The State Within
| The State Within | |
|---|---|
 Programme titles | |
| 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 | Grainne Marmion |
| Running time | 60/50 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC One BBC America |
| Release | 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 Craig Murray, the womanizing British ambassador who exposed British and American complicity in torture and human rights abuses in Uzbekistan.[5]
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 though, by Episode Three, the audience stood at 3.1 million. On 22 January 2007, the serial was released on DVD. In the United States, 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
- ^ "Release details for The State Within". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
- ^ "The State Within Episode Guide". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ "The State Within DVD Review". DVDTalk. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ "The State Within". Netflix. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ Paton Walsh, Nick (15 July 2004). "The Envoy who said too much". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 July 2008.
- ^ "The State Within - Episodes". BBC.
External links
- The State Within from the BBC website
- The State Within from the Internet Movie Database