ITV stars almost brought London Stansted Airport to a standstill during Red Eye filming

Stars of a brand new ITV thriller say they almost brought Stansted Airport to a standstill whilst filming Red Eye. The six-part thriller is about a detective, journalist and spy whose lives are thrown into the same life-threatening conspiracy when a British doctor is arrested for murder upon flying home from Beijing.

After attending a medical conference in Beijing and coming frighteningly close to dying in a car crash, Dr Matthew Nolan, played by Richard Armitage, arrives home and is immediately arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport. A dead woman was discovered in his crashed car and, despite his protests that he was driving alone, Nolan must return to China to face charges.

DC Hana Li (Jing Lusi) is the cop charged with accompanying Nolan back to China. Hana's half-sister Jess Li, a scrappy journalist played by Jemma Moore, tries to cash in on the assignment and runs her own investigation that results in her being on the run from a lethal, unknown assassin.

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And in Thames House, the head of MI5, Madeline Delaney, played by Lesley Sharp, breaks protocol and risks her entire career to not only help Hana and Nolan stay alive, but to expose an international conspiracy that seems to implicate both China and people in her own government for the murders on flight 357.

Stansted Airport was used as a double for Heathrow with passengers still going about the business during filming. "Going from the plane straight to Stansted was like leaving a cosy cocoon and stepping into chaotic madness," said Lusi. "It was a real working airport, they didn't shut it down for us, so we were filming among real people with flights coming in. It was completely unpredictable.

"There’s a big scene in the first episode where Nolan stands on the chairs in the departures lounge and gives an impassioned speech when Hana storms in with armed police to arrest him. There were about 150 supporting artists around Richard and everyone else was a real passenger waiting for a flight.

"We had a sign up saying we were filming, but if they were anything like me when I’m travelling, they might have had noise cancelling headphones and their head in a book. Then they would have suddenly seen Richard yelling like a crazy guy and people dressed as armed police swooping in… I would have probably wet myself but there were people applauding after the takes. It was like being part of a violent flash mob."

Armitage added: "There were a few background artists secretly positioned around me at Stansted, but there were also lot of real passengers who ended up in the scene too. It was like live theatre but for people that haven't consciously bought a ticket! You have to be sensitive to the public.

"There were signs up saying filming was in progress, but people aren't really as conscious of their surroundings these days, they're just on their phones. It’s quite delicate filming a scene with actors dressed as armed police! We rehearsed what we were going to do in a different corner of the airport, but we only had half an hour’s notice before we could shoot and I knew we only really had one or two chances to get it right.

"The first time you do it is always the best chance to get real reactions. We wanted it to feel authentic, not staged, so they set up multiple cameras to get the shots. When I watched it back weeks later my heart was still thumping because I just remembered that feeling beforehand, knowing that I couldn’t screw this up and something could go wrong. It was nail-biting."