''Secret State'' is a 2012 British four-part political thriller, starring

Gabriel Byrne Gabriel James Byrne (born 12 May 1950) is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, audiobook narrator, and author. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined London's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's s ...

Charles Dance Walter Charles Dance (born 10 October 1946) is an English actor. He is known for playing strict, authoritarian characters and villains. His most notable film roles include Sardo Numspa in '' The Golden Child'' (1986), Dr. Jonathan Clemens in '' ...

and

Gina McKee Georgina "Gina" McKee (born 14 April 1964) is an English actress. She won the 1997 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for '' Our Friends in the North'' (1996), and earned subsequent nominations for ''The Lost Prince'' (2003) and ''The Street'' ( ...

, and inspired by Chris Mullin's 1982 novel '' A Very British Coup''. It delves into the relationship between a democratically elected government, the military and big business. The first episode premiered on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

on 7 November 2012, with the other three parts being shown over the following three weeks.Channel 4 press release, 17 October 2012: ''Secret State''
Retrieved 2012-11-08

Plot

In the run up to a

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, a devastating industrial accident on

Teesside Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...

leaves 19 people dead and raises questions about the safety procedures of a US petrochemical company, PetroFex. The

British prime minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...

claims to have secured a compensation package from them, but on his return from PetroFex HQ, his plane crashes in the Atlantic under mysterious circumstances.

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

Tom Dawkins (Gabriel Byrne) takes command, and during his quest to find the truth and justice for the victims, he uncovers a conspiracy at the heart of the political system.Amazon UK: ''Secret State (DVD)''
Retrieved 2012-11-08

Main cast

as Tom Dawkins MP, the

who becomes

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As moder ...

after the death of his predecessor, Charles Flyte. *

as John Hodder MP, the

Chief Whip The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes. United Kingdom ...

. *

Stephen Dillane Stephen John Dillane (; born 27 March 1957) is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Leonard Woolf in the 2002 film '' The Hours'', Stannis Baratheon in ''Game of Thrones'', and Thomas Jefferson in the 2008 HBO miniseries ''John Ad ...

as Paul Jacob Clark, the CEO of PetroFex. *

Rupert Graves Rupert Simeon Graves (born 30 June 1963) is an English film, television, and theatre actor. He is known for his roles in '' A Room with a View'', '' Maurice'', '' The Madness of King George'' and '' The Forsyte Saga''. From 2010 to 2017 he st ...

as Felix Durrell MP, the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

and later Chancellor of the Exchequer. *

Ralph Ineson Ralph Michael Ineson (; born 15 December 1969) is an English actor and narrator. Known for his deep, rumbling, Yorkshire-accented voice, his most notable roles include William in ''The Witch'', Dagmer Cleftjaw in ''Game of Thrones'', Amycus Car ...

as Sergeant Wrigglesworth, Dawkins' Diplomatic Protection Group bodyguard. * Russell Kilmister as Nillis Jacobson, a senior executive at PetroFex. * Sylvestra Le Touzel as Ros Yelland MP, the

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

* Anna Madeley as Gina Hayes, Dawkins' press officer. *

as Ellis Kane, a freelance journalist. *

Ruth Negga Ruth Negga ( ; born 7 January 1981) is an Ethiopian-Irish actress known for the AMC television series ''Preacher'' and the film ''Loving''. For her portrayal of Mildred Loving in the latter, Negga received several major nominations from the Ac ...

as Agnes Evans, a

GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Uni ...

analyst. * Lia Williams as Laura Duchenne, the

Director General of MI5 __NOTOC__ The Director General of the Security Service is the head of the Security Service (commonly known as MI5), the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency. The Director General is assisted by a Deputy Director Ge ...

. * Jamie Sives as Lee Foulds, Dawkins' personal secretary. *

Al Weaver Alexander Paul Weaver (born 3 January 1981) is an English actor and writer, best known for his role as curate Leonard Finch in the ITV series ''Grantchester'' (2014-present). Background Weaver was born in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton ...

as Joss Leyton a senior

analyst. * Douglas Hodge as Anthony Fossett, an investigative reporter and former MI6 officer. *

Nicholas Farrell Nicholas C. Frost (born 1955), known professionally as Nicholas Farrell, is an English stage, film and television actor. Education Farrell was educated at Fryerns Grammar and Technical School in Basildon, Essex, followed by the University o ...

as General Munnery, the Chief of Defence Staff. *

Anton Lesser Anton Lesser (born 14 February 1952) is an English actor. He is well known for his roles as Qyburn in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', as Thomas More in '' Wolf Hall'', as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in ''The Crown'', as Prime Ministe ...

as Sir Michael Rix, the head of the Royal Caledonian Bank. *

Tobias Menzies Tobias Simpson Menzies (born 7 March 1974) is an English stage, television and film actor. He is known for playing Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in the third and fourth seasons of Netflix's series ''The Crown'', for which he won the Primetim ...

as Charles Flyte, the former

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

who is killed at the start of the series. Chris Mullin, the author of '' A Very British Coup'', which served as inspiration for ''Secret State'', appears as a

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pr ...

in a

cameo role A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

.The Guardian, 5 November 2012: ''Secret State: I played the vicar in the TV version of my novel''
Retrieved 2012-11-08

Release

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

was released in the UK on 3 December 2012. The series is available in the UK Amazon Instant Video and Channel 4 On Demand.Channel 4 On Demand
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Other countries

All four episodes were shown on the German/French TV station

Arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, pl ...

on 6 February 2014.Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Ursula Scheer, 6 February 2014: ''Der Premier zieht in den Krieg ''
Retrieved 2014-02-07 In Saudi Arabia the first one-hour part premiered on OSN (Orbit Showtime Network) on Friday 21 March 2014, with the other three parts being shown the following Fridays. Series were shown in Croatia on HRT, from 14 April to 17 April 2014. In Australia, the first episode aired on ABC on Friday 25 July 2014, with the other episodes over the subsequent three weeks, while in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

it began its appearance on 10 August 2014 on TV One in the 10:30pm Sunday night slot.

References

External links