Julie Mackay: The real-life inspiration behind the ITV drama ’Gone’

Julie Mackay is the former detective superintendent who led the inquiry into the cold case of Melanie Road.

For more than three decades, the killer of the 17-year-old schoolgirl evaded justice.

For the final seven years, this inquiry was led by Julie Mackay at Avon & Somerset Police.

Julie and I wrote To Hunt a Killer - an award-winning book about her tireless hunt for the murderer.

The book was optioned by New Pictures, the creators of Gone. Screenwriter George Kay created a fictional world, using the book as inspiration, rather than making a straight adaptation.

Gone centres on the domineering headmaster Michael Polly (David Morrissey) whose wife Sarah vanishes from his prestigious West Country school. Det Sgt Annie Cassidy (Eve Myles) is brought in to find her. Instead of being allowed to lead the hunt, she’s sidelined as the Family Liaison Officer. But her new position gives her unique access to the Polly family home. And the more she sees of this dogmatic, repressed and powerful man, the more she questions whether he was responsible for his wife’s vanishing.

In this podcast episode, Julie describes starting as the sole woman on her police team, what it was like to work undercover, to have a loaded sawn-off shotgun pointed at her head, reflects on the challenges of the Melanie Road inquiry, and what it was like to run a team of nearly 200 detectives when she finally got the top job leading a regional Murder Squad.

Gone is aired on ITV in the UK on Sundays and Mondays throughout March with all episodes appearing on ITVX on March 8th for the binge-watchers among you.

Gone is written by George Kay and directed by Richard Laxton. It stars Eve Myles and David Morrissey and co-stars Jennifer Macbeth, Arthur Hughes, Nicholas Nunn, Elliot Cowan, Billy Barrett, Rupert Evans, Jodie McNee, Oscar Batterham, and Clare Higgins.

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