Secret State [DVD]

The brilliant four part Channel 4 mini-series Secret State is well worth a look. A remake of a 1988 TV mini series A Very British Coup Secret State manages to do what conspiracy thrillers should do i.e. thrill and keep you gripped.

To be honest I have done a little research about the reactions of others on the internet of all places to see what other people think of the show. I decided to check the legitimate reviewers opinions out of curiosity and aparently they are none too thrilled at this conspiracy thriller citing a lack of 'realism' and aparently the premise is 'ludicrous' and the 'show is out of touch with what is important currently'. Really? Really? With all due respect to these comments what ever happened to a little escapism, you know a show with a nice twisty plot with a conspiracy between a few supervillians. But the critics complain that it is not as good as Homeland; well of course it is not but it is one great enjoyable piece of television none the less.

Gabriel Byrne might play one of the most ludicrous unrealistic characters of all time; a noble politician who manages to become PM but man did I root for him.

Like all good conspiracy thrillers you are gripped and genuinely interested in how it will all end.

Oh and just one more thing that makes this show great; have you checked the cast. Just plain awesome.

You might have noticed that this so called review doesn't mention one single plot detail, well I noticed that after one episode that they had a next time on feature. Watched it and lets say they gave away too much. Really to enjoy twisty little thrillers like this it is best to know as little as possible about the plot so you can concentrate on figureing the plot out and get it wrong along the way.

Yes, the show might be a little unrealistic but why should this matter when the plot keeps you gripped and the cast is this good. Plus I really would like to see more programmes like this on TV considering the last programme I seen that was this good was The State Within (come to think of it the plots are really really similar). If you liked The State Within then you should like this and vice versa. Brilliantly gripping television.

In Ed Fraiman's latest adaptation of former MP Chris Mullin's political novel, A Very British Coup, conspiracy certainly isn't what it used to be. Back in the 1980s, under its original title, the brilliant Ray McAnally played Harry Perkins in Alan Plater's excellent version, parading a cautionary tale about radical values and what happens to them once you're in power and the men from the ministry get a hold of you. Plater's version had an international context involving the concerns of the day, not least American nuclear missiles on British soil, and this newly rebooted 21st Century story carries that a step further by putting the villainous cast of the 'war on terror' age - multinationals, rogue Middle-Eastern regimes, military chiefs of staff - firmly in the spotlight. But back in the day, the original drama sat side-by-side with other mini-series like Edge of Darkness, Harry's Game and House of Cards while films like Defence of the Realm - which Byrne starred in during the 1980s - The Whistle Blower and then later Hidden Agenda, not only gripped but opened up possibilities about the British state apparatus that wider society, let alone TV/film culture, hadn't dared contemplate before.

This new take on the dark corridors of Westminster is fine, mind you. Gabriel Byrne plays loyal party apparatchik Tom Dawson with a steely-eyed determination, Douglas Hodge is terrific as a drunk and gone-off-the-rails computer hacker and fixer, while Charles Dance could win BAFTAs simply for the way he unbuttons his suit jacket and gives that look of his. But it's an odd 24hr news cycle world that hasn't spotted the PM turning up rather too frequently at the local Drum and Monkey boozer to have a pint with former colleague Fossett, as Dawson seems to do endlessly here, while there doesn't appear to be a single person in London who hasn't got his mobile phone number! Gina McKee's determined reporter Ellis Kane seems to have a front door key to No.10 she's there so often, and Rupert Graves - who's a terrific actor - is handed a role here that gives off all the gravitas of a man who thinks he should be head of the local comprehensive's Sixth Form, but appears to have stumbled into the job of Chancellor of the Exchequer! It adds up to a lot of fun; Manchester Town Hall shows up as the inside of Westminster brilliantly, Ruth Negga is genuinely great as out-of-her-depth GCHQist Agnes Evans, and Mullins himself even appears as a vicar to top it all off.

But the world has moved on from the 1980s and so have we probably as a watching public. Secret State pushes all the familiar buttons of 21st Century secrecy and cover-up, and does it very nicely. But it's so familiar to us now, the power of this kind of TV has lost a little of its bite in a political culture where Fahrenheit 9/11, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and Inside Job are documentaries, but ones offering up all the drama of real events in an elite, establishment world that long ago lost much of its grip on reality.

This is the best thing I've seen on television for ages. Kept me gripped and desperate for the next episode...my only criticism was that the ending was a trifle sudden and left me wanting more. For anybody who missed it or who would like to watch again, well worth buying.