David Mitchell's Keith Davies arrives in Tazbekistan to finalise a £2 billion helicopter sale and finds himself mediating between a kleptocratic regime, British commercial interests and human-rights campaigners. Robert Webb's Neil Tilly, the deputy head of mission, keeps the embassy running on vodka, cynicism and printer toner while Keeley Hawes' Jennifer treats political prisoners in a hospital that doubles as a torture suite. Three hour-long episodes follow the ambassador from a royal visit gone wrong to a show trial where British silence is bought with mineral rights.
Writers James Wood and Rupert Walters, both former Foreign Office staff, seed scripts with details you won't find in sitcoms: the coded telegrams, the emergency cash taped behind the portrait of the Queen, the local staff who translate both language and reality. Jeremy Webb shot in Bursa, Turkey, because its Soviet mosaics and mosques could pass for post-Soviet central Asia without the insurance headaches of filming in a real dictatorship. The result feels like Yes, Minister relocated to a country that still boils dissidents.
BBC Two burned the series off across three Wednesday nights in autumn 2013, then quietly cancelled it. Mitchell later admitted the network never knew whether to market it as satire or sitcom; viewers expecting Peep Show in embassies tuned out when the jokes about diplomatic immunity gave way to scenes of dissidents disappearing into basements. The complete series survives on iPlayer boxes and DVD, a three-episode footnote in the Mitchell–Webb chronicles, funnier about the Foreign Office than anything before or since.
Production Details
BBC Two / 1 Season / 3 Episodes / 2013
Created by: Rupert Walters, James Wood
Writer(s): .mw-parser-output .plainlist ol, .mw-parser-output .plainlist ul{line-height:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol li, .mw-parser-output .plainlist ul li{margin-bottom:0} James Wood Rupert Walters
Producer(s): Chris Carey
Main Cast
David Mitchell as Keith Davis
Robert Webb as Neil Tilly
Susan Lynch as Caitlin
Amara Karan as Isabel
Oliver Dimsdale as French Ambassador
Shivani Ghai as Natalia
Keeley Hawes as Jennifer
Natalia Tena as Tanya
Matthew Macfadyen as POD
Isobel Pravda as Anya
Velibor Topic as Svecko
Debbie Chazen as Ludmila
