How can the UK maintain its influence on the world stage - and in doing so protect the UK’s security? Filmed during Boris Johnson’s tenure as Foreign Secretary, we meet Sir Simon Macdonald (pictured), the Permanent Under-Secretary and chief civil servant at The Foreign Office. As politicians come and go, civil servants remain. In this first film, we follow the diplomats as they wrestle with a series of crises and challenges covering Burma to Russia. Michael Waldman gains access to the United Nations in New York, as world leaders gather for the special General Assembly week. There the UK team decide who to sit where at the Prime Minister’s session on Modern Slavery, and the protocol status of Ivanka Trump at the table of VIPs. Meanwhile Boris Johnson is briefed on what to say to his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov, as Russia continues to support the Assad regime in bombing Syria. Human Rights lawyer Amal Clooney makes a guest appearance, while a British diplomat lawyer looks to get all 15 members of the Security Council to agree to a UK-proposed resolution to enable Daesh (Islamic State) fighters to be prosecuted anywhere in the world. We also follow Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Ukraine, Judith Gough, who is fluent in both Russian and Ukrainian, and lives with her partner and their young son. Judith’s job means she moves her wife and son every three to four years, but as discussions about the UK’s relationship with Russia are had, Judith meets soldiers and visits a conflict zone in the East by the Russian Border.
| Name | Type | Role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Waldman | Director |