4um: BBC America Enters 'The State Within'

The explosion of a British-bound airliner shortly after takeoff from Washington, D.C., triggers fears that America is under a new terrorist attack in "The State Within," a taut, head-spinningly complex miniseries premiering Saturday, Feb. 17, on BBC America.

The three-part, six-hour production stars Jason Isaacs (Showtime's 'Brotherhood") as British Ambassador Mark Brydon, who finds his job and his life turned upside down in the wake of the politically charged disaster. As he delves more deeply into a series of thorny secrets behind the explosion, he finds himself going up against Lynne Warner (Sharon Gless, "Cagney & Lacey"), the formidable U.S. secretary of defense who has taken an increasingly hard line since the death of her own son in Afghanistan.

"The State Within" takes viewers through a challenging labyrinth of plot twists and reversals, all part of a tautly crafted conspiracy thriller that makes for crackling entertainment.

"It's less upsetting than the news. At least there's a resolution to this," says Isaacs, playing a straight-on heroic leading man for one of the first times in his career.

"There are dishonest and self-serving people in any walk of life, so it's ludicrous that it would come as a shock to anyone that our governments don't always tell us the truth or that big business isn't interested in getting bigger and richer. Much more so than in Britain, so many people in (the States) seem to have so much faith in the people who represent them that they are blind to the idea that they might also be human."

Gless, who tears into one of the meatiest parts she has had in a long time, says she found the script so multilayered and complicated that she read it three times before agreeing to sign on. Even then, she hired a dramaturge to work with her on cracking her complex role.

"She broke the whole thing down in terms of every single corporation that is listed in the show and every person, because I knew what my role is, but I had to figure out how I fit in with all those other people: whom I might be manipulating and why I was doing it," Gless says. "The best thing she did was write down every thing that every other character said about Lynne behind her back. That's how I learned how to play her and who she was.

"My favorite line was when someone says, 'Be very careful, because she will mesmerize you with her certainty.' That one line really gave me a step up to see how to play this woman. I don't think Lynne doubts herself for a moment. She really believes that, in her job, you do send your son to war like every other boy in this country. In fact, she seems to have given up a lot for her country."

Mark and Lynne frequently find themselves going toe to toe with each other, and Isaacs says he relished playing those scenes with Gless.

"Was it Mark Twain who wrote of us as being 'two nations separated by a common language'?" he asks. "British politicians, especially, but really all British people have a habit of saying one thing and meaning something entirely different, which is discernible to the British ear.

"Americans, however, say what they mean, and you can hear that they mean it. If they are absolutely apoplectic, British people may use more extreme vocabulary but they won't sound any more riled, whereas Americans will actually begin shouting. So it was such great joy to be able to play the complexity of these two people who occasionally wanted to kill each other, but it's all couched in niceties."

Off camera, the two actors got along famously, although Isaacs admitted to worry about working with Gless at first.

"She is this huge TV icon and you never know what someone is going to be like," he says. "I had watched her since I was a kid, and you don't know whether someone like that is going to arrive on the set and be a terrible diva and act as if they are slumming.

"That is so far from what Sharon is. She is such a great mucker-in, fixing tea and baking cookies. I think she really enjoyed being part of a very different universe."

Part of living in that universe, however, was very upsetting, like the day Isaacs found himself standing in the horrific [if simulated] debris after the terrifying air disaster scene.

"A mile of street was filled with overturned and burning cars and charred 'bodies' and the walking wounded," he recalls. "We shot it right by the [Tornoto] airport, so I felt very badly for all the people who were driving by and about to get on a plane, because a lot of them were freaked out. Of course, they were putting it out on the radio all the time that this was a fake plane crash for a movie, but still, if you're about to get on a plane, that's not a mental picture you want to take on board with you.

"Just to get out and walk through those hundreds of extras covered in blood was very unsettling, to say the least. You're trying all the time as an actor to trick your imagination into believing that something is actually happening and that wasn't a pleasant place to be."

Not surprisingly, Isaacs adds, he wasn't able to leave such real-world concerns behind when filming wrapped on "The State Within."

"You can't walk away from the issues that this story is built around, because they're all around us," he says. "When I flew here to do press for this, I had to not carry liquids and answer a series of questions and feel my heart beat faster as I got on the plane. I had to phone my wife and tell her that the guy who does our life insurance has gone to Australia to open a surf club and who she should call in case the plane crashes.

