If you’ve been longing for a relaxing summer getaway where you can lounge by the pool, read a good book and soak up the sun – this series might make you think twice. Crossfire is an outstanding holiday thriller starring Keeley Hawes in, dare we say, her best performance since she played the steely-faced home secretary Julia Montague in Bodyguard.
In Crossfire, Jo (Keeley Hawes) is enjoying a dream family holiday in a fancy Canary Islands resort, until she hears gunshots. What follows is a petrifying scramble for survival in this outstanding drama you can watch now.
With all three episodes of Crossfire available to stream on the BBC, here’s everything you need to know about the crime drama before you tune in, including the plot, cast and how to watch it.
What is Crossfire about?
The three-part series, which first aired on the BBC in 2022, takes us to a luxurious resort in the Canary Islands where we meet Jo (Keeley Hawes), a mum of three, soaking up the sunshine on her balcony on a dream holiday with family and friends. But we soon learn she has an ulterior motive for the getaway and long-buried secrets threaten to burst the sun-drenched haze.
Suddenly, shots fire out across the complex and gunmen on the hunt for revenge take over, quickly turning this dream holiday into a nightmare. The drama revolves around the central question – what would you do if this were to happen to you? All of the characters have wildly different strategies, and if that wasn’t enough drama, the web of secrets binding the group comes to the fore. Jo is impressively adept in taking control of the catastrophe, and we discover she was formerly a police officer.
Keeley Hawes opened up on playing her complex character, ‘To play a character like Jo who is really imperfect; she’s a messy individual, and I went from sort of liking her and finding her quite endearing, thinking she’s this really interesting, quite complex, quite confused, and then thinking “God, I’m not sure I do like her”,’ she told the BBC. ‘She’s not straightforward. It threw up lots of questions for me and it really made me think about her and that was really appealing, too.’
Who’s in the cast of Crossfire?
The cast for Crossfire includes:
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- Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard) as Jo
- Lee Ingleby (The A Word)as Jason
- Vikash Bhai (Limbo) as Chinar
- Anneika Rose (Line Of Duty) as Abhi
- Josette Simon (Wonder Woman) as Miriam
- Daniel Ryan (The Bay) as Ben
- Hugo Silva (Los Hombres De Paco) as Mateo
- Shalisha James-Davis (Alex Rider) as Amara
- Alba Brunet (Acacias 38) as Bea
- Ariyon Bakare (His Dark Materials) as Paul
Is there a trailer for Crossfire?
Yes - you can watch the full trailer for Crossfire here.
Is Crossfire any good?
Yes – Keeley Hawes’ performance as the lead is magnetic and we were at the edge of our seats as we watched the drama unfold. The personal stories and dynamics interweaving through it makes it all the more tense. It rivals her role as Home Secretary Julia Montague in the political thriller Bodyguard as her best performance yet.
How can I watch Crossfire?
You can watch Crossfire now on BBC iPlayer.
What other thrillers can I watch now?
If you’re in the mood for another twisty thriller, we’d point you towards From Darkness. First airing on the BBC, we meet Claire Church (Anne-Marie Duff) after she’s fled from her professional turmoil as a Greater Manchester police officer to the remote Western Isles, but a disturbing discovery on her patch might just pull her back. You can watch From Darkness now on U. If you fancy another thriller set abroad, we’d point you towards The Boy That Never Was, where a family’s trip to Morocco is quite literally torn apart in the aftermath of an earthquake that destroys the building their son is sleeping in. He is assumed dead but, three years later, his dad, Harry (Colin Morgan), spots something that changes everything. You can watch The Boy That Never Was now on U and Channel 4.
