, while Deadline cites Lupin, Hijack and War. Hijack and War appear in both, so the overlap is real but partial, and neither paper explains the order in which those shows were made. Neither report dates the commission or says when the six episodes would be delivered, so the order is a number without a calendar.

Bristol, a headmaster and a missing wife

Gone is set in Bristol, and the first season starred David Morrissey as a local headmaster, Michael Polly, who became the prime suspect in his wife Sarah's disappearance, Deadline reports. That is the only first-season story detail in either piece. Neither paper gives the first season's transmission date, its episode count or the name of its director, and neither says how the second season handles the Polly case.

Deadline also reports that the first run, starring Myles, “eclipsed all streaming records” on ITVX, a claim it attributes to the UK network rather than to independent data. C21Media carries no ratings figure and no reference to ITVX. The streaming record therefore rests on one outlet and on the broadcaster's own word, and neither paper puts a number beside it or dates the first season's run. Deadline is also the only one of the two that refers to the first season at all.

Two producers and a book behind it

Both reports place the production at New Pictures and Observatory Pictures, in association with Banijay Rights, and both name Kay as the writer behind it. Only Deadline lists the executive producers: Willow Grylls, the BAFTA Award nominee Matt Sandford and Kay. Only Deadline mentions the source material, describing the series as partly inspired by the book To Hunt a Killer and by the real-life work of former Detective Superintendent Julie Mackay and ITV Crime Correspondent Robert Murphy, who both serve as consultants.

Neither report says how closely the second season follows that book, or whether the new case is drawn from it. The consultancy arrangement is stated once, by one outlet, with no detail on what the two consultants reviewed or when they were brought in. What the two papers do agree on is the company structure and the writer, which is the part of the record that carries no variation at all, and that is also the part with the least new information in it.

What neither report confirms

Neither paper gives a premiere date, a start of production, a trailer or an episode title, and neither says whether David Morrissey appears in the new season. Beyond Manning and Cassidy, no character is attached to any name. The renewal is the only confirmed event, and the six-part order comes from one outlet only, so the shape of the season is fixed before its schedule is.

Related coverage on this site includes the second season renewal for Youth, the confirmed return in The Pitt season 3 and the one-day production plan for Big Little Lies season 3. The casting is the news in both pieces, and the rest of the file is the renewal notice that arrived with it.

Sources & reporting limits

  1. 'The Assassin' Star Keeley Hawes Joins Season 2 Of George Kay's ITV Thriller 'Gone' — Deadline
  2. ITV renews Keeley Hawes crime drama Gone for S2 — C21Media
Keep the thread.

Follow TV & Variety to find related stories on your next visit.

THE WEEKLY EDIT

The week, made clear.

Stories worth understanding, brought together in one weekly edition.

Share this page

Instagram, TikTok & other apps

Copy the page link, then paste it where your chosen app supports links. You choose whether to send or publish.