Crossfire: All you need to know about Keeley Hawes' holiday thriller, now on BBC iPlayer

Sunshine, Keeley Hawes and nail-biting drama – BBC One's new three-part thriller Crossfire has all the ingredients to be a must-watch TV series this autumn.

From the creators of The Salisbury Posionings and the writer of Apple Tree Yards, Crossfire is an adrenalin-fuelled drama that looks like it will have the nation holding its breath.

Crossfire is a co-production with Spanish free-to-air broadcaster TVE.

Here is everything you need to know about Crossfire…

When does Crossfire start on BBC One?

Crossfire starts at 9pm on Tuesday, 20 September on BBC One.

The series will then be available in full on BBC iPlayer.

Episodes 2 and 3 will air on consecutive nights on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 at 9pm on BBC One.

The series was supposed to start a day earlier, but has been pushed back due to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

Watch the Crossfire trailer

The first trailer for Crossfire has been released today (August 26) and its like a proper nail-biter.

The series is directed by Tessa Hoffe (Kin, Wayne, Majority), and produced by Alex Mercer (Inside Man, Doctor Who).

Who are the Crossfire cast?

The full cast list for the series includes:

• Keeley Hawes (It’s A Sin, Bodyguard, Line of Duty) - Plays Jo
• Josette Simon (Small Axe, Riviera) - Plays Miriam
• Anneika Rose (Deadwater Fell, Line of Duty) - Plays Abhi
• Lee Ingleby (The A Word, The Serpent Queen, Criminal UK) - Plays Jason
• Daniel Ryan (The Bay, Home Fires) - Plays Ben
• Vikash Bhai (The Stranger, Limbo) - Plays Chinar
• Hugo Silva (Nasdrovia, The Cook of Castamar) - Plays Mateo
• Alba Brunet (Operation Mincemeat, Paraiso, The Mallorca Files) - Plays Bea
• Shalisha James-Davis (Alex Rider, I May Destroy You) - Plays Amara
• Ariyon Bakare (His Dark Materials, Good Omens) - Plays - Paul

Keeley Hawes plays Jo

Explaining her character's backstory, Hawes said: "Jo has three children and she’s married to a man called Jason played by the brilliant Lee Ingleby. She also has a first husband called Paul played by Ariyon Bakare, who is also brilliant.

"She and her first husband Paul share a daughter, and then she has got two more children with Jason. 15 years prior to us meeting her she was a police officer which is how she met Paul. She has sort of lived this other life and when we meet her, she has decided she wants to go back into the force.

"She has made the decision and it is a matter of breaking it to her husband that it’s what she wants to do."

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Lee Ingleby - Plays Jason

Talking about his character and his relationship with Keeley Hawes in the show, Ingleby said: "We first meet Jason and Jo and we know that they've got a slightly frosty relationship. They aren’t there on honeymoon, things aren’t going brilliantly and they are in a state of toleration.

"Something is simmering which we discover later in the script. It’s clever. It’s not presented immediately but you know something is going on."

Discussing the show's intriguing premise, he added: "Different characters represent different reactions to what you would do in that situation. Ultimately, what would you do? Everyone is just going to ask what would they do?" 

Josette Simon - Plays Miriam

"Oh I’ll remember it forever," says Simon, talking about the Crossfire script.

"It doesn't matter how far back. I got the script. I could not put those scripts down. I remember they were couriered over to me and it was quite late and I was doing something the next day. I thought that I’d read the first episode and then I'll read the rest of it later.

"My heart was beating out of my chest when I read it and I got to the end of each episode and I had to go on to the next"

Talking about her character, she added: "Miriam is Jo’s oldest friend and is married to Ben. She and Ben have been married a long time and they are a very close couple. They're the only one of this group who doesn't have children.

"She’s a GP. I would say, and I think the others would agree, that she’s the quietly brave one. She’s very on top of her game."

Dan Ryan - Plays Ben

Dan Ryan said his character, who is a nurse, is placed in a situation that puts him under remarkable pressure.

"The pressure that's put on him in this situation is nothing like he's ever encountered before," says Ryan.

"He's fighting for his own life rather than other people's and also panicking because he's been left with the responsibility of other people's children.

"His wife is still in the complex and all of his friends and he doesn't know where anybody is. So it's all those responses that you would never know how you would react in a certain situation.

"Do you go back in to the resort or do you run away? Your responsibility is to look after these children. He starts failing in quite a dramatic way, which I think is probably unusual for him in his life as he copes under normal circumstances. So this pushes him to the limits."

Anneika Rose - Plays Abhi

Explaining her character Abhi, who is married to Vikash Bhai's Chinar, Rose said she is an "incredibly perfect type of person".

"Certainly aesthetically she’s dressed very well; well-presented and it sort of belies what’s going on underneath in terms of her relationship with Chinar," she said.

She added: "When I first read the script, I genuinely couldn't put it down and I can't honestly say that about a lot of things.

"It's one of those things that I just had to know what happened next and it was actually very tense reading for me."

What is Crossfire about?

The BBC has revealed the follow introduction about the series:

Sunbathing on her hotel room balcony while on a dream holiday with her family and friends, Jo’s (Keeley Hawes) world is turned upside down when shots ring out across the complex. Gunmen, out for revenge, have, in an instant, turned a slice of paradise into a terrifying heart-breaking hell. A story of survival and resilience, Crossfire is an edge-of-your-seat nail-biting thriller yet also emotional, intimate and relatable.

With the unsuspecting holidaymakers and hotel staff forced to make monumental split-second life or death decisions, the consequences will linger long after the final shots are fired.

The show’s writer Louise Doughty added: “This is a drama about a group of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary event - a gun attack on the hotel where they are staying. In extremity, each character is faced with a set of dilemmas: and at the heart of it is Jo, who booked the holiday and unknowingly put her family and friends - and herself - at risk.

"I'm fascinated by the idea of how so-called ordinary people respond to intense pressure and I couldn't be more excited to have written this drama for Dancing Ledge Productions and the BBC and to have the amazing Keeley Hawes in the star role."

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Where is Crossfire filmed?

The series was shot over seven weeks in a real holiday resort in Tenerife.

Keeley Hawes's room at the hotel doubled up as the room they used for filming.

Talking to the Guardian about the intensity of the shoot, Hawes said: "It was the most gruelling project I've ever been part of.

"Just the weight of that horrible gun. It's like picking up a weight in the morning and running around with it all day long, in the heat. It was a shock to my system.”

Crossfire starts at 9pm on Tuesday, 20 September on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.