IT is a gripping, tense, shocking BBC One drama, which hopes to transfix the viewing nation in prime time on Sunday night.

But The Cry is, dramatically, worlds - and a continent - away from the last BBC hit show in the same time slot, Bodyguard.

The four-part Scottish-Australia drama, based on the novel by the writer Helen Fitzgerald and produced by a small Glasgow production company, Synchronicity Films, hopes to prove the point that Scotland can produce its own mainstream, international-quality TV drama.

Shot in Melbourne and Victoria, as well as the west end of Glasgow, the expensive high-end drama has had its rights sold to broadcasters around the world, including ABC in Australia.

READ MORE: Jenna Coleman in first images from The Cry

The Cry, a story told in a “complex, non-linear” fashion, revolves around a couple and a terrible incident that affects their young family in Australia, with Joanna played by Doctor Who and Emmerdale star Jenna Coleman and husband Alistair, played by Ewen Leslie.

For Synchronicity, a small team based in an unassuming office in the Finnieston area of Glasgow, it has been a dramatic year: the drama was commissioned by the BBC last August, and 2018 has been a whirlwind of location scouting, casting and shooting.

Claire Mundell, who runs Synchronicity Film and executively produced The Cry, said she will celebrate on Sunday night at 9pm when the first episode is transmitted, but may hold off reading the instant reviews on social media until Monday morning.

Ms Mundell said she is well aware of the significance of the 9pm Sunday slot on BBC One.

Bodyguard drew more than 10m viewers to its first episode on BBC One.

Ms Mundell said: “I am thrilled, excited, proud terrified and curious to see what the reaction is.

“I am delighted, because for part of the journey this show didn’t look like it was going to happen, it’s a long road until the point a major broadcaster commissions a show, there is so much competition out there, you need to do the work.

“Having worked for the BBC and an independent producer, I understand the pressure on them for shows to cut through, because the way the BBC is funded, we all pay for it, so it has to have mass appeal, and that is very hard in this environment.”

READ MORE: The Cry was shot in Glasgow and Australia

Ms Mundell says she hopes the show proves to major broadcasters, that being based in Scotland is no disadvantage.

She said: “With this, everything is on the line - this is our business, it is a calling card for our company, but also for the concept of being able to make international class drama, wherever you happen to be.

“In our case, it’s from Scotland, which has been a life long career passion of mine.”

For Mundell and her team, the opening scenes of the drama will signal the end of a six year journey, from when she first read the manuscript of Fitzgerald’s book, even before it was published, and became intrigued with the possibility of turning it into a TV drama.

“It’s a very taut, tense, psychological and emotional thriller,” Mundell says.

“It is about the disintegration of a relationship, really, when a tragic event occurs, when our two lead characters travel to Australia and an incident occurs with their young baby.”

READ MORE: The Cry and The Victim, new dramas made in Scotland

The following episodes, four in total, follow the aftermath of the terrible event.

“It’s incredibly tense - I have seen this show, obviously, many times now - we have had multiple screenings, in London, and for Bafta, and we had our cast and crew screening on Saturday, and I find I still don’t let my breath out until about 48 minutes into it,” she said.

“It’s very tense, and noir - we’ve created a new term for it, we have a hashtag and everything, Scaussie Noir.

“It’s a tense watch, but it is also an incredibly emotional character arc, especially for Jenna Coleman’s character, and it has been described as a ‘career defining performance’ by Piers Wenger, head of drama at the BBC, and it really is.”

Mundell says the show is still being finished: there are four episodes, each an hour long.

The script has been written by Jacquelin Perske, produced by Brian Kaczynski, and all four episodes are directed by Glendyn Ivin.

She added: “It is a thrilling ride, but it also says a lot about a young woman who finds herself in a situation where she becomes the centre of the world’s judgement, really.

“It has substance to it, particularly about the way we view woman, and mothers, in high profile cases.”