DIPLOMATIC CORP: Embassies on screen

As the documentary series Inside The American Embassy continues (10pm, Ch4), we take a look at films and TV shows with diplomatic settings – all with a ring of truth…

M Butterfly (1993) Inspired by a true story, this stars Jeremy Irons as the diplomat assigned to the French embassy in Beijing in the 1960s, who falls in love with Chinese opera performer Song Liling (left) – who spies on him for the Chinese Communist government. A further layer of scandal emerges when Song is revealed to be male. Ambassadors (2013) In this three-part comedy drama, David Mitchell stars as the British ambassador to Tazbekistan, a fictional nation in central Asia, with Robert Webb as his deputy and Keeley Hawes as his wife. The often absurd and awkward situations were inspired by stories the writers were told by real diplomats.

Asylum (2015) Ben Miller is a Julian Assangestyle whistle-blower who seeks refuge inside a fictional Latin American embassy, joined by wacky hacker Ludo Backslash (inspired by internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom). Kayvan Novak plays the official who grants them asylum, hoping to put his little country on the map.

6 Days (2017) Jamie Bell (below) stars as one of the SAS operatives who storm the Iranian embassy to end the six-day siege of 1980. Abbie Cornish plays reporter Kate Adie in a film that follows the media and public perspectives of events as closely as it does the viewpoints of the terrorists and the hostages.