The Boy That Never Was season 1 is a new four-part psychological thriller starring Colin Morgan and Toni O’ Rourke as Irish couple Harry and Robin Lonergan, who face every parent's worst nightmare after their three-year-old son, Dillon, dies in an earthquake in Morocco and his body is never recovered.
Three years later the grieving husband and wife are attempting to rebuild their lives in Dublin when Harry becomes obsessed with a boy that he spots on his commute, believing him to be his son, now aged six. Yet subsequent events threaten to tear apart their marriage and expose secrets about the night their child went missing…
Here’s everything we know about this tragedy thriller with a love story at its heart…
The Boy That Never Was release date
The Boy That Never Was gets its UK premiere on Tuesday, October 29 at 9pm on Alibi with a double-bill. It concludes the following Tuesday with another double-bill.
All episodes will be available as a box set on demand via Sky, Virgin Media and Now.
The four-part series originally aired on RTÉ Television in September 2024.
The Boy That Never Was — premise
Viewers meet struggling artists Harry and Robin living a blissful life at their home in
Essaouira, Morocco where they live with their three-year-old son, Dillon.
Tragically, however, one evening, while waiting on Robin to return home from her job at a local hotel, Harry leaves Dillon sleeping alone in their apartment while he steps out briefly.
In that moment, everything changes. An earthquake hits and, despite Harry racing back to rescue Dillon, their home is reduced to rubble. Tragically, after an exhaustive rescue attempt, Dillon is declared dead, although his body is never recovered.
Three years later the grieving couple have returned to Dublin when Harry becomes convinced that he’s sighted Dillon. Desperate to be reunited with his son, he obsessively tries to track the boy down, bringing his marriage to breaking point in the process.
Yet the idea of their son being alive isn’t as far-fetched as those around him believe. When Harry obtains footage from the train station Robin deletes it without him knowing. Is she hiding a secret that could tear them apart or trying to protect her troubled husband from himself?
“This is a four-part tragedy thriller series about a young couple living a bohemian life. He's a painter, she's an architect, but she's working in a bar. Tragedy strikes when an earthquake hits Morocco and their young son Dillon goes missing and is presumed dead. Three years later, the father thinks he sees him in Dublin,” explains series director Hannah Quinn. “It’s a story that's full of heartbreak, tragedy, grief, redemption and forgiveness, and it's got a brilliant twist at the end!”
The Boy That Never Was cast
Colin Morgan (Belfast, Legend) stars as Harry Lonergan.
Toni O’Rourke (God’s Creatures, Calm with Horses) plays Robin Lonergan.
Kerr Logan (Alias Grace, Strike) plays Robin’s brother Ollie.
Simon Callow (The Witcher, The Rebel) stars as Cozimo, the family’s close friend in Morocco.
The four-parter also stars Mansour Badri (The Spy) as Fadoul Kadiri, Kelly Campbell (Vikings) as Eva Doyle, Woman in Train Station, Cillian O'Sullivan (In from the Cold) as Dave Garrick and real life brother and sister Emily and John O’Neill as Dillon aged three and The Boy in the Train Station/Dillon aged six respectively.
“I thought the casting was going to be the hardest, but I just happened to come across as an eight year old boy who could play the older Dillon and he happened to have a sister, and they worked out incredibly. Emily and John are just magnificent,” explains director Hannah. “Colin Morgan and Toni O'Rourke plays our leads, Harry and Robin, and they have just owned these parts, giving 120% every day.
“They are really hard parts - there's a lot of sadness one day, and then on the same day, they've got to be happy when we flashback to happier times. They have come in completely having done all their homework and getting changed really quickly to keep us on schedule. It’s been amazing to watch them and we've had a brilliant time working together.”
The Boy That Never Was — filming locations
The series was filmed on location in Morocco and Ireland. According to the production notes it was a whirlwind shoot taking place over 23 days in Essaouira and Casablanca in Morocco and 13 days in Ireland.
“Not a lot of shows have this level of contrast between cultures and countries,” says Colin Morgan, who plays Harry. “This show is exciting and very visually satisfying to watch. Morocco represents vibrancy, colour, spice, heat, adventure, freedom for Harry. Ireland has some of these qualities, but Harry is attracted to Morocco in other ways. Harry leads the way there - it is his dream to live there - and it says a lot about Robin that she goes there with him.”
