State of Play & The Einstein Factor

This column was first published in the The Age on March 6, 2004

State of Play is one of the best pieces of British TV I've seen for a long time. Think Spooks meets 24 combined with a bit of the savvy (but not, unfortunately, the sex) of This Life. Run over three Sunday's, State of Play (ABC, 8.30pm) presents us with an inordinately complex plot that is kicked off by several deaths in the first few moments of the show. How those deaths are related and who is responsible takes us on a ride that doesn't flag for the next six hours.

Like 24 the ways in which characters betray each other seems endless and the viewer exists in a state of complete paranoia as Westminster, journalists, police and oil companies vie for power and information. Unlike 24 violence is often suggested but rarely explodes - thus underlining the importance and meaning of the deaths that do occur. The script by Paul Abbot of Cracker fame, is tight, pacy yet surprisingly subtle.

The acting is as good as the writing. Cal McAffrey (John Simm) is the lynchpin of the series. He's is a well-respected journalist and the former parliamentary campaign manager of Stephen Collins (David Morrissey), the minister whose researcher has disappeared under a train on the way to work. Simm is a total star and conveys, with a wonderfully repressed intensity, the emotional investment he has in this story. Like Keifer Sutherland's Jack Bauer, this is a man who hides his idealism under a layer of amorality. McAffrey's boss - the grumpy newspaper editor with the heart of gold - is the beautifully arch Cameron Foster played by Bill Nighy who we last saw playing an ageing and sometimes nude rocker in Love Actually.

Philip Glenister, whose performance in Byron I praised a couple of weeks ago, is equally good here as DCI Bell, the Inspector who forms an uneasy alliance with McAffrey's fellow journo Della (Kelly MacDonald) as the police and journalists realize they have to share information in a story that is bigger than both professions. Dominic Foy is a wonderful, unpleasant fop who deserves his fate. Can someone tell me whether the actor who plays him, Marc Warren, is related to Roddy McDowell? The resemblance is remarkable.

The only really unconvincing plot turn is the love triangle between McAffrey, Stephen and his wife, Anne (Polly Walker). We never really do know whether Anna Collins is on someone's payroll and the possibility feels like an overwrought distraction from the real story.

If you like your factoids with some good laughs, consider Peter Berner's new quiz show, The Einstein Factor, also on Sundays (ABC, 6.30pm). Each week there are three contestants with a nominated specialty who play against each other as well as a revolving group of sometimes-famous know-it-alls called The Brains Trust. The show is particularly worth watching this week if you know about Penguins, Kings and Queens of England or The Academy Awards. This week the celebs and nerds who get to show their smarts are Virginia Trioli, Mark Woods and Russell Cheek.

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