The State Within is a six-part[1] British television political thriller series, written and created by Lizzie Mickery and Daniel Percival, that was broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from Thursday, 2 November 2006.[2] The series, directed by Percival and Michael Offer and produced by Grainne Marmion, is a joint production between BBC Films and BBC America that follows Sir Mark Brydon (Jason Isaacs), the British Ambassador to Washington, who is caught in the centre of a political conspiracy threatening to depose Western governments. As such, he must prevent a war, all whilst facing his own personal dilemmas.

The State Within
GenrePolitical thriller
Created byLizzie Mickery
Daniel Percival
Directed byMichael Offer
Daniel Percival
Starring
Music byJennie Muskett
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes6 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersKathryn Mitchell
Jessica Pope
ProducersGrainne Marmion
Patrick Cassavetti
CinematographyDavid Perrault
EditorsNick McPhee
David Head
Running time60 minutes
Production companyBBC Films
Original release
NetworkBBC One
BBC America
Release2 November (2006-11-02) –
7 December 2006 (2006-12-07)

On 22 January 2007, the series was released on DVD in the United Kingdom.[3] In the United States, the series premiered during Presidents Day weekend as a three-part miniseries, concluding on 24 February 2007. After being repeated on BBC Four in June 2007 as part of the channel's Conspiracy U.S.A. week of programming,[4] the series subsequently released on Netflix worldwide, where it was edited down into seven 50-minute episodes.[5] The series was subsequently nominated for two Golden Globe Awards in the categories Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television and Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film.

Plot

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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 Craig Murray, the British ambassador who exposed British and American complicity in torture and human rights abuses in Uzbekistan.[6]

Cast

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Main cast

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Supporting cast

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  • Emma Campbell as Sally Davis
  • Rahnuma Panthaky as Nasreen Qureshi
  • Briony Glassco as Jennifer Grimes
  • Louca Tassone as Azzam Sinclair
  • Roman Podhora as Vernon Burchill
  • Michael Rhoades as Gary Pritchard
  • Ron Lea as Carl Garcia
  • Patrick Garrow as Brad Godovsky
  • David Eisner as Sam Levinson

Episodes

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No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions)
1"Episode 1"Michael OfferLizzie Mickery & Daniel Percival2 November 2006 (2006-11-02)5.21
2"Episode 2"Michael OfferLizzie Mickery & Daniel Percival9 November 2006 (2006-11-09)N/A
3"Episode 3"Michael OfferLizzie Mickery & Daniel Percival16 November 2006 (2006-11-16)N/A
4"Episode 4"Daniel PercivalLizzie Mickery & Daniel Percival23 November 2006 (2006-11-23)N/A
5"Episode 5"Daniel PercivalLizzie Mickery & Daniel Percival30 November 2006 (2006-11-30)N/A
6"Episode 6"Daniel PercivalLizzie Mickery & Daniel Percival7 December 2006 (2006-12-07)N/A

References

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