# The Undeclared War (2022)

> A team of GCHQ analysts races to stop a cyber attack on the British electoral system during a tense general election.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/119193

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 12
- Episode runtime: 47 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, thriller
- Created by: Peter Kosminsky
- Network: Channel 4
- Cast: Hannah Khalique-Brown, Simon Pegg, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Edward Holcroft, Adrian Lester, Alex Jennings, Hattie Morahan, Ed Stoppard
- TMDB rating: 7.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7939800/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: dense
- Violence: none
- Tone: tense, sober, topical, claustrophobic

## What critics say

Audience reception is mixed, with the first season rated modestly and the second season rated far lower.

## Synopsis

The Undeclared War (2022-2026) is a British television spy thriller series created by Peter Kosminsky for Channel 4. Set in a post-pandemic Britain in 2024, it follows a leading team of analysts at the heart of GCHQ, the country's signals intelligence agency. Saara Parvan (Hannah Khalique-Brown) and Danny Patrick (Simon Pegg) are principal figures in a unit racing to ward off a hostile cyber attack aimed at the nation's electoral system as a general election approaches. Their engine is the hunt itself: tracing digital intrusions through networks, weighing what intelligence can be trusted, and pushing against political pressure from above. Adrian Lester plays Prime Minister Andrew Makinde, whose historic position as the country's first Black Conservative leader adds a charged political layer to the crisis. Across two seasons of six episodes each, the series balances procedural espionage with the anxieties of a democracy under digital assault. Its register is taut, sober and topical, with a mood of institutional unease rather than spectacle. Fans of Spooks, Bodyguard and Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan will find resonance in its grounded state security tension and its political stakes.

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