I’ll say this about The Undeclared War: it doesn’t want for ambition. The six-part Channel 4 drama, created by seven-time Bafta winner Peter Kosminsky, attempts to take a wide-ranging, holistic approach to the 21st century TV thriller. Cybercrime, international relations, political tensions, racial politics, mental health – they’re all thrown into the mix. It’s a shame, therefore, that the end product doesn’t have anything worthwhile to say about pretty much any of them.
The story follows Saara (Hannah Khalique-Brown), a work experience intern at the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). She’s picked a hell of a day to start: the office is reeling from a mysterious cyberattack, of origin unknown. Through her own fledgling talent, or through sheer good luck, Saara spots another virus embedded within the existing cyberattack. For the entire security team at GCHQ – which includes her boss Danny Patrick, played with weary credibility by Simon Pegg – it’s clear that the worst is yet to come. Against the backdrop of this we have an unsteady political landscape: in the world of The Undeclared War, Boris Johnson has been usurped by Andrew Makinde (Adrian Lester) – the country’s first Black PM, and a Tory – who fears the electoral ramifications a cyberattack could have.
