Hostage is a British political thriller miniseries written by Matt Charman and directed by Isabelle Sieb Amy Nail, starring Suranne Jones and Julie Delpy as the fictional British prime minister and French president respectively. It premiered on Netflix on 21 August 2025.
Contents
Premise
An international summit between the French and British leaders goes awry when the husband of the British Prime Minister is kidnapped and the French president is blackmailed.
Cast
Suranne Jones as Abigail Dalton, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Minister for the Union and MP for Oldham, who previously served as the junior Foreign Minister
Julie Delpy as Vivienne Toussaint, the President of France who is running for re-election
Corey Mylchreest as Matheo Lewis, Toussaint’s activist stepson
Lucian Msamati as Kofi Adomako, the Downing Street Chief of Staff
Ashley Thomas as Dr Alex Anderson, Dalton’s husband and a member of Doctors Without Borders, who is kidnapped in French Guiana
James Cosmo as Max Dalton, Abigail’s terminally ill father and Sylvie’s grandfather
Jehnny Beth as Adrienne Pelletier, the Secretary-General of the President's Office
Martin McCann as John Michael Shagan, a former soldier and leader of the kidnappers
Sara Powell as Kathy MacIntyre, the Foreign Secretary
Mark Lewis Jones as General Joseph Livingston, the Chief of the Defence Staff
Isobel Akuwudike as Sylvie Jane Anderson, Abigail and Alex’s teenage daughter
Hiftu Quasem as Ayesha, a political staffer and investigator working for Dalton
Sophie Robertson as Saskia Morgan, Matheo Lewis’s girlfriend and a former soldier
Pip Carter as Dan Ogilvy, the Defence Secretary and later Acting Prime Minister
Paul Thornley as Michael Hall, the Home Secretary
Zubin Varla as Oliver Bahrami, the Leader of the Opposition
Josh Barrow as Tristan Taylor, the Political Secretary
Ami Okumura Jones as Zadie Nishimura, the Downing Street Press Secretary
Vincent Perez as Elias Vernier, Toussaint's husband, Matheo's father and a French media tycoon
Production
The series is written by Matt Charman. Netflix is producing together with Binocular Productions. Julie Delpy and Suranne Jones were confirmed in the lead roles in March 2024. The cast also includes Corey Mylchreest, Lucian Msamati, Ashley Thomas, James Cosmo and Jehnny Beth. Filming began that month with the working title The Choice. Filming locations include the UK and La Palma on the Canary Islands. In January 2025, the title of the show was reported as Hostage.
Release
The five-episode limited series premiered on Netflix on 21 August 2025.
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 82% approval rating based on 33 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Anchored by Suranne Jones and Julie Delpy's authoritative performances, Hostage careens from one shocking twist to another while holding viewers' attention captive." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave a score of 62 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable".
Reviewing the series for The Guardian, Lucy Mangan gave a rating of 4/5 and described it as "a rollicking, propulsive and compulsive yarn that also manages to give two great parts to two women of a certain age then leaves them to get on with it as characters rather than symbols."
In contrast, James Delingpole for The Spectator was critical of the series, describing it as "an act of cultural aggression, almost a humiliation ritual."
