User reviews

It is not often that really good series based on politics, suspense and a bit of romance comedy hit our idiot boxes. However, State of Play manages to do all this with such finesse that I was left spellbound. What starts of as a simple murder case becomes so huge that it really boggles the mind. And at all time, it does not seem one bit over-stretched or silly. Add to this three subplots and what you have is a series that is of immense viewing pleasure. All in a runtime of just 300 minutes.

If you want your TV series to be intelligent, do yourself a favour and watch this series. Now.

The BBC haven't made a mini series as good since 'Edge of Darkness' in 1985. Although 'State of Play' doesn't quite match that seminal classic it is still superb. It is an oasis in a very large desert of quality programming from the once mighty BBC. Apart from the 2001 co-production 'Conspiracy' the BBC drama output is a poor shadow of what it used to be in the sixties and seventies.

The six episodes of 'State of Play' need close attention but once the plot gets going it is a roller coaster ride to the last few minutes of the last episode. The journalists, the politicians and the police prowl around each other as the conspiracy is unravelled. It is not just a driving narrative however, there are real people with real emotions caught up in the action. The six episodes allow several characters to become rounded and interesting. High praise indeed for Paul Abbott, the writer. It gripped from start to finish.

The acting is excellent. David Morrissey and John Simm as Stephen Collins and Cal McCaffrey play brilliantly off against each other as truths are eventually discovered. The last scene between them is corker. The journalists are the heroes but they are also flawed and troubled. All the actors playing the journos were great but I thought Kelly Macdonald as Della Smith was exceptional. Bill Nighy had some hilarious lines which he gave full justice to. Forget Hollywood star names, these are proper actors.

Apart from the human characters the other character that is well portrayed is London itself. London has many faces and the series brought several of those out. From nights by the Thames , to the bleak housing estates, to the pretty suburban streets, to the formality of Parliament, to the sounds and almost the smells of eight million people jostling together. All photographed atmospherically. As a Londoner it made me look at my city again.

I'll run out of superlatives soon, so I'll just say it is a great achievement by all the artists concerned. Apparently another series is being considered and hopefully that will be just as good.

What makes a good political thriller? Some things are obvious. Firstly, strong believable characters. Secondly, a fast-paced, complex, dazzling plot. But the plot must resolve into something comprehensible - there may appear to be one hundred mysteries, but beneath the smoke and mirrors, there must be one story. Anyone can write an infinite collection of coincidences and conspiracies - but a strong story makes simple sense in the end. Finally, a political drama needs to say something authentic about the current state of the world. If the final conclusion is that the Prime Minister has a prediliction for drinking the blood of teenage girls, then however plausible this is made to seem, an opportunity has been lost - if politics really is the subject matter, and not just the setting, then the personal drama must make some wider political point. Paul Abbott's 'State of Play' succeeds gloriously on all these points, and confirms his reputation as among the the sharpest writers in British television today.

Director David Yates also deserves credit, for keeping the mood tense but unmelodramatic throughout, while the cast show uniform excellence in bringing Abbott's characters to life. Abbott has commented that he knew he would have failed if any of his (largely journalistic) heroes could be sumarised as "mavericks" - a simple lesson ignored by ninety percent of writers today. Instead we have real, three-dimensional portrayals. What's especially impressive is how well the female characters are realised - neither passive decoration nor kick-ass post-feminists, but believable, not necessarily glamorous women - the contrast between the sexes has a low-key ring of truth. David Morrissey as the MP around whom the storm breaks is also excellent - when politicians are held in universally low stock, 'State of Play' avoids all the easiest shots. If one of the tragedy of politics is that many of its protagonists are first rate idiots, another is what it makes out of those who are not. Morrissey's Stephen Collins is never sympathetic, and yet comes across as the sort of man you might almost choose to try and run the country. Paul Abbott, meanwhile, is certainly the sort of man you'd choose to write a drama. In 'State of Play', he has produced the best British TV series since 'Holding On'.

What a trip watching this masterpiece. It's a fast moving intelligent thriller that had me glued to the couch... more addictive than Crack! The acting is convincing, the plot is thick, the script is delicious and the characters are vivid.

It's not often a TV production comes along leaving you hungry for more, but the BBC have a knack for picking quality and producing some of the best programming in the world. This is the stuff that leaves American entertainment for dead. No gadgets, explosions or tough guys! Shame on them with all their money and their smarts, it's the BBC that delivers time and time again.

