ABC/Paul Sarkis(LOS ANGELES) — Kyra Sedgwick is back in a lead dramatic TV role — seven years after winning an Emmy for her part on The Closer — playing the producer of a TV crime show whose daughter disappears in the new ABC series Ten Days in the Valley.

Sedgwick also is an executive producer on the 10-episode series, with each episode taking place during a single day of the child’s disappearance.

The show involves heightened mystery and drama of course, but also the common anxieties that mothers with demanding jobs face in less extreme circumstances.

“I think we live in a society that has this unreasonable expectation about women, and mothers in particular,” the actress tells ABC Radio. “We’re…toying with the…archetypal issue of women’s guilt, female guilt, mother’s guilt. All women, from the moment they give birth to that child, usually feel guilty and like they’re not doing a good job.”

Ten Days in the Valley also is a show about the pressures of TV, of course, something Sedgwick understands. “Especially television, and especially one hour drama, it is a big monster to feed,” she says.

Being producer of a show, though, does have its advantages — and not just good pay and on-set catering, but also the opportunity to have an impact on how television is made.  With Ten Days in the Valley, that meant making sure women were well represented in front of and behind the camera.

“You can’t just say, ‘God, I would really love it if…’  You have to actually make it happen,” she says. “We worked hard to get a lot of female directors, not all, but a lot. So I think it’s something you really have to be mindful of now.”

Ten Days in the Valley premieres Sunday night at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

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