# Secret State (2012)

> A four-part British miniseries following how an elected government, big business and the banks become entangled in a conspiracy.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/54616

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, thriller
- Created by: Ed Fraiman, Robert Jones
- Network: Channel 4
- Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Ralph Ineson, Charles Dance, Rupert Graves, Gina McKee, Jamie Sives, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Lia Williams
- TMDB rating: 7.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1960029/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: dense
- Violence: mild
- Tone: paranoid, grounded, tense, sober

## What critics say

Audiences rated this four-part British political thriller positively, with its conspiracy plotting and cast performances drawing the most credit.

## Synopsis

Secret State (2012) is a British four-episode miniseries created by Ed Fraiman and Robert Jones for Channel 4. Rather than following a single hero, it moves through a web of officials, financiers and fixers, with Gabriel Byrne playing Tom Dawkins, Charles Dance as John Hodder, Ralph Ineson as Sgt. Wrigglesworth, and Ruth Negga as Agnes Evans among the principal figures. The engine of the story is the slow discovery of how a democratically elected government and the banks have quietly bent their dealings toward private gain, and what happens to those who begin to notice. Each of the four feature-length-style episodes peels back another layer of meetings, leaks, favours and cover stories, so the drama is built from concrete rooms, phone calls and documents rather than action set pieces. The mood is controlled and paranoid, with a sober, contemporary British atmosphere shaped by the aftermath of the financial crisis. It is a single, self-contained limited series rather than an ongoing run, and it suits viewers who enjoy the institutional unease of House of Cards (UK), the tangled loyalties of Spooks, and the sharp political satire of The Thick of It. Its tension comes from patient, dialogue-driven storytelling in which every revelation reshapes trust in the state.

## Shows like Secret State

- [A Very British Coup (1988)](https://ember.film/tv/27329)
- [The Final Cut (1995)](https://ember.film/tv/66668)
- [Criminal Justice (2008)](https://ember.film/tv/6942)
- [House of Cards (1990)](https://ember.film/tv/20013)
- [The Honourable Woman (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/54513)
- [The Last Enemy (2008)](https://ember.film/tv/6606)
- [State of Play (2003)](https://ember.film/tv/3844)
- [Mammon (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/54077)
- [The Shadow Line (2011)](https://ember.film/tv/34580)
- [Devils (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/83833)

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