The Missing Lines

A high-profile launch of a new audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry – ‘The Missing Lines’, which frustrated listeners with its abrupt ending – is today revealed to be part of an awareness campaign for the UK charity Missing People.

The campaign, built around the launch of the new audiobook across leading podcast platforms from Monday January 8, has caused consternation in just three days since its launch.

Having downloaded the audiobook, listeners found the story ends abruptly after three minutes – when the main character, Marcus, goes missing after being coerced into working with a county lines drugs gang.

The next eight chapters are filled with nothing but an eerie silence. The listener is deprived of a resolution to the story, reflecting the real-life experience of the thousands of people whose loved ones go missing every year.

In a final chapter released today, Stephen Fry explains that the podcast is not broken, but is in fact a partnership with the Missing People charity designed to reflect the feeling that many parents have when their loved one is missing. It’s a story with no ending, one that leaves the listener in limbo indefinitely.

Fry, who is a longstanding patron of Missing People, has been involved in a number of previous Missing People initiatives, including a digital outdoor campaign to promote the UK Child’s Rescue Alert system developed to speed up the reporting of missing children.

He has also previously appeared in a short film for the charity voicing an emotional appeal for families missing loved ones to help get missing people home for Christmas. Stephen recalls the time he famously went missing: “I myself went missing at a time of crisis in my life, but I was fortunate enough to be reunited with my loved ones. Not everyone gets that reunion.”

For ‘The Missing Lines’ campaign, created pro bono by House 337, the agency came up with the idea for a story about a missing child, then wrote the opening pages and invented a fictional author, who was given the name M.S. Singh.

House 337 approached Fry to narrate the opening pages for the audiobook which is being distributed via Apple and Spotify’s podcast platforms. The agency has also been promoting it on audio network Acast, via other podcasts and hosts, and through influencers across all social platforms.

House 337 also designed a cover for the book which has been turned into a poster to promote the podcast's launch.The artwork was displayed on over 60 DOOH sites donated by Ocean Outdoor, and across 250 sites donated by JC Decaux across the UK.

Over 170,000 people run away and go missing each year in the UK. Missing People is the UK charity that offers a lifeline for anyone affected by missing or thinking of going missing.

To find out more and donate to Missing People, follow this link (www.missingpeople.org.uk/missinglines).