The State Within

infobox television
show_name = The State Within


caption = Sharon Gless, Jason Isaacs and Ben Daniels
format = Thriller
runtime = 57 minutes
creator = Lizzie Mickery
Daniel Percival
producer = Grainne Marmion
starring = Jason Isaacs
Ben Daniels
Sharon Gless
Nigel Bennett
Eva Birthistle
country = UK
network = BBC
director = Michael Offer, Daniel Percival
first_aired = 2 November 2006
last_aired = 7 December 2006
num_episodes = 6

"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 from 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, womanizingFact|date=May 2008 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 22 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 24 February 2007. In the UK BBC Four re-ran the miniseries in June 2007, as part of its "Conspiracy U.S.A. Week" programming. [cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/thestatewithin/episodes/ |title=The State Within - Episodes |publisher=BBC]

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

References

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/thestatewithin/ The State Within] from the BBC website
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770652/ The State Within] from the Internet Movie Database