State of Play

2 0 0 3 (UK)
6 x 60 minute episodes

A young man is murdered. In a separate incident at around the same time, a woman is killed after falling under the wheels of a subway train. There seems to be no connection between the two deaths – the first a drug-related slaying, the second no more than a tragic accident.

But while the police uncover nothing in either case, a newspaper investigation reveals that both the deceased were victims of a corrupt scheme hatched by oil tycoons and British government ministers.

Piece by piece, the journalists complete the jigsaw: they know who committed the crimes, but can they prove it?

And if they can, will someone powerful prevent them from doing so?

Scriptwriter Paul Abbott had risen through the ranks at Granada TV, where he had credits for Coronation Street and Cracker, before creating Clocking Off and Linda Green for the BBC.

State of Play was Abbott’s response to a challenge by the BBC drama boss Jane Tranter to write something on a bigger scale than his previous works.

The six-part thriller was hailed by critics as one of the top dramas of 2004, and Abbott was commissioned to write a second serial before the first had been broadcast. Ultimately, that follow-up never materialised; Instead, Abbott created Shameless, a new drama for Channel 4.

In 2009, Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, and Helen Mirren starred in a big-screen adaptation of State of Play, which transposed the action from London to Washington, DC.

Cal McCaffrey
John Simm
DCI William Bell
Philip Glenister
Della Smith
Kelly Macdonald
Stephen Collins
David Morrissey
Cameron Foster
Bill Nighy
Dan Foster
James McAvoy
Pete Cheng
Benedict Wong
Liz
Rebekah Staton
Helen Preger
Amelia Bullmore
Anne Collins
Polly Walker
Dominic Foy
Marc Warren
Andrew Wilson
Michael Feast
Sonny Stagg
Johann Myers
George Fergus
James Laurenson
Syd
Tom Burke
Greer Thornton
Deborah Findlay
Adam Greene
Christopher Simpson
Olicia Stagg
Maureen Hibbert