Fool Me Once star to front new ITV high-stakes thriller Red Eye

Manchester actress Lesly Sharp and Netflix Fool Me Once star Richard Armitage are set to star in a 'ground-breaking' new ITV thriller, Red Eye plunges viewers into the tension of a "red eye" flight from London to Beijing.

Jing Lusi also stars in the drama, which was penned by Peter A Dowling, known for his work on Black And Blue and Flightplan. The six-part series opens with British surgeon Dr Matthew Nolan (portrayed by Armitage, who is also famed for roles in The Hobbit, Spooks and The Stranger) in a frantic chase through the streets of Beijing, culminating in a car crash which he manages to escape from.

It appears Nolan was in China for a medical conference with fellow professionals. However, upon his return to London, he's immediately detained by airport authorities, subjected to an interrogation and strip search, and informed he's facing extradition to China on murder charges after a woman was found dead in his vehicle.

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Nolan vehemently denies any knowledge of the crime. But the question remains: can we believe him? "One of the things I loved when I read the first episode is that by default, a doctor who has taken the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, we should be trusting him from the get-go," Leicestershire-born actor Armitage, 52, shares about diving into his new role.

"The fact that he comes into the story with doubt in his own mind, because he doesn't really remember what happened on that night so he can't be 100% sure, he's already in a state of flux within himself." Throughout the course of the story, we sort of ebb and flow between being absolutely convinced of his innocence, and really doubting who he is, and whether he's a spy or some kind of mule."

He added: "It was really interesting to play around with that, and at points, I didn't really know whether he was telling the truth! ".

The narrative quickly hints that this tale is more than just a "straightforward" murder mystery. Madeline Delaney, director general of security services at MI5 (portrayed by The Full Monty and Before We Die actress Sharp), becomes involved as the Chinese government demands Nolan's immediate extradition. Meanwhile, one of Nolan's medical colleagues is forcibly taken in an airport car park for refusing to return to assist with evidence.

British-Chinese actor Lusi, known for her roles in Crazy Rich Asians, Heart Of Stone, and Gangs Of London, plays Police officer Detective Constable Hana Li, who is assigned to escort Nolan on the overnight flight back to Beijing. The plot thickens as the backstories of Delaney, Li and Li's sister Jess (a tenacious journalist played by Jemma Moore) are revealed, each grappling with personal struggles as they become embroiled in a terrifying conspiracy.

For Lusi, 38, who was born in Shanghai and moved to England with her family aged five, the series marks a "turning point" for British-Asian representation on the small screen. "I feel this is the first show in god knows how long, that is a British show that has an Asian lead. I think the last one probably was (early 1980s series) The Chinese Detective, and that name probably wouldn't hold up these days."

"So it was an absolute honour to see this happening in the UK, because this has happened obviously in the US with a lot of Asian-led projects," Lusi added.

"And the significance for me is that, usually when you have a lot of diversity, you're seeing the stories through the white perspective of the lead character, and the diverse minority characters are usually the 'other'. To see the story unfold through Hana, finding out Nolan's innocence or guilt, connecting with MI5 and her sister you're seeing it from her eyes, she's not the 'other'. I think that's ground-breaking."

If the airport chase scene in the first episode seems authentic, that's because it is it was filmed in Stansted Airport with real people in the background. "It really took me back to my days on Spooks, because we used to do a lot of filming on long lenses in very public places and it's both thrilling and terrifying at the same time, because you don't get many chances. You get maybe two takes before people start to realise that you're filming," Armitage recalls. "My heart was thumping through my chest."

When his character who is pursued by Det Con Li and armed officers after attempting to escape is apprehended and handcuffed in the departures lounge, many of the reactions from the public were "real", he notes.

What was Lusi's experience filming those scenes? "I had a very different experience to Richard, because I had anxiety for him, but I also had anxiety for myself because when another actor is doing so much of the work, and then you come in at the end and have to do this little moment, I'm like, what if I screw it up? ! I'll have to make him do that over and over again," Lusi explains.

"And also because of the nature of Stansted being a live, working airport, we're in the departures lounge and most of those people are real passengers, we didn't have an opportunity to rehearse ... So it felt very real, the anxiety was real."

Det Con Li is central to the drama throughout. But her story also has complexity, intertwining family dynamics, loss and trauma. Lusi says she instantly fell in love with the character when reading the scripts.

"I thought she was amazing. As a character full-stop, and then it's like oh wow, she's a woman, this is extraordinary. Then, oh my goodness she's an Asian woman, this is just unheard of," said Sharp.

Manchester-born Sharp, 64, also raved about playing MI5's Delaney. "(She's a) completely three-dimensional character, and (the more we see) about her backstory, what she's involved in and what she's discovering and where that takes her, it's really delicately seeded through every episode," said Sharp.

"Madeline has been on leave because her husband has been in an accident, so she'd taken a leave of absence to take care of him. So she's sort of new back at work, and this is the thing that lands on her desk. So, she's got quite a lot to deal with from the get-go."

On playing such a confident, controlled character, Sharp added: "The thing about her is that in the field as a younger agent, she was probably a killer. She is prepared, prepared, prepared, prepared .."

"It means that when she turns up and there's a situation like that, she just drops in there, she can do it. There's no panic and there's no kerfuffle. She just very systematically goes through it all and sorts it out. And in the end, she will lay down her life and her career for citizens in the UK, there's a nobility in her. She's fantastic."

Red Eye starts on ITV1 and ITVX on Sunday April 21.