The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

*The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann*
The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Genre	Docu-series
Directed by	Chris Smith
Starring	Anthony Summers; Gonçalo Amaral; Robbyn Swan
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Running time	43-65 minutes
Production companies	Pulse Films; Paramount Television;
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	March 15, 2019

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann is an American Netflix documentary series directed by Chris Smith. It premiered on Netflix on March 15, 2019, starring Anthony Summers, Gonçalo Amaral and Robbyn Swan, exploring the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, who vanished from the seaside resort of Praia da Luz in Portugal, while on holiday with her family.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] The McCann family opposed its production and refused to take part in it.^[5]

Premise

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann depicts the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann. She vanished from an Algarve holiday apartment at the seaside resort of Praia da Luz in Portugal, in May 2007 as her parents enjoyed a meal with friends 100 yards away. It explores the media, the investigation and the McCanns, although the McCanns themselves do not take part in this docu-series.^[1]^[2]^[3] The series comprises eight episodes retelling the McCann case.^[1]

Reception

The McCann family did not support the production of the documentary, refusing to take part and encouraging others not to be involved.^[5] Lucy Mangan, writing for the Guardian, and Ed Power for the Telegraph, both criticised the series for being too long, filled with irrelevant details, and failing to offer any new evidence or insights into the case.^[1]^[2] Sophie Gilbert, writing for The Atlantic, describes the series as "gripping", and praises how it shows the conflict between detectives investigating the case and the media.^[4]