Crossfire writer reveals if thrilling BBC drama starring Keeley Hawes is actually based on a true story-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro

Bodyguard star Keeley Hawes takes center-stage in new BBC drama Crossfire, in which she plays Jo – a character whose world is turned upside down when a terrorist attack takes place during at her holiday resort.

The three-part series sees, which Keeley described as an ‘uncomfortable watch’, sees her character at the heart of the action, which the 46-year-old admitted was a different role for her, despite having starred in previous action thrillers including Line of Duty and Honour.

The story begins with Jo sunbathing on her hotel balcony while on a dream holiday with her family, before it quickly turns dark when shots ring out across the resort.

Gunmen quickly turn the paradise holiday into hell as they’re out for revenge, while Jo must do what she can to save herself and her family.

The horrendous holiday-gone-wrong is every holidaymakers worst nightmare, and doesn’t fall far from the real experiences of terrorist attacks at holiday resorts like the 2015 Sousse Massacre in Tunisia which killed 38 people, including 30 Brits.

However, creator Louise Doherty has revealed that Crossfire wasn’t based on any one particular true event.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk and other publications, when asked if Crossfire mirrors any tragic events across the world, Louise shared: ‘I think the first thing to say is how appalling it must be for anyone who has ever experience like this. I mean, you know, none of us can begin to imagine how awful that must be. And I think you know, our hearts go out to all of them because it’s just an unspeakable horror really to have to go through.

Keeley stars as Jo in the gripping new drama (Picture: BBC / Dancing Ledge Productions / Luke Varley)

‘I was very clear that I wanted this to be an entirely fictional story, because I just wouldn’t have been comfortable basing it on a real life event.

‘I would have found that too difficult to do.’

She continued: ‘But obviously, I watched a lot of documentaries and I read a lot of survivor accounts, I researched very carefully what has actually happened in these incidents.

‘And the thing that I’ve felt really, really passionately about is that this story was going to be from the point of view of the victims, because we have a lot of action dramas where it’s this kind of hero anti hero thing going on with the shooter, and it’s very much from the shooter’s point of view, and I was adamant from the start that we’re not we’re not doing that.

The three-part series follows Jo battling a terrorist attack on holiday (Picture: BBC / Dancing Ledge Productions / Monica Lek)

‘You find out the absolute barest minimum about the nature of the attack and why it happened and the point of view is very much with the ordinary people who are on the receiving end of the violence.

‘The fact that they have lives whole lives running up to this terrible event, and then they have lives afterwards.’

Louise added that she felt ‘particularly passionate’ about the three-part series showing substantial scenes after the attack, when the holidaymakers came home.

The Bodyguard star previously shared this was her most ‘exhausting’ role yet  (Picture: BBC / Dancing Ledge Productions / Luke Varley)

‘Because the truth is these appalling incidents happen and then people have to go to Tescos and buy vegetables, or bake a cake or, you know, ordinary life has to go on and how do you integrate something so extraordinary and so appalling with ordinary life?

‘So, you know, to me that was the whole point of the show is we stay with the victims. We stay with the people on the receiving end and the show is from their point of view, because, you know, we need to honour those experiences and do it as sensitively as we can.’

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Keeley also shared that one of the reasons she was particularly interested in the role was because Jo was ‘at the heart of it.’

‘It’s something unusual in that she is a woman at the center of story, which usually would have had a man,’ she told us.

Crossfire airs on BBC One at 9pm tonight, and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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