The Assassin is the latest big thriller to hit the small screen by Two Brothers Pictures writing duo Harry and Jack Williams – and it definitely doesn’t disappoint.

Staying true to form, The Assassin packs some serious punch. It also has a stellar cast list, including Keeley Hawes, Freddie Highmore, Alan Dale, Richard Dormer and Jack Davenport.

The story – written by Two Brothers’ Harry and Jack – follows retired assassin Julie, played by Hawes, as her deadly past suddenly catches up with her.

Julie, who has hidden herself away in the hills of a remote Greek island, receives a visit from her estranged son Edward (Highmore) and it all kicks off at a village wedding.

With Julie and Edward forced to go on the run, the plot becomes entwined with the story of the Cross family, billionaires who are hiding a massive secret.

In true Two Brothers thriller style, there are glimmers of dark comedy among all the suspense, violence and complex character relationships in The Assassin.

The drama is available to stream on Prime Video now, but how many of these other high-stake dramas by Two Brothers screenwriters Harry and Jack Williams have you watched?

***Warning: TVGuide’s list of Two Brothers Productions thrillers contains spoilers***

The Missing – 2014

The Missing was Harry and Jack Williams’ first big hit on the small screen. The brothers had worked on Hotel Babylon, Wild at Heart and Call The Midwife, but The Missing was the first big crime thriller they wrote as Two Brothers Pictures.

The eight-part series centred around the disappearance of a five-year-old British boy in France. Tony, his wife Emily and their son Oliver were forced to spend the night in a fictional town after their car broke down.

Set during the FIFA World Cup in 2006, Oliver goes missing while watching quarter finals match with his dad in a crowded bar. Tony is offered the help of a businessman called Ian, but Ian meets a grisly end when Tony discovers he is a paedophile.

Tony, played by James Nesbitt, beats Ian to death and then covers up the evidence of his crime.

The Missing, which aired on BBC One, then jumps forward eight years. Tony and retired detective Julien Baptiste, played by Tchéky Karyo, begin investigating Oliver’s disappearance again.

Julien persuades the police to re-open the case and Tony’s crime against Ian is almost exposed. But Baptiste takes pity on the grieving father and keeps schtum.

Viewers learn Oliver was knocked over by a recovering alcoholic while chasing a fox around a hotel complex. The driver, Alain, and his brother, Georges, placed his body in a basement. A Romanian associate was given the job of disposing of him.

In a big twist, Oliver was still alive when he arrived at the basement. But as he tried to escape, the Romanian brute grabbed him. It was the last viewers saw of Oliver.

Series one of The Missing achieved BAFTA, Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations.

The Missing series 2 – 2016

Fans of The Missing were given an entirely different case to get their teeth into for the second series.

It saw abduction victim Alice Webster returning to her home town in Germany 11 years after her disappearance near a British army garrison. Her shock comeback then sparked the reopening of a cold case.

Tchéky Karyo, reprising his role as Julien Baptiste, is drawn to the case of missing girl Sophie Giroux after Alice mentions her name. The Missing series 2 starred David Morrissey and Keeley Hawes as Alice’s parents.

It later emerges that ‘Alice’ is not the real Alice Webster. She was Sophie Giroux, who had convinced her captor Adam Gettrick to release her when she fell ill with appendicitis. Both girls had been kidnapped by the sicko.

Unlike the first series, the second focused on the emotional impact a returning missing person can have on a family. In fact, Alice’s return tore her family apart as she struggled to reintegrate.

But TV reviewers branded series two’s complicated plot “confusing”. Not only did it dart back and forth in time, it also jumped from Germany to Iraq, the UK and eventually Switzerland.

Liar – 2017 and 2020

Downton Abbey‘s Joanne Froggatt led the six-part series Liar. The ITV thriller opened with a single teacher called Laura (Froggatt) going on a date with charismatic heart surgeon Andrew, played by Ioan Gruffudd.

It appeared to go well until Laura woke up the following day and realised she’d been raped. Andrew, meanwhile, sent her a text and thanked her for a great night…

Laura soon finds herself turning detective after Andrew denies the attack and police do little to help. Laura even exposes Andrew as a serial rapist after contacting other victims, but it appeared they were both hiding secrets.

The first series ended with Laura drugging Andrew and driving him to the Kent Marshes to inflict revenge. But the tables turned when Andrew tried to kill Laura. She only survived thanks to a detective, who very conveniently arrived on the scene just at the right moment.

The detective was investigating the sexual assault claims made against Andrew, but he managed to flee the scene. Liar ended with a news report about Andrew’s crimes and the revelation that he was missing.

Meanwhile, series two of Liar began with Andrew lying dead in the Kent Marshes with his throat slit. Laura was obviously the police’s prime suspect and, once again, her life was turned upside down.

The series progressed with plenty of twists and turns as Laura, who was in a new relationship, fought to prove her innocence. But there were many in the frame.

Andrew had 19 sexual attack victims who could have all been seeking revenge. The murderer was eventually revealed and…spoiler alert… it did turn out to be Laura.

Cheat – 2019

Cheat followed the story of a university professor called Leah and her deadly relationship with her student Rose. Former Coronation Street star Katherine Kelly starred as Leah, while Rose was played by Three Girls actress Molly Windsor.

The compelling plot began with Leah accusing Rose of cheating in an assignment before reporting her to the university. Very quickly, revengeful Rose – with the help of a uni employee – tracks down her address. Graffiti about Leah appears in the toilets and her pet cat mysteriously vanishes.

But that’s nothing. Stalker Rose does all she can to tantalise Leah’s husband Adam, including sending him saucy pictures, before he ends up dead. But who killed Adam (played by Tom Goodman-Hill)? Was it Rose or Leah?

