This ITV crime drama looked promising given that is stars dependable actors including Trevor Eve, Helen Baxendale and John Hannah. The premise is simple enough and given away by the title; Eve plays Dominic King, a negotiator who deals with kidnappers to ensure that payments can be made and the hostages released. In the opening scene we see him in Columbia where his latest case goes horribly wrong and all he gets from the kidnapper is the hostage's dead body. The action then switches to South Africa where a British woman is snatched; he is called in and is determined not to work with the police who are understandable not too happy with his attitude as they aren't just investigating a kidnapping but also the murder of her taxi driver. As Dominic deals with the kidnappers it becomes apparent that they aren't professionals but he manages to talk them into a deal and as the first episode approaches its conclusion it looks as if he will save the woman and we'll get a new story in the following episode
this isn't the case though as she is snatched again, this time by a far more professional group who want a lot more money and are prepared to do some fairly nasty things to ensure that they get what they want.
While the story contained several clichés it was undeniably gripping and the leads all did good jobs; especially Trevor Eve and John Hannah who doesn't appear until the second episode. Emma Fielding who played kidnap victim Naomi Shaffer looked genuinely scared which helped keep things believable even when they were a bit far fetched in hindsight. I don't know if there will be further series of this but given the quality of this story I wouldn't be surprised if there are more outings for Dominic King.
While the story contained several clichés it was undeniably gripping and the leads all did good jobs; especially Trevor Eve and John Hannah who doesn't appear until the second episode. Emma Fielding who played kidnap victim Naomi Shaffer looked genuinely scared which helped keep things believable even when they were a bit far fetched in hindsight. I don't know if there will be further series of this but given the quality of this story I wouldn't be surprised if there are more outings for Dominic King.