The State Within

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The State Within
Sharon Gless, Jason Isaacs and Ben Daniels
Format	Thriller
Created by	Lizzie Mickery Daniel Percival
Directed by	Michael Offer, Daniel Percival
Starring	Jason Isaacs Ben Daniels Sharon Gless Nigel Bennett Eva Birthistle
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	6
Production
Producer(s)	Grainne Marmion
Running time	57 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC
Original run	2 November 2006 – 7 December 2006

The State Within (2006) is a six-episode British television political drama, written by Lizzie Mickery and Daniel Percival, produced by Grainne Marmion as a joint BBC–BBC America production, that was broadcast by BBC1 in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 2 November 2006.

The protagonist of The State Within is Sir Mark Brydon (Jason Isaacs), the British Ambassador to Washington at the centre of a political conspiracy threatening to depose Western governments. As such, he must prevent a war, while facing a personal dilemma. Lynne Warner (Sharon Gless) is the United States Secretary of Defense, Nicholas Brocklehurst (Ben Daniels) is the British Counsellor External Affairs, and James Sinclair (Alex Jennings) is the former British ambassador to the fictional former Soviet republic of Tyrgyzstan. This character resembles the "diplomatic untouchable" Craig Murray, the drinking, womanizing^{[citation needed]} British ambassador who became embroiled in revealing human rights abuses in Uzbekistan.

In 2006, Episode One of The State Within drew 5.7 million viewers, but, by Episode Three, the audience was 3.1 million. On the 22nd of January 2007, this political drama was published on DVD. In the U.S., its premiere broadcast, on BBC America, was the Presidents Day weekend (17-19 February), as a three-part miniseries concluding on the 24th of February 2007. In the U.K., BBC Four re-ran the miniseries in June 2007, as part of its Conspiracy U.S.A. Week programming.^[1]

The State Within was nominated for a Golden Globe in the category, Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.