What if RUSSIA DID launch a cyber attack on Britain?

As Putin threatens the West again, a chilling – and timely – drama finds the UK on the verge of meltdown after a devastating internet war

You wake up, pick up your phone: no signal. Next you try turning on the radio to find out what’s going on. Odd, but there’s nothing on it either. Then the next thing you notice is that the fridge has gone silent and the lights have gone out – the power’s gone.

It turns out that Britain is facing a major crisis under a full-scale cyber attack that is taking out of operation anything connected to the internet: communications, energy, water supplies and the transport infrastructure.

Within days, food and medical supplies will start to run short and society as we know it could be on the verge of collapse.

This is the nightmarish scenario that the unsung heroes at the top-secret cyber frontline that is Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) are battling to prevent in a nerve-jangling new six-part thriller set in the near future.

Written and directed by

Peter Kosminsky (Wolf Hall, The Government Inspector) with his customary clever mix of compelling drama and immersive research – he’s been steeped in the subject for three years –

The Undeclared War arrives with an extra cachet of disturbing topicality.

As the UK experiences what seems to be the beginning of a massive cyber attack in 2024, the assumption by Prime Minister Andrew Makinde (Adrian Lester, above) and GCHQ boss David Neal (Alex Jennings) is that the anonymous assailant must surely be Russia.

In this virtual war, the job of defending the realm falls to the computer whizzes at

GCHQ in Cheltenham, among them precociously brilliant intern Saara Parvin (Hannah Khalique-Brown) and the avuncular, coolheaded head of operations, Danny Patrick (Simon Pegg).

Meanwhile the Prime Minister must balance striving to stop the public panicking with a warning to be prepared for dark times ahead…

With the geo-political crisis following the invasion of Ukraine escalating at a dizzying pace and Putin and his cronies freely issuing warnings against Britain and the West, we can only hope and pray that Kosminsky’s drama remains a work of fiction, however much the story it depicts rings true.

Though it may be the stuff of nightmares, this is captivating, if sobering, drama. If there was any doubt that this is a mustwatch, the clincher is the presence of the mesmerising Mark Rylance as a Cold War veteran called out of retirement to help when all hope seems lost.