Hostage (TV series)

Hostage is a British political thriller miniseries starring Julie Delpy and Suranne Jones as the fictional French president and British prime minister respectively. It premiered on Netflix on 21 August 2025.

Hostage
Genre	Political thriller
Created by	Matt Charman
Written by	Matt Charman
Directed by	Isabelle Sieb Amy Neil
Starring	Julie Delpy Suranne Jones Corey Mylchreest Lucian Msamati Ashley Thomas James Cosmo Jehnny Beth
Music by	Jeff Russo
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	5
Production
Executive producers	Matt Charman Foz Allan Steve Searle Suranne Jones
Running time	38–46 minutes
Production companies	Teammakers Productions Binocular Productions
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	21 August 2025 (2025-08-21)

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.^[1]

Cast

• Julie Delpy as Vivienne Toussaint
• Suranne Jones as Abigail Dalton
• Corey Mylchreest as Matheo Lewis
• Lucian Msamati as Kofi Adomako
• Ashley Thomas as Dr Alex Anderson
• James Cosmo as Max
• Jehnny Beth as Adrienne Pelletier
• Martin McCann as John Shagan
• Sara Powell as Kathy MacIntyre
• Mark Lewis Jones as General Livingston
• Isobel Akuwudike as Sylvie Anderson
• Hiftu Quasem as Ayesha
• Sophie Robertson as Saskia Morgan
• Pip Carter as Dan Ogilvy
• Josh Barrow as Tristan
• Ami Okumura Jones as Zadie

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	Episode 1	Isabelle Sieb	Matt Charman	21 August 2025 (2025-08-21)
2	Episode 2	Isabelle Sieb	Matt Charman	21 August 2025 (2025-08-21)
3	Episode 3	Isabelle Sieb	Matt Charman	21 August 2025 (2025-08-21)
4	Episode 4	Amy Neil	Matt Charman	21 August 2025 (2025-08-21)
5	Episode 5	Amy Neil	Matt Charman	21 August 2025 (2025-08-21)

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.^[2] The cast also includes Corey Mylchreest, Lucian Msamati, Ashley Thomas, James Cosmo and Jehnny Beth.^[3] Filming began that month with the working title The Choice.^[4] Filming locations include the UK and La Palma on the Canary Islands.^[5] In January 2025, the title of the show was reported as Hostage.^[6]

Release

The five-episode limited series premiered on Netflix on 21 August 2025.^[7]

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 88% approval rating based on 8 critic reviews.^[8] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave a score of 62 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable".^[9]