In the end, it turned out Rose had stabbed Adam to death. He had tried to strangle her after she threatened to tell Leah they had slept together. As pay back, Rose grabbed a knife and killed him.

Cheat was met with a demand for a second series. But an ITV spokesperson said at the time: “Cheat was conceived as a self-contained four-part drama. There’s been no talk of another season as it was only ever planned as a standalone series.”

Baptiste – 2019 to 2021

Harry and Jack Williams devised the spin-off series Baptiste from The Missing. It saw Tchéky Karyo once again reprise the role of retired French detective Julien Baptiste in his quest to find yet more missing people.

In the first series, BBC’s Baptiste was drawn to the case of a missing sex worker in Amsterdam. Natalie Rose had disappeared in the city’s red light district, but as he began to unravel the clues, Julien found himself caught up in the criminal underworld.

The person who had reported Natalie missing was her uncle, Edward Stratton. However, it transpired that Edward was actually one of Natalie’s clients… Viewers were kept glued as a tale of kidnapping, stolen cash and the rescue of sex trafficked girls unfolded.

Did we mention Julien’s biological son – a corrupt police officer – shot his mother dead (an old fling of Julien’s) and Julien in the arm before being carted off to prison?

In series two of Baptiste, Julien headed to the mountains in Hungary. He was on the case of the missing family of British Ambassador Emma Chambers, played by Killing Eve’s Fiona Shaw. It quickly became clear that Emma’s husband had been murdered and the race was on to find their two sons.

As with The Missing and series one of Baptiste, series two was set across two time periods. In this case, it was 14 months apart.

The plot spiralled into one of terrorism, with Emma’s ‘victim’ son Will unveiled as a radicalised terrorist. Julien and the authorities then manage to prevent a massive terror attack on a refugee centre that Will had helped to plot.

Angela Black – 2021

Two Brothers favourite Joanne Froggatt was back at the helm in Angela Black. The gritty ITV drama followed the story of Angela, a woman suffering in silence at the hands of her abusive husband Olivier.

Out of the blue a man called Ed Harrison approached Angela. Ed claimed to be a private investigator who was looking into Olivier’s dodgy past dealings. But after learning of Olivier’s abuse, he offered to help Angela.

Together, Angela and Ed plot to kill Olivier…but the plan quickly falls apart. Angela discovered Ed was actually Theo Walters, a hit man ordered to kill her by Olivier.

Canny Angela soon struck a bargain with Theo, using her engagement ring to seal the deal. A crow bar bashing or two later, and the pair framed Olivier for GBH (Grievous Bodily Harm).

Both Angela and Theo told police Olivier had beaten them both in a fit of jealous rage. In fact, they had beaten each other.

Angela Black ended with Olivier facing punishment for all the abuse he’d put Angela through. Viewers saw CCTV footage of him choking Angela during his police interview.

The Tourist – 2022 and 2024

The casting of Jamie Dornan in the lead role of the BBC drama delighted fans. The hunky actor starred as an unnamed Irish car crash victim who had woken up in an Australian hospital with no memory of how he’d got there.

All he had to go on was the time and name of a cafe, written on a note in his pocket. After checking out of hospital against medical advice, he met a waitress called Luci who claimed to know him. But she was quick to usher him out – just as a huge bomb went off.

Shalom Brune-Franklin, who stars as Kayla in The Assassin, played Luci.

The Tourist’s gripping plot featured a man mysteriously buried alive, CCTV footage of Jamie’s character buying a T-shirt and toy koala in a roadside shack(?!), and con-artist confessions – all while merciless characters from his past tried to catch up with him.

Probationary Constable Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald), joined Jamie for the ride. An unexpected and unusual love story followed.

Harry and Jack Williams also wrote series two of The Tourist. This run saw Jamie’s character – who viewers now knew as Elliot – travel to his native Ireland with girlfriend Helen.

Again, Elliot was on a mission to find out about his past after receiving a note from someone called ‘Tommy’. Fans were once again on edge as Elliot was kidnapped and Helen imprisoned in a basement and beaten into a coma.

The Tourist aired on BBC One in 2022. The Tourist 2 premiered on the Beeb two years later. It is the most comparable Two Brothers thriller to The Assassin.

The Boat Story – 2023

In 2023, The Boat Story kept fans of Two Brothers thrillers captivated. The tale followed two hard-up strangers, Janet and Samuel, who stumbled across a haul of cocaine on a shipwrecked boat.

The pair sold the drugs to a local dealer, with the agreement to split the cash. Unfortunately, it was not as simple as that.

Hard-up Janet and gambling addict Samuel quickly became the target of a ruthless gangster, ‘The Tailor’, other criminals AND the police when someone stole their drug money before they could run into the sunset with it.

The Two Brothers thriller hooked BBC viewers for weeks thanks to its brutal violence and bucketloads of suspense. It starred Daisy Haggard as Janet, and Paterson Joseph as Samuel.

Eventually, viewers learned The Tailor was a French crime boss – with French actor Tchéky Karyo portraying him (notice a theme here?!). The shipment of drugs had also belonged to him.

Obsessed with a movie called Les Efants, it transpired The Tailor had adopted the plot as his own life after his father murdered his mother while watching it. Nice.

The ending was particularly wild and included the bludgeoning to death of The Tailor with a massive cleaver by a woman called Pat.

There was also a post credit tease for a second series. A narrator called Elias told the story of Janet and Samuel to his own hostage. But sadly, a series 2 of The Boat Story never emerged.

Read more: The Assassin on Prime Video: Plot, start, and location of new thriller starring Keeley Hawes as retired hit-woman

The Assassin is available to watch now on Amazon Prime Video in the UK and Ireland.