The State Within

The State Within

DVD cover
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 6/7
Production
Producer(s) Grainne Marmion
Running time 60/50 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel BBC One
BBC America
Original run 2 November – 7 December 2006

The State Within is a 2006 six-hour British television political drama serial, written by Lizzie Mickery and Daniel Percival, produced by Grainne Marmion as a joint BBC–BBC America production, that was broadcast by BBC One in the United Kingdom from Thursday, 2 November 2006.[1]

It was originally broadcast and released on DVD as six 1-hour episodes.[2][3] It was subsequently released on Netflix in the UK and USA in seven 50-minute episodes.[4]

Story

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 nominally the British Counsellor External Affairs, but is a Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) agent assigned to embassy duty, and James Sinclair (Alex Jennings) is the former British ambassador to the fictional former Soviet republic of Tyrgyzstan (cf. Kyrgyzstan). This character resembles the "diplomatic untouchable" Craig Murray, the drinking, womanizing[5] British ambassador who exposed British and American complicity in torture and human rights abuses in Uzbekistan.

Cast

Jason Isaacs - Sir Mark Brydon - British Ambassador to America

Ben Daniels - Nicholas Brocklehurst - MI6

Eva Birthistle - Jane Lavery - Human Rights Commission

Neil Pearson - Phil Lonsdale - British Embassy

Genevieve O'Reilly - Caroline Hanley - Daughter of plane victim

Sharon Gless - Lynne Warner - U.S. Secretary of Defense

Noam Jenkins - Christopher Styles - Head of Defense Intelligence

Ted Whittall - Gordon Adair - CEO of Armitage Corp.

Nigel Bennett - Col. Charles Macintyre - Pres. of CMC Service Operations

Alex Jennings - James Sinclair - Azzam's father

Paulino Nunes - Eshan Borisvitch - Opposition leader

Reception

In 2006, Episode One of The State Within drew 5.7 million viewers, but, by Episode Three, the audience was 3.1 million. On 22 January 2007, the serial was released 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 24 February 2007. In the United Kingdom BBC Four re-ran the miniseries in June 2007, as part of its Conspiracy U.S.A. Week programming.[6]

The State Within was nominated for 2 Golden Globe Awards in the category, Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television and Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film.

References

  1. ↑ "Release details for The State Within". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  2. ↑ "The State Within Episode Guide". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  3. ↑ "The State Within DVD Review". DVDTalk. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "The State Within". Netflix. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  5. ↑ Paton Walsh, Nick (2004-07-15). "The Envoy who said too much". G2 (The Guardian). Retrieved 2008-07-18.
  6. ↑ "The State Within - Episodes". BBC.

External links