"Lynne Warner, Secretary of Defense." "An explosión brought down a passenger plane." "We could be under attack." "Conspiracy thrillers I love." "You know, it´s one of my favourite genres." "It´s a great audience pleaser, a conspiracy thriller." "You know, the most important thing is that people are entertained, and I think that you will be hard-pressed to take your eyes off this once it starts." "It´s like going downhill on a rollercoaster, and, you know, it´s a very exciting, intelligent thriller." "And I think you´ll be exhausted, hopefully, by the end of it." "I know I´m exhausted making it." "We´re just getting reports of a plane crash to the west of Washington, DC." "Once again, a passenger jet liner leaving Dulles International Airport..." "The FBI confirmed that the plane crash on the Washington Beltway was caused by a bomb." "No!" " Cut." " Is that our rehearsal?" "Dulles Airport is scheduled to reopen at 11:00." "The first of the relatives arrive this afternoon." "The authorities are very jittery." "One unclaimed suitcase, they will shut down the entire system." " Has anyone claimed responsibility?" " Islamic European..." "I wanted to do a conspiracy thriller." "I wanted to try and locate Britain inside the USA, and see how that, you know, reflected back in a sort of dramatic way." "I was a great fan of Lizzie Mickery´s." "She´d written Messiah for the BBC and done a lot of very impressive work." "And she´s very, very clever with plots." "You know, she has a real sense of drama, you know, both in her work and her personality, and I just knew she´d get it." "I knew she would have the energy to take this rag-bag of ideas that I had and just create something extraordinary from them." "They asked us if we wanted to go and do this thing, and we said," ""No, we´ve got to go away and think about it." We both were very excited." " British Embassy." " Yeah." "And we thought it could either be some ghastly melodrama" " or it could be something really exciting." " Yes." "So we went off and spent a week" " just in a room going, "Wow, we could do that."" " Just talking." "And, actually, in a sense we came up with the spine of our entire story." " Yes, we did." " In that week." "And then we went and sat in the office with Jessica Pope and Liza." " And..." " Yes." "You know, our executives at the time, and we just went... with this story." "And they kind of went, "Oh! "" "They were in their chairs like this, going, "Yeah." "Go away and write that." ""That sounds great. "" "Lizzie had come out of working with Daniel Percival on Dirty War, a drama they´d made together, and that had been a very successful relationship for them." "So I think when she looked at this sort of idea and saw the enormity of it, really, she thought, "Wow, six hours of drama in America with the British Embassy." ""This is quite big. "" "And, I think, naturally, wanted some help and asked Dan to come in with her and co-write it, which I think was an inspired decisión because they are incredibly complementary." "I mean, she, as I said, has this great sense of theatricality, this great sort of ability to just wring emotion from quite dry facts, you know." "And Dan sort of knows politics in his bones, you know." "He has a sort of understanding of the worlds of subterfuge and doublespeak, and it just seemed to be a very, very good mix." "And, you know, over the course of a couple of years we developed the scripts." "We had a fabulous script editor, Lisa Osborne, who became the total back-story oracle for all of this." "And they just wove total magic, actually, out of six hours of drama." "I wanted someone who understood the big screen, who would push the boundaries, really." "I suppose I wanted someone who would challenge us." "Who would read the scripts, see the quality of the writing on offer, and in return, you know, give the challenge back to us, and say, "Okay, this is what I want to do, visually, with your work. "" "Michael came on as the lead director for the series." "He has a fantastic visual, kinetic energy in the way that he puts his shots together and the way that his shots describe the characters and the situations in which they´re in." "When I´m looking for cast, I´m looking for..." "I´m looking for a collaborator." "I´m looking for a storytelling collaborator." "Michael´s been fantastic." "You know, to have a director that you feel you can say," ""Push me." You know, ask for more." "Don´t think that that´s necessarily all you´re gonna get and, "Right, let´s move on. "" "Michael set the style of the show." "He gave it its visual flair, if you like, from the beginning, and then Dan took up that baton and carried it forward to the end." "It was a great pairing, the two of them." "State Within is shot with a very kinetic, restless style." "It´s camera energy." "You know, quite easy to do in many ways." "There was a lot of action that was easy to support visually." "The fact is, if you read the newspapers carefully, it´s very hard to believe anything that our governments are telling us, or to be optimistic about any of the actions that they´re taking on our behalf." "I mean, I think we´ve all become deeply sceptical anyway since, you know, in the last four years." "I think a lot of people, both sides of the Atlantic, are looking at the situation we´re in politically, globally, and going, "How the hell did we get here? "" "It´s a thriller, essentially, and it´s a ride." "You take a ride with us." "Take a ride with me, really." "I lead you through this journey." "But along the way you get to think about the stuff that´s on the news and in the newspapers and the rather precarious state of the world that we´re living in." "Stop the vehicle, stop the vehicle!" " We´ll shoot!" " Stop!" "What makes it work is that