Line of Duty producers and Cobra writer team up for new TV thriller The Diplomat
The series – described as "The Good Wife meets Spooks" – will be Alibi's third original, following Traces and We Hunt Together
Like the sound of a drama that's "The Good Wife meets Spooks"? That's what we're being promised by The Diplomat, an upcoming TV thriller from the makers of Line of Duty.
The six-part series, set around the British Consul in Barcelona, will be the third original series to air on UKTV's Alibi channel, following 2019's Traces with Martin Compston and this year's We Hunt Together starring Eve Myles.
The Diplomat is written by Ben Richards, creator of Sky One's Cobra, and is produced by World Productions (Line of Duty, Bodyguard).
It will follow Laura Simmonds and her Barcelona Consul colleague and friend Alba Ortiz as they fight to protect British nationals who find themselves in trouble in the Catalan city. Mixing the roles of lawyer, counsellor and cop, Laura and Alba’s diplomatic skills will stretched to the limit by the stream of cases that walk through the Consul’s doors.
The series will open on the unexplained death of a young British barman working around Barcelona’s notorious marina. While Laura supports the boy’s angry father, neither the Spanish police nor the Foreign Office are keen to pursue a murder enquiry...
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As Laura and Alba uncover the events surrounding the barman’s death, they discover links not only to organised crime, but also to the British security services. Laura’s quest for justice places her in real jeopardy, as she threatens to expose secrets that the British and Spanish will go to any lengths to keep hidden.
"I’m delighted to be working with UKTV on The Diplomat - a show that I think will suit their obvious ambition for innovative and exciting new drama," Richards said.
"In The Diplomat I wanted to show a character who both loves her job and - supported by a team of funny and engaging characters - performs it beyond the call of duty. From helping Britons in distress to challenging the shady operations of international mafias, Laura Simmonds (British Consul in Barcelona) has to deal with it all.”
Casting for the lead roles and a director for the project will be announced over the coming months. Production will start "when safely able to do so" according to UKTV, with the series set to air on Alibi in 2021.
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