Hats off and if you haven't seen it yet don't put it off.

Paul Abbott is a genius. His writing here is taut and intelligent, just like anything else he has done. This BBC production is truly flawless. From the writing to direction to the acting, it is outstanding. This is exhilarating and challenging TV that, though politically-charged, crucially develops interesting characters that you can care about. The plot is complex, as the best political thrillers are, and delivers a TV drama that hopefully shuts up those who say that us Brits can't make TV like the Yanks. Yes, American TV is great but the marathon seasons and multiple writers are exhausting and create bloated, sometimes frustrating TV. Look at Lost, it is as easy to hate as it is to love and becomes dull frequently in the flabby, direction-less mid-season hell. Not here though. Six streamlined parts that never let up the pace and never loosen their grip on the audience. 'State of Play' keeps you hooked and leaves you begging for more, as with all great pieces of entertainment. You'll be sucked into this world and won't want to leave.

Credit must be equally divided between its makers, and the direction is every bit as thrilling as the writing, and ,accordingly, David Yates is moving on to bigger things with the Harry Potter franchise. The tremendous cast all deliver as you'd expect, with David Morrissey and John Simm excellent as the leads and a stunning supporting cast that includes Kelly MacDonald, Philip Glenister, Polly Walker, Patrick Brennan, Shauna MacDonald, Rebekah Staton, James McAvoy, Marc Warren and, of course, the ever-delightful Bill Nighy.

More joy is found in the pulsating soundtrack, tight editing and cinematography.

Overall, 'State of Play' is among the most thought-provoking and exhilarating thrillers you'll ever see and is quite possibly the best thing to have been on TV; British, American or otherwise.

It isn't often that something literally comes along and changes the standards of a viewer for an entire genre. By the time I got through the nearly six hour of State Of Play the first time around, that was exactly what had happened to me. Having watched it again in virtually one sitting I am once again surprised not only by how well the mini-series holds up during a second (or in my case third) viewing but just how high the quality of the mini-series really is.

To begin with, the series features one essential element for any good story: good and believable characters played by fine actors. The cast of the series is top notch and is led by John Simm as newspaper reporter Cal McCaffrey and David Morrissey as British politician Stephen Collins who both give two incredibly gripping yet believable performances. While this is true of the entire series this fact is especially true during the final minutes of the series when things effectively become a two-hand play between Simm and Morrissey and their respective characters. It's easy to imagine how these characters could have been played differently but here, in this series, these performances are (to use words I don't sue very often) absolutely perfect.

That's not to say that the rest of the cast is lacking by any means, far from it in fact. The supporting cast features fantastic performances that are just as gripping and believable as the performances of the mini-series two leads. The cast ranges Kelly Macdonald as reporter Della Smith, James McAvoy as reporter Dan Foster, Polly Walker as Coliins wife Anne, Stuart Goodwin as the mysterious Robert Bingham and the ever magnificent Bill Nighy as newspaper editor Cameron Foster. There is many more of course many others, but these are just a few of the fantastic performances to be found in State Of Play.

There are also the production values to consider as well. One of the best things about State Of Play is the fact that one could believe that this could whole sequence of events is really just a headline away at any moment. Much of the credit of that goes to the production design of Donald Woods and the costumes of Claire Anderson both of which anchor the series firmly in reality. Then there's the incredible fly-on-the-wall cinematography by Chris Seager which manages not only to compliment the reality of the production design and costumes but gives the entire mini-series a documentary feel as well, all of which is helped by the editing of Mark Day. There's also the sparingly used, but highly effective, score by composer Nicholas Hooper which does what a good score is supposed to do: give additional emotional depth to any scene it appears in. All together the result is some of the strongest production values you're ever likely to see in a TV mini-series.

The real success of the realistic feel of State Of Play lies not in how good the production values are but in the writing of scriptwriter Paul Abbott. Abbott has created a story that feels as though it could be ripped from tomorrow's headlines in a cautionary tale about the sometime fuzzy line between major corporations and those in government whoa re supposed to oversee them, in this case the corporation being a fictional but plausible British oil company and its lobbyists. The mini-series also takes a look at the modern news industry, how it gathers news, where it gets its information from and how pressure can be brought to bare if there's a story too damaging to those in high and powerful places. To do all this successfully and believably, Abbott forgoes many of the thriller clichés of rather tired action sequences and instead (and rightfully in my humble opinion anyway) focuses on the characters and their dialogue which leads to close six hours of fantastic dialogue and an incredible plot. If anything makes State Of Play worth seeing it is the plot which sets a new standard in just how many twists and turns one can fit in a seemingly easily clichéd plot. The result is a complex a mini-series that leaves a first-time viewer ever seeking answers and those who've seen it before looking and finding new clues with every viewing. In short: it's a first class script without any doubt.

