Secret State, Channel 4, UKUK terrestrial Channel 4 turns in a superior conspiracy thriller; with all the baggage that comes with the genre.

It's the second time Labour MP Chris Mullin's book A Very British Coup (rather a giveaway title for a thriller) has been adapted for TV. This time it is Gabriel Byrne as rebel Prime Minister Tom Deakin, ex-army officer and man of principle fighting the massed ranks of greedy politicians, slimey bankers, slippery oilmen and rogue intelligence chiefs.

Beginning with Byrne's horrified face at the site of an industrial accident and his discovery of a child's hand still in its' mitten, we get the assassination of a Prime Minister, UAV drones, terrorism and corporate bad behaviour in an Orwellian nightmare version of Surveillance Britain. Read more of this post