Let’s set the scene: it’s a sunny day on Downing Street and the press corps is waiting, cameras poised, for the Prime Minister, when out from Number 10 steps Suranne Jones.
Except, it isn’t Suranne Jones. This is our latest elected leader Abigail Dalton. (Albeit an unlikely name for a British PM.)
With a sharply cropped new hairdo – more on that later – and a plum power suit, Jones stars in Netflix’s new political thriller Hostage, across from Julie Delpy’s visiting French president. The two world leaders are locked in tense negotiations over Channel boat crossings and NHS medication supplies when disaster, right on cue, strikes.
Abigail’s do-gooder husband Alex (Bashy) is in French Guiana on a Doctors Without Borders project, when his entire cohort is kidnapped by a masked gang. Their ransom request? Abigail must resign, or they’ll start picking off doctors one by one.
Given that he’s been snatched in French territory and it turns out the kidnappers have dirt on the French pres too, what unfolds is a gripping, if somewhat unlikely, political thriller with two frenemy female leaders going head-to-head.
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Ahead of the five-part show’s release on Netflix this Thursday (August 21), Suranne spoke to Metro about working with writer Matt Charman on what type of ‘strong female character’ she had yet to tackle, when she noticed a politically-themed role was missing from her head count.
Doing double duty as both the show’s star and an executive producer meant Suranne was part of the decision-making process on elements like makeup and costume, which real-world female politicians have said is always being carefully managed to ensure it’s on brand.
Delpy’s president Vivienne Toussaint first emerges from a car with all the sleek menace of a knife, wearing a white coat with a slash of red lipstick (the type of thing the Before Sunrise star tells us is the complete opposite of her ‘sloppy’ norm).
‘Abigail matches [Vivienne] in a way,’ says Suranne. ‘She gets a little bit more put together as her life starts falling apart, which is interesting. You’re adding layers, you’re adding armour, because you need to be perceived as in control.’
With a knowing smile, she adds: ‘Also it’s a Netflix show. At a very base level, I want to watch and go, “I want to wear her coat”.’
The 46-year-old has become one of British TV’s most bankable terrestrial stars – with shows like Vigil and Gentleman Jack on the BBC – but Hostage marks her first foray into the gleaming, glossy-coat world of Netflix.
While making TV is by no means an easy feat, Suranne and Julie do point out all the ways their lives are not like their Hostage counterparts. For one thing, Suranne says, she gets more sleep.
The stars researched real-life politicians who have walked the corridors of power and remarked upon the ‘instant’ changes in their hair and pallor when they take office – as if the weight of responsibilities has dawned and taken a psychical toll.
Part of that is why Abigail undergoes a drastic hair transformation from the brief scene we see before the election, to the moment she later approaches the despatch box in Parliament. It’s a she-means-business cropped ‘do.
‘Chopping her hair off is something less to worry about,’ says Suranne. ‘It’s taken me a long time to grow it back. My son hated it. He said, “Mummy, please don’t pick me up at the school gates”.’
This makes it sound a much worse trim than it actually is. ‘I liked it,’ Suranne adds. ‘But he was just like “Oh, cringe”.’
It is the case that with the fast-paced twists and turns Hostage takes us on, Abigail’s hair is likely the last thing she wants to be thinking about.
There are far more important matters at hand. As Julie puts it: ‘Usually there’s one woman and all men around managing her. Here, it’s like women managing everything else.’
Hostage is available on Netflix from August 21.
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