It’s really enjoyable to play a character so far from the sort of thing I’m known for playing
SIMON PEGG STARS IN A NEW CHANNEL 4 THRILLER WHICH SEES THE UK UNDER ATTACK FROM CYBER TERRORISTS. DANIELLE DE WOLFE LEARNS MORE FROM THE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE ACTOR AND HIS CO-STARS
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serves a really useful purpose. It can show the audience and the ordinary layperson, who doesn’t know how to code, the structure and the way that it works – calling up tools like a tool belt.
“It also serves to help me find out how her brain works because Saara is a really incredible, extraordinary, astonishingly talented coder.
“She does think differently – she thinks 10 steps ahead of anyone else.”
Maisie plays Kathy Freeman, a cyber analyst from the NSA (National Security Agency) – the American counterpart to GCHQ. She and Saara connect as otherwise lone female wolves in the department, guided by Daniel Patrick, who Simon describes as a “den mother”.
“It’s really enjoyable to play a character who’s so far from the sort of thing I’m known for playing,” he says, noting it won’t be long before he “gets back to playing idiots”.
“As an actor, that’s all you can hope for really, to be given challenges. And this was a glorious, glorious challenge.”
A story which sees the UK engaged in cyber warfare with Russia, the premise is very much rooted in reality, according to Wolf Hall and The Government Inspector director Peter.
He says: “The series is based deep within the least-known arm of the UK’s intelligence infrastructure, GCHQ.
“The story we’re now able to tell casts an extraordinary, revelatory light on the hot, undeclared war taking place right now in the world’s newest and most invisible domain of conflict – cyber.”
“I’m not saying this is the way things will turn out,” Peter offers.
“But I’m saying there’s nothing in this show that either hasn’t happened, or is not being sort of ‘war gamed’ by the people here and in other countries who try to prepare for this kind of thing.”
Labelling the series a “hot war going on in cyber space”, the creator says he was “really shocked” by the “fragility” of our heavily internet dependent society.
He adds: “I call it a cautionary tale because I think that if we’re not careful, this hot war will escalate to the point where it threatens our civilisation.
“I think it’s as serious as that.”