HIDE AND SEEK (CROSSFIRE)

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It would be very easy to write a sarcy review of BBC1's three part thriller 'Crossfire'.

Indeed, it is very tempting.

But let's give it a fair wind and try and consider the merits of its plot.

Essentially a vehicle for Keeley Hawes, it is the story of three English couples - some of them with kids - holidaying together in a resort on the Canary Islands.

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Hawes' character Jo is a former police officer who now works part-time as a department store security consultant.

She is unhappily married with kids to Lee Ingleby's Jason and is teetering on the brink of an affair.

Holidaying with them is Jason's chum from his school days, Vikash Bhai's Chinar and his wife, Aneika Rose's Abhi.

Daniel Ryan's nice guy Ben and his GP wife, Josette Simon's Miriam are there too along with Shalisha James-Davis' Amara - Jo's adult daughter from a previous relationship with Ariyon Bakare's Paul.

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On their first night at the resort, Jason behaves like a prick by belittling Jo at the dinner table and they end up having a bitter row which the others witness as they retire to bed.

The following morning Jason takes their kids down for breakfast and to splash about in the resort's swimming pools while the other couples grab a seat in the sun.

Jo remains in the hotel room with her phone while everyone is having fun outside.

She starts to receive texts from her would-be lover and while responding to them, she starts to hear gunshots and screaming outside.

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Two gunmen dressed in black combat fatigues are on the rampage, picking off guests at the hotel.

In the ensuing panic, Jason, Ben, Miriam, Chinar, Abhi and Amara get separated with various kids and run.

Some hide in the bowels of the building.

Others find a way out of the underground car park.

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Jo, Jason, Chinar, Abhi, Miriam and Amara remain in the hotel and are caught in a cat and mouse game with the gunmen.

As the gunmen rage, Jason finds out from Jo's phone who has been sexting her and the couples' lives change forever.

In the build-up to its release, writer and producer Louise Doughty has been at pains to stress that the violence in 'Crossfire' isn't based on real events.

It is impossible not to watch the show, though, without thinking of the real life terror attack depicted in 'Hotel Mumbai' at the Taj Mahal Palace in 2008 which claimed 167 victims or the 2015 holiday resort attack in Tunisia that claimed the lives of 38 people.

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These real life events demand sensitive treatment - even in the handling of fictional violence.

However 'Crossfire' gets it spectacularly wrong by cloaking its tale in soap opera histrionics.

The predicament the families find themselves in should be gripping enough.

So does it really need smothered in a frankly frivolous game of who's cheating on who?

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Unfortunately that is the path Doughty has chosen and it cheapens the whole venture and forces Tessa Hoffe onto some pretty leaden footed direction.

This is especially true in the final episode which is particularly cackhanded in how it reaches its final resolution.

The last half hour is so padded out and soapy, you can't help feeling what should have been a 90 minute TV movie has been buried in froth.

A big climactic speech from Jo doesn't convince and it seems like a panic stricken attempt to frantically tie various plot strands up.

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Even the motive for the violence unleashed on the resort is odd and unconvincing.

And while Doughty no doubt was trying to be careful not to insensitively tread on the toes who have been in similar situations, the soap opera unfortunately does just that.

Like 'Vigil' 'Bloodlands' and 'Trigger Point,' Crossfire' also suffers from a bout of 'Line of Duty'-itis.

That's the tendency of British TV thrillers to go for big, bombastic cliffhangers that ultimately end up disappointing because they simply cannot match the standard of Jed Mercurio's writing.

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Of course with a script this cumbersome, the cast also suffers.

Hawes does her best in the lead but is ultimately weighed down by all the soap.

Watching her you know from previous TV roles she is capable of much, much better than this.

Ingleby, Bhai, Rose, Simon, Ryan, James-Davis and Bakare slavishly wade through the sludge.

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But the same is true of the Spanish cast who include Pol Toro, Marta Fuenar, Hugo Silva, Christian Sanchez and Guillermo Campra.

It is really saying something about the quality of a screenplay when a three episode miniseries feels like it has overstayed its welcome at its halfway point.

'Crossfire' is a misfire.

It simply isn't strong enough and it just wastes everyone's time.

('Crossfire' was broadcast on BBC1 from September 20-22, 2022)