Two decades ago, getting a hold of British television series and shows required a lot if you lived in the U.S. One had to either have them taped and sent stateside or have PBS in your area and be lucky enough to find semi-regular programming. With the expansion of DVD in the digital age, quality British television is usually a click away. British products have even been remade by Hollywood studios, most infamously the British crime masterpiece Get Carter being remade with the same name as a Sylvester Stallone vehicle. With Hollywood savaging as many countries as they can for material, 2009 will feature the film version of State of Play starring Ben Affleck and Russell Crowe with an Americanized version of the plot.
Stephen Collins (David Morrissey) is a Member of Parliament on the rise, pushing social reform, when tragedy strikes. One of his researchers, with whom he was having an affair, winds up dead in an apparent suicide. Street smart journalist Cal (John Simm) begins to investigate her death, and finding connections between it and a seemingly unrelated death of a teenaged drug dealer. Leading to a wave of intrigue and conspiracy that goes to the highest levels of government, Cal’s former professional relationship with Stephen (he was his campaign manager many moons ago) begins to unravel.
The series has a first rate cast. James McAvoy, Bill Nighy, and several other British actors who domestic fans would recognize are included as well as plenty of veteran British television actors make appearances. For fans of British television, there are plenty of character actors who’ll be instantly recognizable. With nearly six hours of screen time, there’s plenty of time to develop the intrigue and factor in some top notch character development.
A mini-series, there’s only six episodes in a self-contained story. There’s a start and an end point, which makes it a bit easier to watch than if it was a television show that got cancelled after one season. It proceeds much more like a film than a television series; considering its going to be made into a feature film there’s plenty for the current film-makers to work with. It’s tight and has a great structure to it; Yates develops his film with a tight and focused structure and story-telling mechanism.
With all British television, it has a different vibe than a modern American political thriller which is something to behold. That’s usually because the film doesn’t focus on the politics and the usual sort of moral aggrandizing you see in films like Lions for Lambs and Rendition. Politics comes up, but it’s not the driving force. David Yates wisely keeps everything centered on the film’s plot about a dead girl and her affair with the Member of Parliament. It’s refreshing; one wonders if the American version of this will feature Affleck sermonizing about universal suffrage more than discussing the events of the film.
State of Play is another terrific BBC production and provides the basis of what could be a great film in 2009.
Presented in an anamorphic widescreen format with a Dolby Digital surround sound, the DVD has a terrific transfer. There isn’t a lot of color or a booming score/soundtrack to full take care of, but what is used comes through effectively.
Episode 1 and Episode 6 feature commentaries on them, the former from Abbot and Yates and the latter by Yates, Hilary Bevan Jones and Mark Day.
With a bare minimum of extras, State of Play isn’t a complete disc set in the traditional sense. There’s nothing besides the series itself on the disc; the series is great but there isn’t much else to it.
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BBC Films presents State of Play. Directed by David Yates. Starring David Morrissey, John Simm, Kelly Macdonald, Amelia Bullmore, Bill Nighy, James McAvoy. Written by Paul Abbott. Running time: 350 minutes. Not Rated. Released on DVD: February 26, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
