Although Trevor Eve is firmly established as Waking The Dead’s popular cold case copper DS Peter Boyd, his new ITV1 show Kidnap And Ransom has a completely different feel. Trevor plays international hostage negotiator Dominic King, who is called in when a businesswoman is snatched in South Africa. The three-part series also stars John Hannah, Helen Baxendale, Natasha Little, Emma Fielding, Amara Karan and Patrick Baladi. Trevor tells TV Choice more about the tense thriller.

Why are you doing a drama about hostage taking?
My production company’s development team came up with the idea, which seemed to fit the bill for me because these guys are in their fifties, they are ex-military, and they are not like Boyd from Waking The Dead. They are very calm, level-headed people. Having played Boyd for a long time, who is a volatile and emotional guy, this was interesting. Then we started to research it and found it was even more fascinating than we thought.

What was the research like? Were companies willing to open up?
No, they were not, but we eventually got to six or seven different negotiators, and then we found a company that doesn’t advertise, and they were very kind. We sort of followed them for a while, and then modelled our group of personnel in the show on them.

How would you describe your character, Dominic King?
Having been an officer in the military he’s got a very logical, calm approach to life. I think he’s a well intentioned man who misses the life that he had for 30 years.

Kidnap And Ransom was filmed in South Africa. How did you find that experience?
Loved it. Their infrastructure for filming is fantastic. It's a little bit depressing that it’s cheaper to take everybody to film it there than to do it here in the UK. The government seems to think the arts are some airy-fairy thing, but I think they provide a fantastic spiritual, emotional and indeed financial benefit to everybody. But they don’t seem to get that.

Given the show’s subject matter, was there a heightened sense of awareness filming in South Africa?
No. We were in Cape Town. If you go to Johannesburg it’s a bit different. We had security, and the South Africans are pretty good at security, so that’s not something that we had to worry about.

Your production company, Projector Pictures, has made Kidnap And Ransom in partnership with Talkback Thames. Was it difficult playing the lead as well as being executive producer?
No, not really. I’ve produced a lot of stuff that I haven’t been in. You get a great team around you and then you go and do it. I worked longer hours because you shoot, and then instead of going home and having dinner, I looked at the stuff we shot the day before. So it’s a longer day, but it was very enjoyable.

Did the cast treat you differently because you are executive producer?
No because I go on there as an actor. I’ll even argue as an actor against the production company, which drove them crazy! If something was not right, I’d say, ‘Hey! Wait a minute.’

You’ve starred in Waking The Dead since 2000. The next series is the ninth and final one. How do you feel about that?
The plan was to finish after 10 years, but we finished after nine because the BBC doesn’t really have the money to make it. They can make it if we change how it’s made, and I don’t want to do that. I don’t see the point of suddenly delivering a different kind of show just to cut costs. They can go and make stuff that costs them less money. It’s fine.

Isn’t your production company making a Waking The Dead spin-off?
It has a completely different structure and will focus on Tara Fitzgerald’s character, Dr Eve Lockhart. My company is producing it, but I’m not in it.

Finally, your daughter Alice Eve starred in the romantic Hollywood comedy She’s Out Of My League this year, in which you and your wife Sharon Maughan also appeared. What was that like?
I loved that. Alice was in the film and there were the roles of her parents available, and the producer said, ‘Why don’t you get your parents?’ So we went out and did that. It was fun. Alice is terrific, she’s doing so well and I’m so proud of her.

Is that the first time all three of you have worked together?
Yeah, and it was perfectly calm. It was great.

By Nick Fiaca