I think it all feels very relevant, and very possible." "That´s what make it kind of scary." "This is a show about global terrorism, about how we got where we are and how we might be able to get away from where we are with our species intact." "Madam Secretary." "Thank you for coming at such a difficult time." "Our enemies wish to render us asunder, Mark." "Instead, they bind us closer." "In that spirit of friendship, Lynne, it would be an honour if you would be the first to sign our book of condolence." "The honour would be all mine." "It´s what´s going on now, which I say sadly." "If you look at the scripts, they´re very similar to the sort of thing that´s happening now in the world at large." "All you have to do is read the newspapers and you can do all the research you need to do." "Colonel, how´s business?" "Still peddling guns for diamonds?" "Private security is a growth industry, Nicholas, ask the Chancellor." "We´re thinking of floating the company." "You should buy some shares." "Bolster that public sector pensión of yours." "You know, it´s very much of the moment, the whole thing about mercenary armies and arms deals, and businesses operating behind the scenes, sanctioned by governments." "And I guess this is about how people can use power or manipulate situations so they remain in power." "Defense Intelligence, your department, leaked intel that there was a Brit suicide bomber." "Do you have proof of that?" "Don´t play that game, not with me." "We´re in meltdown." "You´ve got a xenophobic maniac locking up British citizens." "Governor Norris has every right to protect the people who put him in power." "You´re deliberately fuelling anger." "Now we´ve got a witch hunt." "You must know how dangerous that is." "Whatever your reasons, they´d better be worth it." "I think it´s more a reflection of what is going on." "You know, it´s a fictional situation, but not an improbable one." "There is clearly a point of view in these scripts." "In particular, the issues of the rounding up of British Muslims and how that plays out politically." "But even with that, the argument as to why to do that, we´ve now moved into a world where, actually, we´re very close to politically legitimising this kind of thing." "And so by exploring it in a drama, you´re saying to your audience," ""This is where we´re headed." "Are you ready for this? "" "We will do our best to try to help you, but I need to ask you to be patient." "You will all be seen, I give you my word." "I certainly hope something like this couldn´t happen in the world today, and given the events of these days, I certainly hope this hasn´t happened in the world today." "But I think this makes good drama, and I think that´s what we´re trying to do." "I think, inevitably, what we´re trying to do here is make a really entertaining, fun-to-watch drama." "You stupid, selfish bastard." "You left Azzam alone in a hotel room and you´re out getting pissed." " He´s a sensible boy." "It´s fine." " He´s eight years old, for Christ´s sake." "He´s nine!" "It´s nice, I think, for Jason because Jason always plays the villain, you know, and he´s our hero." " Does everybody know?" " This is Washington, Mark." "I have played a number of bad guys, and they get generally more exciting and theatrical things to do." "It´s harder being at the centre of the story because you have to have things happen to you, and a lot of stuff happens to Mark." "And in the way of diplomats, he´s not really meant to be influencing things so it´s much more subtle." "But I have to say, it´s nice to get the girl without strangling her for a change." "Yeah." "The actors that we went for, I just love them." "I think they´re a very, very clever bunch of people." "It´s really exciting working with the cast." "I mean, well, they´re all just really high calibre, you know." "They´re really interesting, exciting and good actors." "Jason Isaacs, Lennie James..." "Because of the nature of the part, I´m literally kind of, I mean..." "I think today is the time when I meet most of the people." "The rest of the time it´s just me and Eva, and it´s me and Roman, because I´m the guy on death row, and I don´t go anywhere." "I´m just in an orange suit in a cell." "It´s brilliant." "Everyone´s lovely." "I mean, lots of us know each other anyway." "We´ve worked together before, the English people." "And then it´s kind of great, just meeting people like Sharon Gless, who´s, you know, part of everyone´s life, it´s so great!" "The cast is so big that I´m still meeting some as I go, which is kind of great because it allows me as an actor to stay in my imaginary world and project certain things that I need to project onto those characters," "onto those people, because I don´t have a close relationship with them before this, the shooting." "I find it interesting, actually, because when they came..." "They came to Toronto here to shoot, and they cast, they did a casting here, and they hired all the local actors from here to play parts." "I find it kind of neat that that sort of happened, that they´ve come here blind, not knowing any of us, and have picked out a group of people that I personally admire greatly." "And then the group. that´s come over from London, well, you know, jeez, throw a stone, hit a terrific British actor." "I think Mark, as played by Jason, gives it a heroic quality, gives the character a heroic quality." "He´s very watchable and he just gives Mark an edge, a sort of sexy quality." "People like Jason and Eva and Anita and Lennie are..." "They´re really, like, a fantastic calibre, and they bring the best out of everyone they´re with." "I just love doing it, and I love coming here every day so every day is very exciting and really great, so..." "It´s fun." "It´s always an honour to work