In the post-9/11 media landscape, the spy thriller has again come into its own as a genre that offers visceral subject matter for a wide audience. Despite the renewed marketability of stories dealing with international espionage and terror, television producers have more often than not failed to seize upon opportunities to create truly original stories that utilize a backdrop of action and intrigue as a canvas for exploring the human conditions that exists in a very real and dangerous part of our world.
The Diplomat, a two-part miniseries produced by RHI Entertainment and premiering January 24 at 7:00 p.m. ET on ION Television (check your local cable provider for availability and channel), aims to give cable audiences a fresh look at that dark place and the people who walk therein.
Dougray Scott - most recently seen by American audiences on Desperate Housewives - plays Ian Porter, a British diplomat suspected of being an accomplice of a Russian arms and drugs trafficker when a sting by Scotland Yard turns up evidence against him. As an investigation commences, led by Detective Chief Inspector Julie Hales (Rachael Blake), Porter is discovered in truth to be an agent of British foreign intelligence (MI-6) and is persuaded to maintain silence about his Russian contacts by his handler, MI-6 officer Charles Van Koos (Richard Roxburgh). When the Russians intimidate his ex-wife, Pippa (Claire Forlani, Meet Joe Black, CSI: NY), the estranged couple are brought into the British equivalent of the witness protection program.
While Ian and Pippa Porter are in protective custody, Scotland Yard continues to squeeze Ian for information while he plots for eventual escape in order to complete his mission, to disrupt the sale of nuclear suitcase bombs to unnamed terrorists. The story unfolds to reveal a complex web of relations between MI-6 and the Russian arms traffickers that provides significant intrigue. It also sheds light on elements of Ian Porter’s character, answering the question of why he has chosen a path of danger.
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