Katherine Kelly plays Jo Conran, a cabin-crew mother whose teenage son is arrested for murder in Bulgaria and held in a Sofia prison where £50,000 buys bail. A stranger on the next flight offers the cash, provided Jo collects a hold-all in the arrivals toilet and walks it through customs. The first episode lands the viewer inside the aluminium tube with Jo as she rehearses pickup lines for border guards and watches the bag on the carousel like a bomb she has to cradle.
The series ran for six consecutive nights on Channel 4 in August 2025, a scheduling choice that kept the tension ratcheted and the cocaine circulating. Belfast stood in for Istanbul terminals and Bulgarian streets, with Clenaghan’s pub outside Moira doubling as the smugglers’ watering hole. Creator Mike Walden wrote every episode, keeping dialogue clipped and threats immediate: when Jo hesitates, her son’s lawyer texts a photograph of the boy’s bruised ribs.
Harry Cadby gives Sonny, the imprisoned son, a cracked whisper that makes his phone calls home feel like ransom notes, while Stuart Martin plays Cormac, the airline pilot whose helpfulness hardens into something predatory once Jo is in too deep. Lucy Mangan in The Guardian called the show “entirely harrowing”, and the 100% Rotten Tomatoes score from nine critics suggests the discomfort worked.
Production Details
Channel 4 / 1 Season / 6 Episodes / 2025
Created by: Mike Walden, Adam Randall
Showrunner(s): Mike Walden, Tony Wood, Rebecca Dundon
Writer(s): Mike Walden
Producer(s): Brendan Mullin
Main Cast
Katherine Kelly as Jo Conran
Stuart Martin as Cormac
Ashley Thomas as Dom
Bronagh Waugh as Melanie
Harry Cadby as Sonny
Corinna Brown as Kayla
Ambreen Razia as Zara
