A
indepth overview of the intriguing
and fantastic conspiracy thriller
State of Play which is
released on DVD this month by Roadshow. We also
talk
to the stars David
Morrissey, Kelly McDonald, Bill Nighy
and John Simm here.
State
of Play | Roadshow Home
Entertainment | August 2005
David
Morrissey and John Simm star in
State Of Play, a gripping 6 part
conspiracy thriller set against
the background of Whitehall and
Fleet Street. Stephen Collins
(Morrissey) is a high-flying,
ambitious member of parliament
and Chairman of the Government’s
Energy Select Committee. Cal
McCaffrey (Simm) is a
well-respected investigative
journalist and Stephen’s
ex-campaign manager. When
Stephen’s young research
assistant, Sonia, falls to her
death on the London Underground,
it’s not long before
revelations of their affair hit
the headlines. Meanwhile a
suspected teenage drug dealer
named Kelvin Stagg is found shot
dead.The discovery that Kelvin
and Sonia shared a two-minute
phone call on the morning of
their deaths draws Cal into an
investigation that’s always
one step ahead of the police.
But friendships are tested and
lives are put on the line as an
intricate web of lies
unfolds.
When
Paul Abbott, who has created
many hit series including
Clocking Off, Linda
Green,Touching Evil and
Reckless, decided to write State
Of Play, it was his love of the
conspiracy thriller genre which
inspired him."It’s the
kind of television I like
watching, and conspiracy
thrillers seem to have gone by
the wayside in the last few
years," he says. "By
creating the link between a
rising star of the government
and a young journalist, it looks
at the way we’re all fed
information, the way it’s
laundered for mass consumption,
and how that translates once it
makes the front page. I fell in
love with the idea of watching a
tiny piece of journalistic
information trigger an
investigation that gradually
unearths a scandal."
Abbott
says he wanted to base the story
on a newspaper investigation
because it is a world that hasn’t
been seen very much on British
television. "It’s a world
that intrigues me because
journalists have a different
mentality from the police. The
police naturally look for
evidence, while a journalist
naturally looks for a story. And
it’s in a journalist’s
commercial interest to keep the
information away from the
police. But while they have very
different perspectives, both
journalist and detective rely on
each other to fertilise their
information."
Producer
Hilary Bevan Jones, who has
worked with Abbott on dramas as
varied as Cracker, Butterfly
Collectors and The Secret World
Of Michael Fry, believes the
appeal of State Of Play lies in
its many twists and turns.
"You think you’re on the
right track, then something else
comes along to make you think
again, it’s constantly
changing. You can never predict
what is coming next, but you can
have a lot of fun
guessing," she says.
"I also wanted to look at
the world of politics, and
people’s growing
disenchantment with modern
government’s reliance on
spin," continues Abbott.
"There is a lack of honesty
which just seems to have
spiralled out of control.The
fact that the two victims –
Sonia Baker and Kelvin Stagg –
shared a phone call on the
morning they died consequently
mushrooms into a huge political
and public story. Then the race
is on between the police
investigation and the newspaper
investigation and there’s
emotional fall-out for everyone
involved as the drama
unfolds."
Abbott
believes that media, big
business and government should
watch their own corners.
"If government gets too
familiar with business, then
business steers the country in a
way that happens in America.
Look at the links between the
people in George Bush’s
administration and Exxon. The
British media seem currently far
more robust at taking the
goverment to task than their US
counterparts," he says.
Abbott,
Bevan Jones and director David
Yates spent time at The Times
and The Guardian and were struck
by the energy in the newsrooms
they visited. "We wanted to
capture the exuberance, the
rising tensions and the sheer
andrenalin that we
observed," says Bevan
Jones,"as well as the
humour that comes from working
in a highly stressful
environment."
Yates,
whose Bafta Award-winning
production.
of The Way We Live
Now was one of the highlights of
BBC One last year, was hooked by
the scale and complexity of the
story. "Paul skilfully
interweaves the myriad worlds of
press, politics and police, but
his sense of the bigger picture
never buries the emotional lives
of his characters. He is a
master storyteller and the
thrill of the ride doesn’t
displace the fact that, at the
end of it, the themes of State
Of Play are still pretty
resonant." David Morrissey
follows up his acclaimed
performances in Out Of Control
and This Little Life. His
previous credits include Murder,
Tony Marchant’s Holding On and
Captain Correlli’s Mandolin.
John Simm is best-known for his
leading roles in The Lakes,
Human Traffic and Crime And
Punishment. State Of Play also
stars Polly Walker, (recently
seen on screen playing Mary
Archer in Jeffrey Archer – The
Truth) as Anne Collins, Stephen’s
wife and the object of Cal’s
increasing affection; Kelly
Macdonald (who has appeared in
the hit films Gosford Park and
Trainspotting) as Della, Cal’s
outspoken young colleague; and
Bill Nighy (recently on screen
in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and The
Lost Prince and shortly to be
seen in BBC Films’ I Capture
The Castle) as newspaper editor
Cameron.