"These are all serious considerations that cross my mind every time I get on a subway train in London. At least in our show, you are transported into a classic thriller, where you get all the fun and excitement, along with closure that, sadly, real life doesn't give you."

It's all about black ops, mercenaries, Halliburton as Armitage, blackmail, murder, a Muslim country with oil, etc. (of course they "forgot" Israel). (1 image)

I just watched an entertaining mystery drama last week entitled "Amnesia" starring John Hannah (4 Weddings and a Funeral; Sliding Doors). The Beeb has some vehhhhrey whitty comedy shows as well. And last but not least who else offers Dr. Who repeats?

The news is okay - always a guaranteed minimum of 1 news item that knocks King George to bits in a snobby delivery way.

I saw it. Like most BBC television series - it was boring. This is not a reflection on the topic of the miniseries just the fact that it was very ploddingly paced and boring. The season of '24' where the president was the villian - which I kick myself for mostly missing - was very fast paced based on the few snippets I did see.

Good news for you, Destro. Tune into 24 for its upcoming episode because the evil President is back!!! He was featured in the previews last week.

Also 24 has tweaked its script somewhat - now it turns out that the Muslim extremists are actually being used as "patsies/fall guys" by the Russians!!! - your favorite villain class - the uber bad guy's name is Gredenko even - how more Russian sounding could it be?

Is this the plot line where everyone was freaked out on here that the Muslims were the obvious bad guys? I kind o ftold you all t hat this was too easy and that '24' likes to play with plot twists.

My mistake - I thought you hated the Russians for what they did to the Chechens.

Yes, this is the same season plotline where the Muslim extremists were going to be T.H.E. bad guys. Now they're still somewhat bad but in terms of Comrade Jerkoff's colored danger warnings, the Muzzies have dropped down to yellow ( elevated) whereas the Ruskies have popped out of nowhere and are pushing red ( severe).

No. I praise the Russian defeat of the Chechens. I damn America for covertly supporting Chechen rebels because of pipeline 'Great Game' politics.

But ever since Putin has returned the Russians to some health - they are far from a super power still - there are those in American circles on both the left and right who see this as disturbing and thus why '24' would bring out the notion that the Russians are attempting to restore the USSR.

Putin is the best thing that has happened to Russia in a good long time. He took on the oligarch parasites and beat them.

And if certain people in left and right circles of American politics don't like Putin, I'm inclined to respect him more.

Down with the frigging neocons. They are to America what the oligarchs are to Russia. May the oligarchs and the neocons rot in hell.

Unless you are 'zionist' (whatever the hell THAT is)...the "neocon's" just plain hate.

It demonstrates how false flag ops can eventually turn into a war, thanks to efforts by companies like BlackwaterUSA and Halliburton, with help from CIA, MI6 and the Sec of Defense.

As I mentioned, it leaves out any culpability by Mossad/Israel. But the focus on the evils they do reveal plays like front page news.

Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is. ~George W. Bush
(About the quote: Speaking on the war in Kosovo.)

Right now, the UN decision is pending that an entire state can be held accountable for war crimes.

Imagine the reparations we now owe iraq - just in terms of destroyed property. Don't think BAC won't get his accurate total on Iraqi civilian deaths, if this goes through!

They would do the same BS being done to Katrina victims; making pennies on the dollar offers to people with nothing and nothing.

Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is. ~George W. Bush
(About the quote: Speaking on the war in Kosovo.)

Do you actually think Mossad can carry out a flase flag and the CIA and MI6 would not know of it? Or the Russian FSB or any of the other half dozen very capable spy services from around the world?

Of course not. I think that the CIA, Mossad and/or MI6 are capable of carrying out false flag ops together. The rest of the world just watches and takes notes. Top level translators make their living rewriting the same top secret reports into different languages. For example, I learned that Japanese economic reports on any country are highly rated. But there are all kinds of reports. Eventually everyone knows what everyone else was up to.

Title: Jewish plot to kill Bevin in London
Source: Times of London (via Information Clearing House)

03/05/06 "The Times" -- -- JEWISH terrorists plotted to assassinate Ernest Bevin, the foreign secretary, in 1946, as part of their campaign to establish the state of Israel, newly declassified intelligence files have shown. The plan was devised by Irgun, the insurgent group led by Menachem Begin, who went on to become a Nobel peace prize winner and prime minister of Israel.

Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is. ~George W. Bush
(About the quote: Speaking on the war in Kosovo.)

BBC America Enters 'The State Within'

“Yes, but is this good for Jews?"