Law of the JUNGLE

When a small plane crash-lands into a North American jungle, a mismatched group of survivors soon find themselves at the centre of an unfolding murder mystery in BBC1’s much-anticipated new thriller Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue.

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Written by Magpie Murders and Foyle’s War creator Anthony Horowitz (see box, right), the six-part series begins with a batch of body bags arriving at the titular morgue. The story then jumps back in time to reveal that nine people initially survive the disaster, but a killer in their midst begins dispatching them, one by one.

As suspicions swirl, can those remaining work out who is targeting them, and why?

TV Times caught up with Star Trek: Discovery and The Jetty actor David Ajala, 39, who plays insurance investigator Zack Ellis, to find out more...

Could you share some insights about Zack?

Quite soon after the plane crash, Zack becomes the unofficial leader of the team. There’s some reluctance to do it, because he’s really just thinking about survival for himself and the rest of the people around him.

He's not trying to take power, or claim the limelight; he is just trying to be very pragmatic to sort out this situation. He is someone who is quite confident when he speaks, but I guess that can be perceived in a negative way by certain characters.

What are the dynamics like between the survivors?