Kidnap and Ransom   Starring: Trevor Eve, John Hannah, Helen Baxendale and Emma Fielding FremantleMedia Enterprises RRP: £19.99 FHED2805 Certificate: 15 Available 07 February 2011

When British botanist Naomi Shaffer is kidnapped while on a working trip to South Africa, her company calls on the services of Dominic King and his team who immediately set about working to bring her home safely. Having quickly negotiated a ransom payment with those responsible, Dominic flies to Cape Town for the handover, but the exchange goes drastically wrong right at the last minute when a group of heavily armed men ambush and kill the kidnappers before making off with Naomi and the ransom money themselves. In the aftermath, Dominic is contacted by a man named Alexander Willard, the leader of the gang involved in the ambush, who demands two million US dollars in exchange for Naomi...

Kidnap and Ransom is a three-part drama that was originally broadcast on ITV on January 2011.

The series was created by Emmy Award nominated and Edgar Allan Poe Award winning writer Patrick Harbinson (24; Wire In The Blood; Law And Order: Special Victims Unit; ER) and directed by Andy Wilson (Spooks; Wallander; The Philanthropist).

Trevor Eve stars as Dominic King, a hostage negotiator, who is called in to secure the release of a woman who has been kidnapped while working in South Africa. It's obvious from the start that this is an amateur kidnapping and King is convinced that this is a fairly straightforward job.

His previous negotiation ended in disaster when King turned up to the drop site to hand over the ransom money only to be met with a dead hostage. This failed negotiation is something that is still haunting King, and is something we keep flashing back to.

This time everything goes smoothly until King arrives at the meeting point with the money, at which point another gang arrive, kill the original kidnappers and take the hostage and money in order to hold her for ransom once again.

King then has to negotiate once again for the woman's release but this time against a gang who want a lot more money.

The drama is padded out by also delving into King's family life. In a good old fashioned cliched style (see just about every lone detective drama series), this is not as straightforward as his work life. His communication skills don't work quite so well with his wife and daughter, who he is danger of losing after she joins a religious cult.

John Hannah makes an impressive against-type appearance as the head of a gang who kidnap the woman King is trying to free.

The only extras is an interview with Trevor Eve (10 min, 38 sec).

While an enjoyable drama, it's one that you're very unlikely to feel like watching more than once. And if you didn't see it on it's original run it's still available to see free of charge online via the ITV Player.

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Darren Rea