The Shadow Power - The State Within
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Shadow Power - The State Within |
| Original title | The State Within |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| year | 2006 |
| length | 43 minutes |
| Episodes | 6 in 1 season |
| genre | thriller |
| First broadcast | November 2, 2006 (UK) on BBC One |
| German-language first broadcast |
September 28, 2007 on RTL II |
| occupation | |
Die Schattenmacht - The State Within (Original title: The State Within ) is a British mini-series that consists of six episodes. It has a political conspiracy on the subject that wants to start a war in the fictional Central Asian state of Tyrgyztan due to economic interests .
action
When the British ambassador to the United States, Sir Mark Brydon, returns to the United States from a stay in the United Kingdom, a British airline's plane is blown up by a suicide bomber on the way to the embassy . This incident led to diplomatic tension. Lynne Warner, the US Secretary of Defense, expresses solidarity with the ally Great Britain, but behind the scenes tensions arise between the Minister and the Ambassador. Since the assassin was a British Muslim, the governor of the state of Virginia arrests British Muslims. An incident occurs in which two young British people attempting to cross the border into Maryland try to flee for fear of being arrested and die in the process. British Muslims seek refuge from the policies of the Governor of Virginia against them at the embassy in Washington, and Ambassador Mark Brydon wishes to grant them. However, his deputy Phil Lonsdale advises him that the primary goal must be to stop this policy. Brydon tries to convince the chairwoman of the security committee of Congress, Madeleine Cohen, to declare the policies of the governor of Virginia to be unconstitutional.
At the embassy, Nicholas Brocklehurst, the ambassador's right-hand man, is given surveillance material relating the father of Caroline Hanley, a friend of Mark Brydon's, and an order for trigger circuits . At a dinner party at the Hanley's, Brydon meets Gordon Adair, the CEO of the Tyrgyztan security firm Armitage, and James Sinclaire, the former British ambassador to the fictional former Soviet republic of Tyrgyztan, who is shunned because of his political position. Both want an overturn in the Central Asian country ruled by a corrupt ruler, but Brydon is the official British position that supports the regime. One night an exercise takes place on a safe military site in Virginia. A man is killed because live ammunition is used. The leader of the unit takes precautions to prevent identification of the body and has it thrown into a nearby river. There he is discovered by a civilian a day later. Nicholas Brocklehurst is pursuing the case of the unrecognizable corpse, which, according to some evidence, could have been a former British soldier. He is trying to solve this case with the FBI agent George Blake. Meanwhile, Gary Pritchard conducts an operation with other mercenaries to load ten barrels of poison gas onto an airplane. However, this is prevented by the FBI, which arrests the mercenaries who come from Great Britain.
In addition, the embassy lawyer for human rights , Jane Lavery, visits the British Luke Gardner, who is imprisoned in Florida and awaiting the execution of his death sentence . He protests his innocence but will be executed if renegotiation of the case is refused. When Gardner sees the picture of the suicide bomber on television, he has a strong emotional response. When his request is denied, Lavery's only option is to call the pardons committee to prevent the execution. Luke Gardner's mother sees Gary Pritchard on television and recognizes him as an old Army friend of her son. Charles Macintyre, the director of CMC Operations, puts pressure on the governor of Florida, so that the pardon is denied by Gardner despite a convincing statement from the guard. The ambassador flies to Florida to speak to the governor personally, while Nicholas puts pressure on the lawyer not to tell the ambassador about the connection between Gardner and Pritchards. Even the use of the ambassador cannot prevent the execution of the death penalty and Gardner is executed with lethal injection. Charles Macintyre is relieved to have the unwanted witness removed.
The US Secretary of Defense seeks war with Tyrgyztan, which she blames for terrorism. In addition, she would like to procure orders for her former company Armitage there. To this end, she also tries to manipulate Mark Brydon, saying that Britain would not benefit from the profits of the war if it positions itself against the war. To this end, it first focuses on promoting the democratic opposition of the Central Asian country, but when its leader rejects the influence of the USA in his country, Lynne Warner ruled out this option. Meanwhile, it turns out that Armitage was involved in the killings of opposition activists in Tyrgyztan. After this information got through to the British ambassador, he tried to stop the conspiracy to war. With the information about the involvement in the massacre at the time when Lynne Warner was still running Armitage, he blackmailed them not to wage the illegal war.
occupation
| figure | actor | role |
|---|---|---|
| Sir Mark Brydon | Jason Isaacs | British ambassador |
| Nicholas Brocklehurst | Ben Daniels | Foreign Policy Advisor |
| Lynne Warner | Sharon Gless | Secretary of Defense |
| Luke Gardner | Lennie James | Prisoner of death |
| Jane Lavery | Eva Birthistle | Human rights attorney |
| Phil Lonsdale | Neil Pearson | Chief of Mission, British Embassy |
| James Sinclair | Alex Jennings | former British Ambassador to Tyrgyztan |
| Caroline Hanley | Genevieve O'Reilly | Foreign policy employee at the Lowenberg Institute |
production
The State Within was written by Lizzie Mickery and Daniel Percival . The filming took place in Canada and was directed by the two directors Michael Offer and Daniel Percival. The plane crash scene was not filmed on a studio site, but on a street that was normally used. It had to be completed particularly quickly, as the filming permit only lasted a relatively short period of time.
The six-episode miniseries was a co-production between the BBC and BBC America . The producer was Jessica Pope .
Charisma
The series aired on BBC One from November 2 to December 7, 2006 . The first episode reached 5.7 million viewers. Audience numbers dropped, however, so that the third episode only hit 3.1 million. On BBC Four was The State Within during a Conspiracy USA Week repeated in June of 2007. In the United States, BBC America aired The State Within over Presidents' Day weekend from February 17-19, 2007 in three parts.
The broadcast in Germany took place on September 28 and 29, 2007 as a two-part series under the title on RTL II . In Switzerland, SF two broadcast the six-part series on Mondays from July 5, 2010, SF two broadcast the series exclusively in two-channel sound. In the program, the six-part was divided into seven parts and broadcast from July 5, 2010 to August 16, 2010.
DVD release
The State Within was released on DVD in the UK on January 22nd, 2007. The publication in Germany followed on October 26, 2007. The two DVDs contain all six episodes with additional scenes, so the DVD version is 36 minutes longer than the one broadcast on television. There is also a making-of on the DVD.