Brand-new BBC drama Crossfire starring Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard) tells a gripping tale with chilling real-life parallels.

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The thriller revolves around Jo (Keeley), whose holiday in the Canary Islands with her friends and family takes a disastrous turn when gunmen attack the hotel where they’re staying.

The unsuspecting holidaymakers are forced to make split-second huge life or death decisions.

But it’s not just Crossfire's gripping plot that has captured viewers’ attention, but also the stunning visuals.

The three-part series is based on the sunny island of Tenerife, but was it filmed on location? Read on for everything you need to know about the locations used for filming Crossfire.

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Where was Crossfire filmed?

The hotel in Crossfire.
The hotel in Crossfire Dancing Ledge Productions/Monica Lek

The writer of Crossfire, Louise Doughty, revealed at a recent Q&A attended by RadioTimes.com and other press that most of the filming took place in south Tenerife, at a location she described as being "on the very tip" of the Spanish island.

Tenerife, which is the largest and most populous of the Canary Islands, has previously been used for filming on many series, including Doctor Who, Silent Witness and the Apple TV+ sci-fi show Foundation.

It has also been used as a location for a number of feature films, such as Wonder Woman 1984, Jason Bourne and Fast and Furious 6.

This series was made in co-production with Spanish free-to-air broadcaster TVE.

Executive producers Chris Carey and Laurence Bowen explained to Variety: "Crossfire is set in Spain and we filmed most of it in Tenerife so TVE felt like a natural partner. They’ve been really supportive all the way through production."

Where is Crossfire actually set?

Keeley Hawes as Jo in Crossfire.
Keeley Hawes as Jo in Crossfire Dancing Ledge Productions/Monica Lek

Despite filming in Tenerife, Doughty explained that the series is also actually set on a smaller, undisclosed island. Therefore, the team has to employ some technical trickery to give the desired effect on screen.

Doughty said: "We did slightly fake it. Tenerife is a very big island, and it does have armed police officers who would come very quickly, and we needed them to take about an hour.

"So we did imply that it's a much smaller island, like Fuerteventura or one of the tiny islands in the Canary Islands, because we needed that rescue could only come by helicopter, and that there was only a couple of local cops on the island."

Doughty also revealed that the team had to 'blank out' other resorts in the background of shots when in post-production, in order to make the hotel "look a bit more isolated than it was".

Crossfire starts on Tuesday 20th September 2022 at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.

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