Written by Peter Moffat Composer(s) Vince Pope Original language(s) English | Directed by James Hawes Country of origin United Kingdom | |
Starring Sophie Okonedo
Adrian Lester
Dennis Haysbert
Derek Riddell
Vincent Regan | ||
Undercover is a six-part BBC television drama series co-produced with BBC America which was first broadcast beginning 3 April 2016. The series premiered in the United States as a six-hour miniseries on 16 and 17 November 2016 on BBC America; it began its run on the CBC in Canada in August (it has aired Mondays at 9pm/9:30 NT, premiering 22 August 2016.) and on Canal + in France since January 2017.
Contents
Plot
Undercover follows the lives and family of Maya Cobbina, a British lawyer conducting a long-term legal fight to prove the innocence of US death row inmate Rudy Jones, and her husband Nick Johnson. After Cobbina is head-hunted for the position of Director of Public Prosecutions, her husband's past – and the circumstances under which the couple first met twenty years earlier - comes back to haunt him.
Cast
Characters include:
Production
The series was written by Peter Moffat, directed by James Hawes and produced by Richard Stokes. Moffat took inspiration for the fictional drama from real-life revelations about British police officers who had formed long-term relationships with activists they were investigating while undercover, as well as from the London Metropolitan Police Service's secret surveillance of the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.
Critical reception
The opening episode was watched by 5.2 million viewers (a 24.1% share). Writing in British daily newspaper The Guardian, Chitra Ramaswamy admitted: "I came to Peter Moffat's excellent drama knowing nothing and was instantly confused, though gripped nonetheless. Why was it called Undercover when it's about a lawyer on the brink of becoming the first black director of public prosecutions? […] Turns out it's called Undercover because of what awaits Maya at home. […] As well as being the ideal husband, Nick is an ex-undercover cop who has been deceiving his wife for 20 years." She added: "Thankfully Moffat's writing is so good and the direction so assured I didn't mind not having a clue what was going on, even if at times it felt like at least three different dramas were playing out in tandem." Ramaswamy judged Okonedo "a brilliant and criminally underused actor in Britain; warm, honest, fierce yet vulnerable. It's wonderful to see her getting a role she deserves. It's also a testament to Lester that his Nick is so likable, a compassionate family man mired in a hell of his own making."