Writer Louise Doughty on Centering the Stories of Victims in 'Crossfire'

BritBox’s Crossfire is a three-part thriller about every vacationer’s worst nightmare: A sun-drenched escape that quickly turns into a blood-soaked horror show when a group of would-be terrorists invades a picturesque resort and begins indiscriminately shooting guests and staff members.

The series follows the story of Jo (Keeley Hawes), a forty-something mother of three who is enjoying a much-needed holiday in Spain’s Canary Islands with family and friends when the unthinkable happens and shots ring out across their posh tropical paradise. Forced to make split-second, often life-or-death decisions, Jo and the rest of the hotel staff and tourists will face consequences that will reverberate throughout their lives.

But what sets Crossfire apart from many thrillers of its ilk is that its story doesn’t end once the violence does. Instead, the three-part drama spends roughly a third of its runtime on what comes next: how the survivors re-enter the lives they once knew, how they mourn those they lost, and how they heal in the aftermath of all that happened to them.