I’m just so happy for Keri Russell. Think how she must feel. Years and years of paying her dues – starting off in Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club, making her name playing the title character in Felicity at the turn of the millennium (who was largely defined by her curly hair, the cutting of which was largely blamed for the second season downturn in ratings) and working solidly but unspectacularly thereafter until 10 years ago. Then she starred with Matthew Rhys in The Americans, as one half of a couple of KGB spies deep undercover in Reagan’s America and blew everyone out of the water. It must have been a sweet reward for years of keeping the faith – in the business and in yourself.
Now she is back as the lead in a glossy, efficient thriller called The Diplomat. She plays Kate Wyler, the US equivalent of an experienced civil servant, who is bounced by the president and his chief of staff into becoming the new ambassador in the UK. This is in the wake of a British aircraft carrier being attacked in the Middle East, causing many fatalities and inflaming all sorts of tensions between the UK, the US and Iran, which is suspected of carrying out the attack.