with great actors, and I have that pleasure this time round." "My attitude to film reality has got to do more with the truth as opposed to the facts." "Reproducing the facts exactly on a limited budget with limited resources is often not possible." "But very often you can get to the truth of it, you know, by having the sense of the thing." "And if it looks right and it feels right, then it´s what I call the truth as opposed to the facts." "We knew, then, in looking for the location, we would need something that was contained." "Michael felt very strongly that it was to be something that didn´t have a lot of greenery." "He didn´t want to see..." "He really wanted this to have a kind of a bare-tree effect." "Ideally, we´d have a curve in the road that, because of scheduling, we´d need to hide some of our activities." "In terms of, while we were shooting, we´d need to be dressing as well." "This is the first time, actually, Mississauga actually allowed a road closure." "Because of Judy, the other location manager, she did a great job in securing this." "She went to bat for us, and also Mississauga, they bent over backwards for us this time." "It was awesome because usually they don´t do that." "In a perfect world, we would have blown all of this into place, but there are certain restrictions that we worked with." "And so the truck is going to come in, and it´s just going to do like it does with sand." "You know, it´ll start here and it´ll just do a gentle sort of drop, right?" "And we´re dropping about 20 cubic yards on this side, and we will then trail another 20 cubic yards on this one, to gently spread after road closure on Friday night." "We mapped the zones of activity of what was going to happen, and those were the very first zone, which was just the driving zone." " What the..." " What was that?" "The second zone, the first indication that something is wrong." "It´s gonna come down." "Pull over!" "Can you get over to the left?" "The number three zone was the zone where the car window actually..." "The car was actually impacted at that time." "The number four zone was going to be the zone where..." "Mark, stay in the car." "... Mark, the hero, was actually out of the car, and into some sort of an apocalyptic setting." "And that was going to be all done in camera and with dressing." "And then zone five was the hyperspace zone, which was basically the computer generation of whatever we were going to see in the distance." "We´re not physically dropping anything from the sky, other than dropping a plane part on the windscreen of the vehicle." "The rest will be CGI." "But there´s spot fires, flames, smoke, debris all over the place here." "Sparking electrical wires, things like that." "No, it looks excellent here." "Really nicely done." "And, of course, my department will make it come alive." "On a feature film with this magnitude of a set, you´d really probably would want to film here for several days, like three, four, five, a week." "And we sort of have the job of having to do it all in two days." "And so you can´t spend an entire day on a small couple of shots, you really got to try and get a lot in one shot, move on quickly, get what you need, and not maybe spend too much time" "lingering on the set and stuff like that." "The most important thing in prepping for this day was safety, safety, safety and safety." "Once again, if something does happen, no one is to run in and try and help." "We have people that will do that for us, okay?" "Our specific responsibilities for that include, making sure everybody knows what´s going on at all times, so that when we do do the dangerous stuff only the people who are involved and qualified to do the dangerous stuff are anywhere near it or involved with it." "Now, is there any questions, anyone?" "Yeah, if I get hurt, you can all help me." "I´ll just tell you right now." "In a scene like this, you never know ahead of time how brave your actor is, right?" "So you got to sort of second guess what you can do and what you can´t do." "And part of the reason why I´m here today as a double for him is partially for that." "As it turns out, him and Ben are both pretty game, and they´re getting in good and close and it seems to be working out." "I hope they still keep my shot for later on." "I´m keen to do that stuff because it´s part of the fun of being an actor, you know." "As much as Mark Brydon has a terrible time, in this series, I have a rather good time being him." " Yeah." "They didn´t get their cue." " Let´s not mark it off that way." "And action." "I was very nervous meeting the writers because I thought, "What minds could write this story? "" "And these two lovely people, just brilliant writers." "First reaction after reading this script was, "Oh, my gosh, I got to do this again."" "Complete confusión, to be honest." "It´s very complicated drama and a thriller requires a lot of precisión when you´re writing it." "I mean, a bunch of scenes where nobody says what they mean, nobody means that they say and nobody´s to be trusted." " Hello, Mark." " Madame Secretary." " Okay." " Cut." "Sometimes this plot, particularly by the time we got to episode six," " was making our heads hurt." " Yeah, it was tough." "All the actors would kind of joke around before a scene, going," ""Okay, how many times have I met you?" ""And what did I say to you the last time that I met you? "" "Basically, my first thought was, "I have to read that again. "" "Oh, God." "I mean, I´m still working bits out, which is great, you know." "I´ve read it about 16 times now." "Oh, here he is." "Okay." "I can´t believe how much detail is put into everything and how moved I am just by reading." "Literally, a couple of times, I went..." "Things happen that you´re like, "Oh." "Oh! "" ""That