So what is State Of Play? It is a fantastic thriller containing some truly fantastic yet believable performances, fine production values and a first-rate script that never sinks into clichés. Yet it also something that is increasingly rare today. By doing all of those things it succeeds in doing something truly spectacular: it changes and raises the standards for an entire genre with it. If you can say nothing else you can say that State Of Play is what a good thriller ought to be.

I take issue with some of the people commenting on "State of Play" who declare that they believe it to be "as good as American TV" or some other such nonsense. That's ridiculous! Perhaps it's a generational thing, but I have always thought that British productions, particularly drama, are light years ahead of American TV and the actors are in a whole different galaxy. The original "State of Play" is brilliant, suspenseful and a pleasure to watch. I cannot believe that there is going to be a "remake"! I love Helen Mirren and Russell Crowe, but there is absolutely no need for this series to be remade. Why can't they write something original for Mirren and Crowe? The Brits are the best. Period!

Just bought and watched this on DVD. Up until the last episode I was enthralled with the story.

The mixture of journalism, politics and police work made for an interesting mix, although the latter two took more of a back seat nearing the end, replaced with lover's quarrels and artificial exposition more similar to soap opera writing.

While the cinematography is fairly average, the casting and acting is superb.

If you want a suspenseful thriller this one should entertain you, just don't expect a satisfactory ending.

I'd give the show 8/10, but the horrible finale totally undermined the story's credibility with several loose ends, and I was left frustrated instead of with the great feeling I had during the first 5 episodes.

Except for the final episode, which I will not describe, this series is among the best TV thrillers I've ever seen. Regional accents make some of the dialog difficult to follow if you're not a Brit, but the story line is quite clear. Although most of the faces were unfamiliar to me, the cast is excellent from top to bottom, a hallmark of BBC productions. Each of the twists and turns prior to the final episode was imaginable (if in a couple of cases improbable). But the last twist makes little sense in light of what went before. I would have rated the series a 10 if it had ended with the fifth episode (and a small coda). The final episode subtracted three stars from my personal evaluation. Bill Nighy, James McEvoy, John Simm, David Morrisey and Polly Walker were particular impressive in their respective roles.

So you assemble a cast of many of Britain's finest actors, and get them to spend five weeks weaving a complex plot of many threads, twisting and turning, drawing the viewer in, and creating the anticipation that they will all ultimately become resolved during the course of episode six. We spend that final week speculating on how it will all end up. No doubt there will be some final sting in the tail, some totally unexpected twist or turn. Maybe in the end good will prevail, or maybe it won't. That is why we watch for six weeks, and let this story into our lives, allowing our brains to become engaged on trying to puzzle it all out.

And what did we get? We got a lot of shouting, just shout, shout, shout, which took up the vast majority of episode six. Yes, the sting in the tail was there, but so many other threads were left loose, dangling free in the air, and completely unresolved amidst all that shouting. There were even numerous characters introduced during the course of the first five episodes about whom we had spent our mental energy wondering "so what will be their eventual role in things?" and the answer came back: "None".

The gap between the expectation created over five episodes and what was delivered in that final sixth episode yawned so wide, and as they say on the London tube, "Mind the Gap"!

6/10.

This BBC political thriller mini-series is far superior to the American remake.

If you like newsroom dramas, and films involving investigative journalism then you'll love this.

Enough said.

The BBC dramatic standards have been slipping, either trying to hard to compete with HBO (The Last Enemy), letting shows jump the shark (Spooks) or simply being too cheap and just make shows like Strictly Come Dancing. But when the BBC get it right it can be some of the best television available. With State of Play we get a brilliant written, deep show, with a great director and an fantastic cast. A show so good that Hollywood remade it into a film stating Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck.

