ONTD

Blame budget cuts but these days the spy business isn't dominated by Her Majesty's Secret Service but by private contractors. This unregulated underworld is the setting of Hunted, tonight's new eight-part drama from the BBC and HBO. Golden Globe-nominee Melissa George (you may remember her as Angel from Home & Away) stars as Sam Hunter, a private security operative tasked with infiltrating a powerful crime family. It also boasts some serious pedigree - it's written by The X-Files' Frank Spotnitz - and may have the most intriguing female lead since Claire Danes in Homeland.

Sam Hunter (Melissa George), an operative for the elite private intelligence and security firm Byzantium, is finishing a mission in Tangier when an attempt on her life leaves her critically injured. Not knowing who tried to kill her, she disappears to a remote location to recover, regroup and retrain. Returning to work unannounced nearly a year later, Sam surprises her co-workers, who are suspicious about her disappearance, especially Aidan Marsh (Adam Rayner), her secret lover. Her bosses, Rupert Keel (Stephen Dillane) and Deacon Crane (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), retain doubts about her, but need their best agent for an important new assignment. The team devises a plan to have Sam infiltrate a family headed by powerful millionaire Jack Turner (Patrick Malahide), a man with a criminal past whose ambitions are at odds with Byzantium’s secret client.

Brought into the household by Turner’s son Stephen (Stephen Campbell Moore) to tutor his son Edward (Oscar Kennedy), Sam and the team continue surveillance of Jack Turner’s secret activities. They know that he is bidding for a multi-billion dollar dam in Pakistan, but his true motives elude them. Meanwhile, team members Zoe Morgan (Morven Christie) and Ian Fowkes (Lex Shrapnel) track a briefcase that was delivered to Turner.