Baptiste recap: What happened in series one and The Missing as detective returns for new episodes on BBC Two

Fans of The Missing will be looking forward to the return of their favourite French detective.

Baptiste, which follows private investigator Julien Baptiste, is coming back for a second season.

But have you forgotten what has happened before?

Heres everything you need to know.

The Missing series one recap

The first series of The Missing follows the story of Tony Hughes, who travels with his wife Emily and their five-year-old son Oliver, are travelling to France on holiday in the summer of 2006. Soon after arriving in the country their car breaks down and they have to spend the night in a small town. Tony and Oliver go to a outdoor bar, where a football match is being watched but Tony loses his son, who goes missing.

The show cuts back to eight years later and Oliver has not been found but the investigation is closed. Tony and Emily have divorced. Tony sees a recent photograph in which a little boy is wearing a custom-made scarf identical to the one Oliver was wearing when he disappeared. Tony and Julien Baptiste, the retired detective who led the original investigation, start to put the pieces together.

In the end, a deathbed confession reveals that Oliver was knocked over in a roadtraffic accident, and that, believing he was dead, the driver Alain called his brother Georges, the local mayor, to help him. Georges calls in some Romanian gangsters that he had helped a few years before to dispose of the body. Upon realising the child was alive, the Romanians killed him anyway.

The Missing series two recap

The second series of The Missing explores two timelines, one based in 2014 and the other two years later in 2016. After the 2003 disappearance of Alice Webster in Germany, where her father is stationed on a British Army base, A woman appears in 2014 claiming to be Alice, and says she was kept captive in a basement with another French girl named Sophie Giroux. Julien Baptiste is an expert on the Giroux case and is brought in to investigate. They find a picture of three missing girls on a rollercoaster, Alice, Sophie, and another named Lena Gerber.

Baptiste is suspicious of Alice, and confronts her in French believing her to be Sophie. Alice appears to lock herself in a shed and set it on fire, killing herself.

He joins forces with Lenhart, the investigating German police officer.

Two years later Baptiste is in Iraq, investigating a possible connection to the military.

Lenhart visits the army press officer Adam Gettrick at his home. A young child appears unexpectedly from upstairs and shows Lenhart a drawing, saying it is of herself and her mother in the cellar. Gettrick overpowers Lenhart and kills him with a drill.

Baptiste breaks into Gettrick’s home and finds a padlocked cellar door, but Gettrick has left and drives, with the child, to a house in the woods in Switzerland. In the boot of the car is Alice Webster, who is not dead but has been reimprisoned.

Baptiste searches Gettrick’s house and finds out he has gone to Vaaren in Switzerland, he travels there and Gettrick is discovered. He admits putting the corpse of Lena in the shed two years before.

The series ends with Baptiste having surgery for a brain tumour.

Baptiste series one recap

Baptiste is now a grandfather, and is staying with his daughter in Amsterdam.

Desperate to get out of the house, he jumps at the chance of a meeting with old flame Martha Horchner, the city’s Chief of Police.

But far from a belated catch-up, Horchner is after his help in finding Natalie, a missing girl and the niece of Englishman, Edward Stratton.

Believing the case to be connected to a Romanian sex trafficking gang, time is of the essence. But of course, these things are never as simple as they seem.

Baptiste finds Natalie, who reveals Edward is not her uncle, but a client and they were working together after stealing money they were laundering for a Romanian gang the Brigada.

He works with Martha’s son a young Dutch detective named Neils.

Baptiste goes after the stolen money while a British detective named Genevieve, makes Edward meet Constantin, the gangsters’ spokesman. When the money is discovered, Edward disappears and goes back to the UK. Martha confesses to Julien that Niels is his natural son.

Baptists attempts to negotiate with Constantin, but the gangster is murdered by his own side. The Brigada track down Edward’s ex-wife and partner and kill them, but Edward then finds evidence to connect them. Baptiste realises someone within the Dutch police has betrayed them, and is shocked to discover it is his own son Neils.

Neils goes on the run, takes his mother hostage and kills her.

What can we expect from series two?

Baptiste follows a French private investigator Julien Baptiste, who specialises in looking for missing people.

At the start of the second series of the Missing spin-off, the French detective has a hermit’s long hair and beard, is drinking heavily and pushing away his estranged wife Celia.

We then rewind 14 months to a mountain resort in Hungary to discover the source of his trauma – and also why the British ambassador to Hungary, Emma, is now in a wheelchair.

In the earlier timeframe, Emma is holidaying with her husband and two sons when her family suddenly vanishes. Baptiste, no longer in any official capacity, jets in to offer his assistance.

According to writers Harry and Jack Williams, the first series of Baptiste is a direct sequel to the events of The Missing.

It was set in real time, and took places just over two years after the Series 2 of the show that created its lead character.

How can I watch Baptiste?

The second series of Baptiste will start on Sunday July 18 on BBC One at 9pm.

It will also be available as a box set on BBC iPLayer.