person died." "I was right there with that person. "" "Or, "That person´s not who I thought they were. "" "Written so brilliantly that you can´t guess, or you can make a guess, but it will be wrong." "You really don´t know." "You don´t know until you get to the last page who´s responsible for what, who´s in whose pocket, who´s, you know, not sleeping with, but who´s in bed with each other politically," "and it keeps you guessing." "Your husband still have shares in Armitage?" "That´s on the record, Carl." "One of the things we really wanted to do was make sure that every scene is doing more than one thing." "Yes." "And that every scene is taking you forward on a narrative, so there´s no wasted scenes, there´s no wasted moments." "Everything is carrying the plot." "You know, it´s a thrill ride, this show, and if you can tell what´s coming next, I wish you´d been here to explain it to me because I´m having great difficulty." " I know you think that it´s..." " Pentagon?" "We´re not in the Pentagon?" " No, no, we´re in the West Wing." " Oh, never mind." "Okay." "We have two directors on the show and they tag-team sometimes." "And there are days when we go from one to the other, and it´s a little like bouncing between two parents and not quite knowing where the boundaries are." "It was a very intense schedule." "We were shooting 10 scenes a day, every single day." "There was a high scene turnover, which was terrific." "I loved it because it was very dynamic, and the story was always, always moving forward." "Never, never stopped, and that was a really important building block for the action." "What was really good about the partnership between the episodes that Michael´s directed and the episodes that Dan has directed, is that they each had spontaneously the same film references, so it was a very easy connection between the two." "...make safe their weapons." " If I put that like that, is that cool?" "And then..." " Yeah?" "Yeah." "Well, when Dan sets up a scene, and he talks to us about a scene, he talks to us very much about the arcs and the nuances of what the scene is." "And he gets very deeply into the dialogue that we´re using in the scene to help illuminate to us what the scene is about." "I love them both." "They´re very different." "It´s just very, very different styles, just in directing." "It´ll be interesting to see how they blend, how they meld." "I like them both very, very much, and I´m not just saying that." "I mean, obviously, if I didn´t like them I wouldn´t say it." "The FBI takedown at the end of part two had a strange genesis." "The story of the mercenaries is really murky and unclear." "You know, they´re going around picking up gas." "They´re mysterious." "You really don´t know what the hell´s going on, which is a very deliberate choice in storying, also in the way that we shot." "But the last thing you think they´re going to do is arrive at an airfield." "So the first shot that I wanted to put on the sequence when they´re arriving to the airfield is this sort of shot straight onto the plane with the hangar doors opening," "which I..." "Really, I think it is effective in really making an audience go, "Where the hell are they going?" "What´s going on?"" "I think the style which we have appropriated for this is not necessarily a conventional TV style, I think it´s much more cinematic." "And I think that televisión audiences are so used to cinema now that I hope that they continue to demand it from their televisión." "Action." "Well, my first reaction was this is, again, it´s another great project to bring awareness to, you know, how sneaky people can be, the government can be." "Be very careful with what you allow politicians to get away with, with who the people in power are, with who you allow to become powerful." "It just makes you think a bit more." "It makes you discuss even better." "You know, I think it if just provokes some kind of reaction or if it´s a motive in any way, then that´s good telly." "I suppose on one level, hopefully, it raises questions about the death penalty, really, and whether or not it´s a viable or sensible means of punishing people." "I think the very best thrillers stick in the mind for reasons other than the fact they were thrilling when you watched them." " He´s making it personal." " That´s on the record, Carl." "I have grave misgivings about your tactics, Madam Secretary." "Usman´s winding up the rhetoric." "Either evacuation or, God forbid, engagement." "If we´re going to do this, ma´am, we need all the boots on the ground we can get." "Good." "If it just wakes people up to how things work and maybe have worked in the past, you know, it might help us in the future." "I mean, I just hope they´re entertained by it as much as I was when I first read it, and as confused and baffled and bewildered by it." "It very compelling, I think, as a piece." "I think what´s going to be fun for the audience is actually following this week to week, following each episode to figure out what´s going to happen next." "I think it´s really cracking, you know, looking forward to seeing it, actually." "That´s why we do this, really." "It´s to entertain." "In this, we´ll probably be educating also, which is always a nice side effect, but initially our job is to entertain." "I want people to, at the end of each episode, think, "Oh, what´s gonna happen next week?"" "But I would love that in the morning..." "Usman´s not behind any of this." "...not only is there a reverberation of what they saw, you know, what they visually saw, but what the implications are." "Part of what I take away from it is that you can´t trust anybody." "Ever." " Don´t believe what you´re told." " Yes." "Yes, don´t believe what you´re told." "Except me." "You can trust me."