Channel 4 and Peacock today announce the commission of ‘The Undeclared War’ by seven-time BAFTA-winner Peter Kosminsky (Wolf Hall, The Government Inspector) and set to star Mark Rylance and Simon Pegg.
Described as a timely and provocative six-part cyber-thriller, the series is set in a post-pandemic 2024 in the run-up to a British general election. It tracks a leading team of analysts buried in the heart of GCHQ (the UK’s version of the NSA) secretly working to ward off a cyber-attack on the country’s electoral system. During a three-year research process, Kosminsky and his team gained access to the cybersecurity industry on both sides of the Atlantic, allowing a realistic picture of the threat faced by the Western world to be depicted in the drama.
Also in news – Martin Scorsese, Irwin Winkler and John Carney unite for Gershwin musical
Newcomer Hannah Khalique-Brown will play Saara Parvan, a young student doing work experience in the GCHQ Malware Department, with Simon Pegg (Star Trek, Mission Impossible) playing Danny Patrick, GCHQ’s Head of Operations, Academy Award-winner© Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall, Bridge of Spies) playing John Yeabsley, a Cold War veteran brought back from retirement by GCHQ to combat the heightened threat level, and Adrian Lester (Riviera, Mary Queen of Scots) will play Andrew Makinde, the UK’s first Black Conservative Prime Minister.
Written and directed by Kosminsky, the series reunites Kosminsky with Emmy Award-winning producer Colin Callender and his production company Playground. Playground will co-produce the series with NBCUniversal International Studios, a division of Universal Studio Group, for Channel 4 and Peacock.
