Suranne Jones, the actress, has shared her thoughts on playing the fictional British Prime Minister Abigail Dalton in her new Netflix series Hostage, reports the Manchester Evening News.

During a screening in London last night (August 18), the 46 year old actress spoke to media outlets including Reach Screen Time and made an unexpected confession about her role as UK leader Dalton in the Netflix series, stating she wouldn't want the job in reality.

She elaborated: "A woman, before she's even put on her very high, hurty shoes, she has a lot of baggage and a lot of things that she is carrying: the way she looks, the way she dresses, the way she's been educated.

"All of those things. How she behaves with her family or her background, everything, before she starts to go out into the world and getting judged for it.

"Obviously, I'm well known. People recognise me. I try to keep a private element to my life, but then I do want to show support of the charities I work for and all of that stuff, and the community theatre that I like to give elevation to, so I drew on a lot of that stuff. But I wouldn't want to be a prime minister."

She continued to discuss the drama: "The early name for the show was 'The Choice' and I think that's the thing, the choice of wanting a job like that, the choice of your family or your country.

"It blows my mind, I can't even imagine... obviously, I had to because I play the prime minister, so I did have to imagine. But these big, big choices, they're huge and so it's just making people think."

The five-part political thriller depicts Dalton being threatened after her spouse is kidnapped whilst working overseas, with the abductors threatening his murder unless she steps down from office.

The kidnapping takes place during French President Vivienne Toussaint's (Julie Delpy) visit as both women prepare for challenging discussions, introducing further complexities and governmental manoeuvring.

The Oldham-born performer, renowned for her performances in Gentleman Jack and Vigil, thoroughly prepared and researched the character by consulting numerous female politicians.

Hostage's creator Matt Charman outlined some of the research lead star and producer Jones undertook for the part.

He said: "What she didn't say and what's part of her research is we spoke to a lot of female politicians.

"Suranne spoke to people who have been leaders and prime ministers, and who were really wonderful and breaking it down and saying, 'It's how knackered you are at the end of the day. It's how much reading you've got to do. It's how hard it is to see your friends. You have to schedule these appointments months in advance'."

He continued: "We spoke to a few politicians with kids and the thing they said the most [...] was their guilt is always around the children.

"It's always around what the kids have to give up, how hard it was for the kids, how social media has become this thing... imagine being someone's son or daughter of someone in the cabinet and people saying stuff about your mum and dad everyday, posting videos, scaring you, sending stuff directly to you.

"That's what most politicians feel sick about. I'm tough enough that I get through it, but my kids go to school and it's awful for them."

Alongside Jones and Delpy, Hostage features a stellar cast including Lucian Msamati, Corey Mylchreest, and Ashley Thomas.

The programme will be released as a complete box set for viewers to watch in its entirety.

Hostage will be released on Netflix on August 21