The Cry is a wail thriller with twist
Family tragedy to fill void left by smash-hit The Bodyguard
custody of his teenage daughter. But when their infant son is abducted in a remote Australian village it has a devastating psychological effect on the distraught mother.
Jenna Coleman plays Joanna, whose motives come into question Alistair & Joanna when she admits the desperate mum act is put on for the public but she’s quite different in private.
Of her character, she says: “Of all the things that could happen to a person, there’s few things that could be worse.
“And the whole world, they want to look at someone who it has happened to. Everyone wants to judge you, stare at you. Look for clues, so maybe it won’t happen to them.”
Coleman describes The Cry as one of the most challenging roles of her career, particularly as she has no real life experience to draw on. She said: “I’m not a mother. I felt there was obviously something I wouldn’t be able to capture. It was something so… well, primal that I haven’t experienced. And I’ve really struggled with that.”
But it’s not something you would notice by the acting, which is superb. The psychological drama is intense and will grip you right from the off.
Producer Claire Mundell said: “I’ve never seen a lead protagonist in a domesticset thriller that was so accessible and captured so many things at once. “These are very relatable people who find themselves in a circumstance that could happen to anybody, really.
“It’s not a world of other or external crime. This is just ordinary life.”
The Cry starts on BBC One tonight at 9pm.