Janet

A factory worker who’s hard up on her luck. With money running desperately tight, she’s helplessly watching as custody of her beloved stepson, Alan, slowly slips away. Everything changes when an impossible, yet utterly tantalising opportunity presents itself that would turn her circumstances around. With seemingly nothing to lose but everything to gain, Janet grabs it. Forced to put her trust in a complete stranger, Janet is thrown into an unfamiliar world of ruthlessly violent criminals and untrustworthy actors. But Janet’s no fool. Beneath her warm, downtrodden demeanour is an innate resilience. Soon, Janet finds herself calling on reserves of grit she never knew she had.

Samuel

Samuel knows a thing or two about taking a risk. After years of hiding it, his crippling gambling addiction has caught up with him and now he’s moving his wife, Camilla, and teenage daughter, Anya, to the North-East to escape the bailiffs. Not that that’s the story he’s told them. Keeping the secrets is just about killing him. When Samuel encounters Janet, they make a life-changing discovery which binds them together. Will Samuel be able to use this golden opportunity to right his wrongs, or will his compulsive relationship with risk bring everything crashing down?

The Tailor

The Tailor is a paradox: immaculately turned out at all times and utterly ruthless. While his name gives away his public facing profession, it conceals a much darker line of work: running a huge empire of narcotics from his home in France. When The Tailor discovers yet another haul of cocaine has gone missing, he sets out to find and punish the thieves. But no sooner has he arrived in the North-East, he’s overwhelmed by a different drug: nostalgia. As the search for the missing haul progresses, haunting tales from The Tailor’s past begin to resurface, and he’ll stop at nothing to relive them.

Pat Tooh

An ex-paramedic, Pat has seen it all and nothing fazes her. Now in her later years she runs her own pasty shop, enjoying a calmer life. That is, until a mysterious stranger comes knocking at her door and she discovers there is still excitement to be had but with those thrills also comes danger.

Vinnie

A mid-level drug dealer with a superstitious streak, Vinnie has worked hard to build his North-East operation. He has big dreams and will do anything to achieve them. So when a stranger tries to muscle in on his turf, Vinnie vows to fight to the death to keep it, but his deep paranoia means he soon starts to question who around him he can trust, making him all the more dangerous.

Guy

The Tailor’s dependable and ruthless right-hand man. He’s proven himself as a disciplined, smart killer who has little regard for his victims. Once he’s set his sights on his target, nothing can stand in his way so when The Tailor sends him to find the missing haul of cocaine, a trail of devastation soon follows. But years of loyalty have taken their toll on Guy. Will he live this life of servitude forever, or might there be a different story?

Alan

Janet’s eccentric teenage stepson. A fiercely intelligent outsider, Alan spends much of his time in his own world. He deeply resents living with his boorish father and misses Janet who he sees as his real mum. Sometimes it feels like she is the only one who gets him. She’s as weird as he is. So when Janet begins to hide things from him, Alan immediately knows something is up.

PC Ben Tooh

A hapless police officer who feels he hasn’t been given the chance to prove he is a serious detective. When a devastating event rocks the town, Ben is given an opportunity to put his skills to the test, whether his boss approves or not. Soon, clues begin to fall into his hands, and he starts off on the trail to the culprits. But is he following the breadcrumbs in the right direction?

Camilla

Samuel’s wife Camilla is a novelist and dreamer who’s a little lost in her own world. She admires her husband’s spontaneity and is excited about their move to the North. Yet unknown to her, Samuel is in a state of deep distress, tormented by the web of lies he’s woven. Soon, however, Camilla starts to notice the cracks. Will she be able to separate fact from fiction and keep her family together?

Anya

Samuel’s teenage daughter. She’s far from delighted at being dragged unceremoniously from her home in London up to the North-East, to a place which her dad Samuel promises is a fixer upper. An only child, she tries to avoid hanging around with her parents. Though they try to hide things from her, Anya is astute and can tell when things aren’t right and when lies are exposed, she is torn between her parents.

When two strangers discover a haul of illegal drugs on a washed-up boat, luck soon turns to misfortune as they become the targets of a vengeful mob boss, his hitman and the police.

At its heart, Boat Story is an action-thriller about two ordinary people whom the world has turned its back on, and whether they’re willing – or desperate enough – to do something crazy to get what they want in life. Pushed to the very edge, can they trust each other and get away with their lives and the money?

Boat Story embodies twists and turns with character-driven, surprising storytelling. Off-beat humour contrasts with high-octane action sequences against the spectacular backdrop of the beautiful, windswept Yorkshire coastline.

Boat Story comes to BBC One and BBC iPlayer from Sunday 19 November at 9pm