Hostage star Suranne Jones played queer characters in these two hit dramas
Suranne Jones attends the ‘Hostage’ UK screening at The Ham Yard Hotel on 18 August 2025 in London, England. (Shane Anthony Sinclair/Getty Images)
Suranne Jones attends the 'Hostage' UK screening at The Ham Yard Hotel on 18 August 2025 in London, England. (Shane Anthony Sinclair/Getty Images)
Hostage star Suranne Jones has played a queer character in two hit dramas.
Jones stars in Netflix latest binge-worthy thriller Hostage as fictional prime minister Abigail Dalton. The five-part series follows Dalton as she attends a summit with French president Vivienne Toussaint (Julie Delpy), but the plot thickens when her husband is kidnapped.
“In this action-packed political thriller, the British Prime Minister (Suranne Jones) goes head to head with the French President (Julie Delpy) and is forced to make an unimaginable decision. Fighting political pressures, with a husband held hostage and a country to defend, she’s left with nearly no choice – but she will not give in,” the film’s synopsis reads.
As part of her research for the role, Jones attended the House of Commons and managed to see prime minister Kier Starmer in action.
She told This Morning hosts Sian Welby and Craig Doyle of watching a debate live: “We did see Keir Starmer having a…[debate] it was quite rambunctious. There was a lot of shouting in there. You don’t believe it until you see it!”
Suranne Jones has developed a major LGBTQ+ fanbase in recent years thanks to roles like 19th-century diarist Anne Lister in Gentleman Jack and, more recently, Amy Silva in Vigil – a bisexual detective chief inspector.
The former is a lesbian who documents dangerous romantic rendezvous through cryptic code, and the latter is bisexual detective chief inspector who is navigating having a baby with her partner Kirsten (Rose Leslie).
‘I felt like I was invited to be a true ally’
After her stellar performances both roles landed her such a devoted following, Jones pledged to portray more queer characters on-screen in the future.
Speaking to The Independent about the adoration that people have for Gentleman Jack, which was sadly cancelled after two seasons, Jones said: “I had played gay and bisexual characters before, but with Gentleman Jack, people started writing to me personally.
“I felt like I was invited to be a true ally, which I took very seriously, and I absolutely loved that role and what it did for people.”
She said of playing a bisexual character in police procedural series Vigil: “We’ve given Vigil a very real feel of two women who are defined by their careers, and the difficulty that brings to a relationship, where they have one child and they are bringing another into the mix.
“And we do it in a big, ballsy show, where there are lots of bombs going off. My next few characters are not lesbians, but I’ll be back with some more, I’m sure.”
Hostage premieres on Netflix on Thursday, 21 August.
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