The mini-series starts with brutal murder of a 15-year-old petty criminal and the suspected suicide of Sonia Baker, a researcher for Simon Collins MP (David Morrissey), the chairman of the Energy Select Committee. At first the two events seem unrelated until newspaper reporter Cal McAffrey (John Simms) starts looking into it. Both men, with the backing of the Heard newspaper, including junior reporter Della Smith (Kelly MacDonald), editor Cameron Foster (Bill Nighy) and free-lancer Dan Foster (James McAvoy). Slowly all parties discover a conspiracy involving big oil, political corruption and sexual scandals. Simon Collins himself was having an affair with the dead researcher and his marriage falls apart. Cal ends up getting close with Simon's wife Anne (Polly Walker) and has to balance his friendship with the two. Cameron has to balance his editorial responsibles and Della and Dan set out to prove themselves as journalists.

I am a politics nut, so this series easily appealed to me. Often programmes and films about British politics is treated as a comical subject. This series treats it seriously, much like the West Wing does with American politics (if a bit more far-fetched). The show follows the traditional British view of being cynical about politicians and ideology. However the show is wrong about how Select Committee Chairpersons are picked. The film also shows the underhanded way oil lobbyists world (oil is such a easy villains for us Brits). The show also looks at many aspects of the press, from its relationship with the government and politicians, journalistic ethics and Chinese walls between a paper's editorial staff and the ownership. The film looks at journalists and politicians as individuals and wanting to serve the public. The series has a great complex plot, you don't know where its going next and shows how hard journalists have to work. Peter Abbott does a wonder job.

David Yates has proved himself to be a good director. The State of Play and his other mini-series Sex Traffic was prove enough for him to a land a small feature film, Harry Potter. He makes the series look very cinematic, like an excellent thriller feature. He keeps the tension going, get the best out of his actions and has some wonderful shot, especially tracking shots. He is a skilled man.

There is a great cast, David Morrissey and John Sims are both very good actors and were excellent in the leads. Both character are very faulted but you take an interest in what happens to them. There is a great support cast, with actors like Kelly MacDonald, James McAvoy, Bill Nighy and Marc Warren. Bill Nighy was perfectly smiley but a cares about his people. Kelly MacDonald is excellent as the young idealist. There was no weak link and all the major characters are fully developed. Even the bad guys have reasons for what they are doing, and not just for money.

The series is cheap on amazon and play and it is worth having. Highly recommended.

Watched this on the recommendation of a Uni lecturer. I thought it was brilliantly acted, the story was paced perfectly, and understandable despite the complexities (political intrigue not usually my thing). That is at least until the last episode when gaping plot holes appeared and half the characters that had been set up in the last 5 episodes were just forgotten about. I didn't buy the resolution - it came out of nowhere and I wasn't convinced that the person taking the fall was really guilty. Not with what they were charged with anyway. There was no resolution for even some of the major characters (most notably Anne). I felt ripped off.

That said, I would watch this again just for the performances. David Morrissey was superb and Bill Nighy is always a great laugh.

State of Play - British 6 part series from 2011 streaming on BritBox or NetFix DVD. Wonderful writing, very smart directing and editing, brilliant acting by everyone. Tight storytelling. Every word, every scene, every actor makes a difference. Binged it because I couldn't stop. How did I miss this until now? But I've seen it now. I'll watch it again because I know I've missed something interesting.

Not since The Lakes have the Brits delivered such impeccable, classy drama, (incidentally the fabulous and just a tad sexy John Simm was in that too! Coincidence? Nah, he's one of the best young English actors around who seems to choose his roles very well)

Where UK drama of late has tended to resemble cheap rip offs of American drama, this brings the Poms back to the very top of the tree. The script is superlative as is the acting. Tight, riveting, believable, gripping and at times just downright funny.

The gems that come from Bill Nighy's mouth! He is such a brilliant actor, proof that Love Actually wasn't a fluke for him, he's so on the money in the characterisation of the editor, a joy to watch.

Please, please more of this sort of stuff England, it's what you do best when it comes to television.

Oh my goodness! Well, it took me about four months to find a way to view the original BBC version of "State of Play", but it was worth the wait. It isn't available on any of the online streaming services in the US, so I had get my detecting skills dusted off. Every episode had e clinging to the edge of my recliner as I had to look for each episode in order to watch; why, oh, why does the BBC have to make it so difficult to watch their made-for-television mini series in Region 1?

I would like to thank Daily Motion for making it possible for another American to watch another far superior original film.