It is 2024, and Russia has taken down the Internet with a cyber-attack. Workplace student at GCHQ Hannah Khalique-Brown joins the malware team and starts to crack the code. The way this is done is interestingly visual - she is walking down corridors, selecting doors, removing blockages, using tools, climbing... (Kosminsky started out making documentaries.)
She teams up with American Maisie Richardson to help, as well as a former decoder Mark Rylance. (Kosminsky also wrote and directed The Government Inspector.)
Meanwhile, we learn how a fellow student of hers Herman Segal ended up in Russia on the other side of the war, with newly acquired girlfriend Tinatin Dalakishvili.
Starts to sprawl - rigged elections, staged news, deep fakes. It ends in a rush of almost-war, like there's going to be a second season. And the murder (?) of the Rylance character seems particularly unexplored and elusive.
With Adrian Lester, Simon Pegg, Alex Jennings, Kerry Godliman, Edward Holcroft, Hattie Morahan, Ed Stoppard.
Some of the early scenes seem a bit stilted.
Think I've heard of what3words.com - tried it on our address and it was wrong! Seems a bit pointless though made a good plot device. Useful to be told FSB is the new KGB.
The Undeclared War has had some irrational and irreverent reviews, but it is outstanding. If you think it impossible for a teenage student to decrypt code quicker than an alleged expert cryptographer you have obviously never been in the real world of espionage and encryption. We binged all six episodes and if you are into and understand espionage it's compelling watching so whatever you do don't miss Peter Kosminsky's Undeclared War series on TV. If you loved Bill Fairclough's fact based epic spy novel Beyond Enkription in The Burlington Files series you'll love The Undeclared War and vice versa. They are both curious, intense, realistic and nerve racking espionage thrillers. In The Burlington Files the protagonist Edward Burlington has even been likened to a posh Harry Palmer (aka Michael Caine). See Channel 4, Peacock and TheBurlingtonFiles website. #SlávaUkrayíni.
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