“Their dream is quite literally shattered by a natural disaster,” says Colin. “When they return to Ireland, Harry has to embrace the life they left behind. Ireland represents something difficult for him.”
The Boy That Never Was trailer
Check out the trailer for The Boy That Never Was, where you get a real sense of what to expect from this suspenseful thriller.
Speaking about the show’s target audience, Hannah says: “I think if they like crying their eyes out, if they like a good tearjerker, or if they enjoy family drama, family life, seeing young children and lots of cats and animals in Morocco! The actors are just amazing. It's a really good story, seeing what the characters have to go through, how they survive, how they cope, and how they'll come out the other side - they're magnificent and it's a really great story.”
The Boy That Never Was episode — guide containing spoilers
The Boy That Never Was — episode 1
Harry (Colin Morgan) and Robin (Toni O’Rourke) are living the life of artists in Essaouira, Morocco with their toddler son, Dillon. Tragedy strikes when an earthquake hits and their apartment crumbles with a sleeping Dillon inside.
When Harry races back to rescue his child, there is no sign of him. Not even a body.
Three years later, Harry and Robin have returned to Dublin and are co-existing as two grieving parents just trying to get by. With Dillon’s body never found the absence of, and need for, closure hums between them. Yet they are trying to move on by renovating an old property in Dublin, their new home.
In a crowded train station in Dublin city centre, Harry believes he spots Dillon with a red-haired woman. Despite giving chase he loses track of the boy - but is now on a mission to find him. Yet he doesn’t tell Robin he has found 'their' boy, as it emerges Harry has had mistaken sightings in the past and he fears that Robin won’t believe him without proof... Proof that Harry is determined to find.
Meanwhile, Robin has a secret of her own. She is pregnant. When she tells Harry the news he becomes evasive and distracted, leading her to suspect that he is suffering another mental health crisis. With her concerns over his behaviour growing, Harry confesses that he saw Dillon. Realising she needs to Help Harry, Robin helps him obtain the CCTV footage in the hope that they can lay their son to rest and face a new future.
Together they trawl through hours of footage, in what seems like a fruitless endeavour. With the lack of evidence and Robin’s doubt, Harry starts to believe he really was seeing ghosts. Taking a break, he steps out of the room to make some drinks, leaving Robin to view footage alone. It’s then that she catches a glimpse of the boy and the red-haired woman. Her face falls, she deletes the CCTV clip. When Harry returns, she doesn’t say a word...
The Boy That Never Was — episode 2
Continuing to keep the CCTV clip of the red-haired woman from Harry, Robin’s behaviour grows more mysterious when she begins to surreptitiously search online for a woman called Eva Doyle. So distracted is Robin that she doesn’t spot Harry’s furtive plans to fly to Essaouira to see their old friend, Cozimo (Simon Callow). Fearful of Harry’s search for answers and state of mind, Robin tries to convince her younger brother Ollie (Kerr Logan) to bring Harry home. Reluctant, Ollie agrees, but it is clear that Robin is not the only one with a secret past in Morocco.
In Essaouira, Harry is devastated to find Cozimo suffering from dementia. Cozimo claims he saw Dillon alive and well recently near a 'horned seahorse', which sends a desperate Harry down a rabbit hole and ends up with him in a police cell.
Frantic, Robin flies out and secures Harry’s release. She then wants them all to leave Morocco as soon as possible, unable to bear the bad memories from the earthquake and losing Dillon, as viewers learn more about Robin's own regrets from her time living there.
Whilst Robin is consumed by the secrets of the past, Ollie is grabbed and bundled into the back of a van...
The Boy That Never Was — episode 3
Forced to put their own troubles to one side, Robin and Harry look to a local policeman for help with tracking down Ollie. Deep in the seedy underbelly of Essaouira's back streets, they follow a lead to a place that deals in drugs and trafficking of children and there they find a badly beaten Ollie.
Disgusted and confused, Harry’s imagination gets the better of him. Why is Ollie here? What is his connection to child traffickers? Is this all related to Dillon?
