How many bad shows can a good actor star in before you have to start considering the possibly uncomfortable reality that they are, in fact, a bad actor? Well, this is an experiment that Keeley Hawes seems to be undertaking. Her second project of the year, after a middling adaptation of The Midwich Cuckoos, is the BBC’s new drama, Crossfire, written by Apple Tree Yard’s Louise Doughty. It finds Hawes trapped in a Spanish holiday resort as baby-faced gunmen go on the rampage. If her agent was looking for a project to make The Bodyguard look cerebral, boy did they find it.
Hawes is Jo, wife of Jason (Lee Ingleby) and mother of Adam (Noah Leggott) and Amara (Shalisha James-Davis). She’s just arrived on holiday with two other couples: Vikash Bhai’s Chinar and Anneika Rose’s Abhi (“Mr and Mrs Perfect,” as the group knows them), and Miriam (Josette Simon) and Ben (Daniel Ryan). The trip is a disaster from the off: Jo and Jason’s relationship is still recovering from an affair she’s conducted, while Jason is trying to bully his wife into not returning to her high-flying career as – you guessed it – a police officer. “You are a fundamentally dishonest and cowardly human being,” Jason tells her, within earshot of their entire group. All very awkward.
