Kidnap and Ransom

Kidnap and Ransom is a television miniseries which aired on the BBC in January 2011. The show was produced by and starred British actor Trevor Eve, and also starred John Hannah, Helen Baxendale, Emma Fielding, and Patrick Baladi.

Plot

The series revolved around British hostage negotiator Dominic King (Eve) and his efforts to negotiate the release of kidnapping victim Naomi Shaffer (Fielding) and later her daughter Sally Shaffer (Rebekah Nathan).

Episode One

The episode begins with hostage negotiator Dominic King (Eve) realizing that he has just failed at a negotiated ransom, having paid a group of kidnappers for a corpse. He returns home to London to his wife Sophie (Natasha Little) who is encouraging him to cut back on his own work in order to be more supportive of her political ambitions, and to his daughter Tess (Laura Greenwood) who is suddenly very interested in religion. Meanwhile, in South Africa, botanist Naomi Shaffer (Fielding) is kidnapped during a violent encounter which results in her taxi driver being killed. Her employer in London, Jane Wickham (Sharon Maughan), calls upon King to negotiate her release. He does so successfully, traveling to South Africa to oversee the exchange of the ransom for Shaffer. All seems to be going well until the very trade-off when a second group of violent kidnappers appear, attacking the first group, stealing Shaffer and one kidnapper away, and leaving King where he stands, dumbfounded.

Production

Production for Kidnap and Ransom was done entirely in South Africa, including scenes that were set in London.