Hit squad
Writer Howard Overman and director David Caffrey tell DQ how they drew on influences including Out of Sight, Starsky & Hutch and Jackie Brown to create Hit Point, an “ambitious” crime drama about two detectives battling an increasing attraction to each other.
The first rule of Hit Point is that its lead detectives should rarely be seen inside a police station.
The second rule of Hit Point is that there should be no scenes set in a police interview room – and the loud, droning beep of a tape recorder should never be heard.
When writer Howard Overman (Misfits, War of the Worlds) set out to make a “really ambitious British cop show,” what he actually wanted to do was create a series that didn’t feel like any other British cop show.
“We wanted it to feel very different from the traditional procedural British cop shows. We wanted to do something fresh,” he tells DQ. In fact, one of his references was Out of Sight, the George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez feature about a bank robber and US marshal who discover a dangerous mutual attraction.
The resulting series blends high-stakes crime drama and romantic comedy. Hit Point follows thirtysomething detectives Leo (Nick Blood) and Bella (Saffron Hocking), whose latest case draws them into the dangerous West London underworld. But as they look for answers, the lines between their professional and personal relationships become increasingly blurred.
“What we’ve delivered, particularly with Nick and Saffron, is two central characters who have an amazing chemistry,” Overman says. “Weirdly enough – and we didn’t know this when we cast them – they went on a date together 10 years ago, and then both went off into the world and got their own different partners. They obviously knew each other, but they just work as a brilliant central couple. They’re really funny, really attractive, and they just embody the characters I wrote.”
Overman promises lots of twists and turns in a story that begins with the “high-octane” heist of a Range Rover from a container park, which leads to the introduction of Leo and Bella. “It’s untraditional in the sense of it’s a thriller with a real romance at its heart,” the writer adds. “There’s a big twist in episode one, which turns everything we’ve been watching on its head, and we suddenly realise we’re watching a different show.”
Through the series, Leo and Bella face a number of different obstacles as they try to get to the bottom of the Range Rover theft, while viewers discover a very “noble” motive behind the crime. Meanwhile, they’re working together while trying not to let their feelings overtake their professional duties.
“It’s noirish, it’s fun. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s funny,” says Overman, who cites Get Shorty as another influence. “It’s very much that sort of flavour, and we haven’t really seen those sorts of shows necessarily on British TV. We shy away from that sort of thing. Either we do sitcom comedies or we do quite serious procedurals, like Line of Duty, and I guess we’re trying to set something that feels really fresh, funny, energetic, thrilling and romantic.”
To ensure Hit Point would stand apart from traditional crime dramas from the outset, Overman laid down several rules. One was that he barely ever wanted to see Leo and Bella in a police station, “because there’s just something about British police stations, which, to me, cinematically look bloody awful.”
He also never wanted the action to take place in a police interview room, “because it’s just been done a gazillion times. There’s nothing new to add to that space.”
As a result, he set director David Caffrey the task of making a series akin to a road movie, with Leo and Bella investigating the crime at hand from the tables of various noodle bars and burger joints across London. “It’s very much on the move, and it’s a really different feel,” he says.
Caffrey’s credits include The Gentleman and Peaky Blinders. He was also the lead director on season one of Line of Duty – one of the very shows Overman and his Urban Myth Films producing partners Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy wanted to avoid echoing with Hit Point. But that was fine by the director, who instead leaned into 70s US cop dramas like Starsky & Hutch – “very action-based, big theme music, big car chases.”
He also wanted to tap into the theme of colleagues falling in love. “Bella and Leo are definitely a team, and one of the really interesting things is there must be millions of people out there who are working with a partner and then they’re both either falling in love with each other or they are in love with each other,” Caffrey says. “[Leo and Bella] have a lot of love for each other, and that’s constantly spilling over into the romantic thing. That’s really the heart of the show; that just keeps the engine pumping.”
Jackie Brown is another reference behind the series, with 70s funk tracks filling its temporary soundtrack as post-production continues ahead of its debut this summer on UKTV’s U&Dave. It will also air on Canal+ in more than 50 territories, with StudioCanal distributing.
Watching some of the first assemblies of the episodes, Overman has also been impressed by an editing decision to include split screens that show different elements of the story unfolding at the same time.
“That wasn’t something I thought of, but it works incredibly well in giving it a really distinctive feel,” he says.
Caffrey says: “Thematically, the music and the visual style of it is really helping it feel like a very unique show. It is those ultimate plot twists that just turn things on their head. Yes, we’ve started with this quite stylish, different kind of show, but then you get an added thing where there’s a twist that really mixes things up so much.”
Hit Point stands out as the first drama commissioned by U&Dave, which is best known in the UK as a home of comedy brands including Taskmaster, Would I Lie To You?, Richard Osman’s House of Games, QI and Mock the Week. Overman hasn’t ever let that affect him, however, and instead focused on making the best show possible with the backing of UKTV drama commissioner Helen Perry.
“She was so supportive and really got it from the outset. As a writer, that’s what you look for more, the people you’re working with at the channel, rather than worrying about fitting the brief,” he explains. “I felt with Helen that we very much shared the same vision.”
Filming on the series took place in London, with cast and crew based in Paddington. From there, the camera could take in numerous locations across the capital, though Overman says identifying them was among the biggest challenges in production.
“Filming in London is tricky, especially on a lower budget,” he says. “But I always have quite a clear idea of the locations I want.” That included the idea that episode six would be shot like a western, against the backdrop of a wide open setting. The locations team then identified a spot beside the River Thames in Kent, in the shadow of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge.
“Suddenly you’ve gone from this claustrophobic feeling [in central London] and we’re out in this Wild West landscape where the skies are huge and the sun is shining, and then it pissed with rain. It’s dramatic,” Overman says. “I know I was setting them a challenge in finding that, but it was really worth holding out for, because it just gives a real filmic climax to the show.”
The writer is already thinking of stories for future seasons of Hit Point, though he admits that whether they’ll see the light of day “is in the lap of the gods.”
“We’ve got a wonderful ensemble cast and it would just be such a travesty and a shame if we didn’t get to see them playing these parts again,” adds Caffrey of the group of actors, which also includes Peter Serafinowicz (The Tick), Moe Bar-El (Alien: Earth) and Nadia Parkes (Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story). “You get a good feeling about some kids when you’re working with them, and you just know that the future is bright.”
Like that? Watch this! Suggested by AI, selected by DQ
Castle: A bestselling crime writer is paired with a no-nonsense NYPD detective, and their flirtatious partnership fuels playful, high-concept murder cases and a long-burn romance.
Bones: A hyper-rational forensic anthropologist and an instinct-driven FBI agent clash and click as they solve gruesome murders, their opposites-attract chemistry gradually tipping into love.
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tagged in: Canal+, David Caffrey, Hit Point, Howard Overman, StudioCanal, U&Dave, UKTV