Hijack’s Co-Creator & Cast Talk Keeping the Energy Alive in Season 2

Hijack season one had viewers bracing for turbulence as the action-packed drama took its audience on a high-pressure, closed-quarters plane hijacking. The co-creator and cast of season two talk with TV Drama Weekly about what it was like keeping the energy alive in the new season and the unexpected twists that came.

A renewal for a second season made everybody wonder: Where would the next hijacking be? “I think the easy bit is thinking of places you could set it,” says Jim Field-Smith, co-creator, executive producer and director of Hijack. “I love it. I don’t tire of being asked that question because it makes me realize that the show is really engaging. But the reality is, it doesn’t matter where it’s set. It matters why. Why are we bringing Sam back? And figuring out the ‘why’ of season two was a lot harder than figuring out the where.”

In fact, Field-Smith knew immediately where the second season would be set. “The moment they said, ‘We want to do a season two,’ I was like, ‘Underground train,’” Field-Smith says. “It was the first words out of my mouth. It’s got to be the exact opposite of a plane.” Season two ultimately follows negotiator Sam Nelson, played by Idris Elba, on a hijacked underground train in Berlin.

A challenging aspect of creating a story set in claustrophobic confines is predictability. For Archie Panjabi, who plays Zahar Gahfoor in the series, the unpredictability is what makes season two so compelling for viewers. “By episode three or four, I was totally hooked,” she says. “I was watching it because I’m in it, but I suddenly just became a fan and wanted to follow it through.” She describes the new season as a relentless ride. “You’re on this psychological chase, which you’re just desperate to know the answers for.”

The show’s ambitiously crafted set design paved the way for its nonstop tension and quality. In discussing their methods of building a practical set, Field-Smith explains, “I wanted to build the environment practically so that when we’re on set, we can swing the camera in any direction. I want to have long, unbroken takes where you can live, you can be in [Sam’s] headspace, you can breathe with him and you don’t have to worry about the illusion around him. We forced ourselves to shoot it like we were shooting on a real train.”

“So, that’s what we did,” he says. “Even though we were in a studio and we didn’t need to do that, we forced ourselves to shoot it like we were shooting on a real train, and I think that’s what gives it the reality.” Enforcing restrictions keeps the tension building upon the surrounding realism, making the audience subconsciously feel like they have joined the characters.

Season two deepens the emotional stakes, weaving personal grief into the action. “There’s a lot of things going on all at the same time,” Christine Adams, who plays Sam Nelson’s ex-wife Marsha, explains. “Then there’s the kind of physical aspects of the job where you’re running and you’re being chased, swinging an ax. And then there’s also this person who’s grieving.”

Still operating in negotiator mode on a hijacked train, Sam is also navigating the profound loss of his son. “You see those edges,” Adams says. “Where he’s in Sam Nelson negotiator mode—it’s almost like one of those holograms where you look on the other side—you see this sort of grieving father.”

Sustaining that level of intensity over months of filming proved to be a challenge in itself. “This show unfolds over the course of a few hours,” Clare-Hope Ashitey, who plays Olivia Thatcher, explains. “But in reality, we’re filming for nine months. To sustain that tension is in itself a challenge and an interesting one.”

What makes the series so engaging? “In stories like this where you put very ordinary people into very extraordinary situations, it really is interesting to think, what do I think I would do?” Ashitey says.

The twists and psychological turns also keep the audience engaged, tangled in its web of mystery. With the script, Ashitey says, “when you’re reading it, you experience it as the viewer does. To be invested in characters on the page like that, not just your own character, and what’s happening around them, is, I think, really a testament to a very well-written script and a very well-crafted story.”

Season two builds on the confines of season one with emotional depth and scale, without losing its signature anxiety-inducing tension. “Phew, that was lucky,” Field-Smith describes pulling off the project for a second time. “But, of course, it’s not lucky at all. It’s 100 percent hard work and very clever planning. It feels like a magic trick when it happens, but actually it’s just sort of maths.”