Ollie cannot leave Essaouira until an old unpaid drug debt is paid back to the gang, so Robin digs deep into their savings to secure his freedom. Before completing the handover, however, Harry accuses Ollie of having something to do with Dillon’s disappearance and asks if Ollie sold Dillon to the gang. The ringleader denies any part in Dillon’s disappearance and Robin, Harry and Ollie leave in a hurry.
Disappointed and hurt by the actions of her brother and her husband, Robin goes to see Cozimo at his home alone to say goodbye one last time. There, he speaks about the past and alludes to Robin visiting the Green Monkey Hotel. Robin's caught off guard and, after leaving Cozimo, she revisits the Green Monkey hotel, and in flashbacks viewers learn about a secret liaison she had in the hotel with a man called Garrick.
The next day, Robin, Harry, and Ollie return home to Dublin. Defeated, Harry accepts Ollie had nothing to do with Dillon’s disappearance and he begins to doubt he ever saw his son that day.
But j as it seems that Harry has no choice but to let his obsession with finding Dillon go, he discovers the hidden CCTV footage that Robin deleted. With Robin peacefully sleeping, Harry stares at his wife, wondering what secrets she is keeping and if he even knows her at all...
The Boy That Never Was - episode 4
Throwing Robin off the trail, Harry convinces her that he now knows she was right and that seeing Dillon was all in his head. Behind her back, Harry uses the footage he found in the bin as a starting point and is now able to track down the woman and her son to their hire car. From there, he finds a name: 'Eva Doyle'.
While Harry attempts to tracks down Eva, Robin is conducting her own investigation and emailing a unknown person...
Harry eventually discovers Eva was in Ireland for a few days and he retraces her movements to a hotel she stayed in. There, with a little old fashioned cash incentive, he discovers Eva originally came from Casablanca and she had a young child with her.
With hope and fear rising, Harry flies back to Morocco to find them, taking a confused Cozimo for a road trip to Casablanca so he can help him.
Harry is franticly searching the streets of Casablanca, Robin has followed him to Casablanca and makes her way to Eva and Garrick's home. When Harry eventually turns up, she is already there, and the pieces start to fall into place.
It is revealed that Eva did travel to Ireland recently with her son Felix. Robin had an affair with Eva’s husband Garrick seven years ago and Dillon was Garrick’s biological son, meaning Felix is Dillon’s half-brother.
At that moment, Garrick’s wife Eva rushes in, a little boy behind her. Harry and Robin stare into the child’s eyes and Robin instantly knows he is Dillon.
Forced to confess, Garrick tells them that their own son Felix died and, broken with grief, he returned to Essaouira just prior to the earthquake. Garrick would watch the family from a distance and spotted his opportunity when Harry left Dillon alone. As the earthquake began he broke in and saved Dillon. Garrick and Eva took Dillon and convinced themselves they would be able to give him the life he deserved.
Now six-years-old, Dillon still recognises his mother, Robin, and he reaches out to her. Eva breaks down, but Garrick is tired of hiding and he can’t stop Robin taking her son. Harry watches on, he found Dillon.
The series closes with the newly reunited family in their home in Dublin, apparently happy and anticipating the arrival of the new baby...
Will there be a second series of The Boy That Never Was?
While nothing has been announced and series one has a definitive conclusion, when speaking exclusively to WTW Toni O'Rourke revealed there was an appetite for The Boy That Never Was season 2:
"I was on the bus the other day in Dublin and a woman stopped me to say she was hooked and can’t wait for season two. When I told her I didn't know, she said, 'There has to be!' Who knows, but we’ve been warned by the Irish public!"
Behind the scenes and more on The Boy That Never Was
The Boy That Never Was is directed by Hannah Quinn (Vikings: Valhalla, The Stranger Fate: The Winx Saga,) and is based on the debut novel by the same name by Irish author Karen Perry, the pseudonym of Paul Perry and Karen Gillece.
The series is co-written by Jo Spain (Harry Wild, Taken Down) and screenwriter David Logan (Harry Wild, To Olivia).
Cinematography is by Tim Fleming (Once, Jimi – All is by my side, Fate: The Winx Saga). Production design is by Jon Beer (Vikings, Abigail). The editor is Darragh Moran (Alex Rider, Redemption) and the music is by Kormac (Tarrac, Professionals).
