Mother-of-three and former police officer Jo (Keeleu Hawes) squints at the sun, takes a few deep breaths and stretches out in the pool. Despite her tangled private life, she enjoys having managed to gather the old group of friends with families at a luxury Spanish resort. A few scenes later, the vacation bubble bursts when some gunmen suddenly open fire in the pool area. While the lazy sunbathers flee in panic, Jo reacts with her spine and rushes to the rescue to confront the perpetrators.

“Crossfire” develops into a edgy and chaotic thriller with a class theme where Jo teams up with one of the hotel’s employees (Hugo Silva) to stop the perpetrators. The scenes of the so-called ongoing deadly violence are interspersed with flashbacks that provide pieces of the puzzle to her life.

– A middle-aged action heroine shouldn’t be something rare or surprising. Still, this is the first time in my 46-year life that I have n’t been asked to play a passive character in an action-driven drama. “Crossfire” feels like a step forward for everyone, smiles Keeley Hawes, who is dressed in a snowy knit blouse with black dots and cool tinted big sunglasses.

Sitting next to her in the Zoom meeting is the show’s screenwriter, Louise Doughty, who got the idea during a sun vacation at a resort.

– I was lying there in a bikini, fanned out on a sun lounger with family members scattered in different directions. Suddenly I thought about what would happen if some armed people stormed the place: Which family member would I run to first? I wanted to explore this kind of dilemma we can find ourselves in under extraordinary circumstances, especially when we are at our most vulnerable in bathing suits and flip-flops, says Louise Doughty whose novel “Apple tree yard” was turned into the psychological thriller “Woman on trial ” where Emily Watson.

“Crossfire” is not inspired by any specific real-life event, but Doughty had an old trauma in the back of her mind throughout the writing of the script – as a young commuter, she was at London Bridge station in February 1992 when the IRA detonated a bomb in the middle of the morning rush hour.

– This experience made me fascinated by the idea that we all like to believe that we would behave heroically in a similar situation. But statistically speaking, it’s rather the opposite – most of us would run towards the nearest exit, says Louise Doughty.

Keeley Hawes nods.

– Although Jo is a rather flawed character, she does not hesitate to risk her own life to save others. I hope I would turn into a roaring lioness, but the risk is certainly high that I would become part of the gloomy statistics, she sighs.

At least Keeley Hawes stands out from the crowd at work. Together with colleagues such as Nicola Walker (“The split”, “Missing, never forgotten”) and Sarah Lancashire (“Happy valley”, “Our great love”) Keeley Hawes has long belonged to the cream of the British television queens.

Ironically, she was discovered by chance by a modeling agent on Oxford Street in central London in the mid-1990s. After a few years as a model, Keeley Hawes got her first role in Dennis Potter’s TV series “Karaoke” (1996) with Albert Finney. Her big breakthrough came in the spy series “Spooks” (2002-2011), where she also met her current husband, Matthew Macfadyen, who is successful as the spineless smiley finch Tom Wambsgans in “Succession”.

For Swedish viewers, Hawes has perhaps made the biggest impression in two high-profile TV series by Jed Mercurio. As the ambivalent, complex and corrupt police officer DI Lindsay Denton, she dominated two seasons of the hit series ‘Line of duty’. She also played the controversial and hard-line Home Secretary Julia Montague in Mercurio’s “Bodyguard”.

– Lindsay Denton was a pure dream role that had everything an actor could wish for, I still have separation anxiety from her. To me, she was not an evil person, but rather a very complex figure who became a victim of circumstances, says Keeley Hawes.

In “Crossfire” it soon turns out that even Jo is an extremely complicated and complex character who has a messed up life.

– Jo is one big blissful mess, unlike any other I’ve played. I still don’t even know if I really like her. I find it a bit difficult to relate to her, but she goes on a big psychological journey so she has an interesting story arc, she says.

Although she’s not a method actor—”that wouldn’t be healthy for me”—it helped that she lived in the same hotel room as her character. Keeley Hawes talks about a physically challenging shoot where real hotel guests tried to celebrate a holiday while filming was going on.

– It was a bit strange to go to the breakfast buffet at the hotel every morning in the same room where we had just shot scenes where people were shot. And, believe me, there was no glamor in lugging that old heavy rifle around for upwards of 10-12 hours. It was physically challenging and unexpectedly emotionally draining afterwards, says Keeley Hawes.

At the beginning of next year, she plays opposite her real husband in “Stonehouse” (premiere on Britbox after New Year). In the miniseries, Matthew Macfadyen portrays the infamous Labor politician John Stonehouse, who in 1974 faked his own death in order to escape with his mistress to Australia.

– I assure you that my and Matthew’s relationship is completely different, she smiles.

“Crossfire” premieres on Britbox and Cmore on November 9.