'Secret State' (Channel 4) is the best political thriller of the last ten years. Brilliant casting; Gabriel Byrne as a conscientious and progressive Prime Minister Tom Dawkins thrust into Office after the mysterious death of his predecessor in a plane crash, Gina McKee as the tenacious investigative journalist uncovering links to Big Oil and a chemical explosion that killed 19 in a Northern town, Rupert Graves as the duplicitous (or treasonous) Home Secretary, Charles Dance as the dependable Parliamentary ‘Chief Whip’ and Ireland's own Ruth Negga as an compassionate GCHQ 'listener'. This is tight, tense, bare-knuckle ride TV 'based on' (i.e. with Chris Mullin's permission) the incomparable 'A Very British Coup', itself one of the outstanding dramas of the (gulp!) 1980s which was a formative influence on 'thetvreviewguy's' political leanings. In 'Secret State', the 'conspiracy' has been updated and while various netpickers (a word this reviewer has just coined, hopefully) have pointed out that a Prime Minister and the Head of a Multinational Bank ('Royal Caledonian' - hmm, wonder who that could be?) would be unlikely to have a meeting in the middle of Downing Street, this is still fiction, albeit one that seems very close to the bone at times. Gabriel Byrne starred in another terrific conspiracy thriller as lead in 'Defence of the Realm', here he shows himself to be 'Primus Inter Pares' when it comes to playing the role of honourable man being pursued by dark forces. Channel 4 make a huge amount of terrible TV but sometimes they'll produce a gem like this; 'Secret State' is a shining jewel among a lot of trash.
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