Ever wished there were more dramas about geopolitical cyberterrorism? British thriller The Undeclared War is here to make all your infosec dreams come true.  

This article contains mild spoilers for episode one. 

What’s all this about? 

Written and directed by Bafta award-winning Peter Kosminsky (Wolf Hall), The Undeclared War is a new six-part political thriller set in post-pandemic Britain in 2024 in the lead-up to a general election. Think Spooks, but with computers and coding and stuff.

At last, a show that gives malware the spotlight it deserves.

The computer brainiacs of Britain are about to save the world, and thank goodness for them. It’s talented university student Saara Parvin’s (Hannah Khalique-Brown) first day of work experience as an analyst at Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), the intelligence and cybersecurity organisation responsible for protecting Britain from digital espionage. While Saara has secured a highly sought after position, she’s mysteriously kept it secret from most of her family.

Nothing exciting ever happens during work experience, right? 

Just the Russians launching a cyber attack on Britain, no big deal. Saara has barely set foot inside the GCHQ building when a routine stress-test of telecommunications infrastructure goes haywire, bringing down over half of Britain’s internet. GCHQ quickly discovers the problem wasn’t caused by the stress-test, but by a virus launched by an unknown (but presumed to be Putin) cyber attacker.

While all the intelligence experts are busy working out how security was breached, genius coder Saara dives into the malware and prevents a second hidden virus from spreading. This feat of coding brilliance gets her invited to a meeting with the prime minister, which isn’t a bad way to end your first day of work experience.

I struggled to find the toilets on my first day at work. I hope she’s getting paid. 

Payday is the least of Saara’s worries, because after a hard day fighting international cyber crime she learns something terrible has happened to her father. Things were already tense with her family, and even though Saara just saved Britain’s entire infrastructure from collapsing, now everyone is mad at her.

This sounds serious. Who knew the internet could be so stressful? 

There are a lot of serious people in The Undeclared War, staring at a lot of serious screens and saying a lot of serious things. It’s no wonder. As Britain faces political unrest and the nation’s infrastructure is repeatedly compromised, they retaliate against Russia by commencing a secret cyberwar. Saara uses her unique set of skills to stay one step ahead of the attacks, even though nobody realises that simply turning the entire internet off at the wall and waiting a few seconds before switching it on again would probably fix everything.

A cyber war? More viruses? Great, more stuff to worry about.

The Undeclared War is a cautionary tale about what could happen during a geopolitical cyber attack, reminding us how much we rely on technology in our everyday lives. It’s about the challenges of modern intelligence and the impact of misinformation, and while the show is slightly futuristic, being set in 2024 and all that, references to the pandemic and Boris Johnson no longer being prime minister make the series feel like it could be happening today.

Who will I recognise in this drama? 

There’s plenty of star power, including Simon Pegg (The Boys, Hot Fuzz) as head of operations at GCHQ and Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall, Bridge of Spies), a former GCHQ employee who comes out of retirement after the cyberattack. Adrian Lester (Hustle) appears as Conservative prime minister Andrew Makinde, Andrew Jennings (The Crown) plays one of the GCHQ bigwigs and the fabulous Kerry Godliman (Taskmaster, After Life) features as well.

What’s the verdict? 

The Undeclared War feels like a dystopian mix of Spooks and Bodyguard, but the first episode moves slowly. Watching actors stare at coding on a screen isn’t always exciting, but with a promising cast and an intriguing plot, The Undeclared War might just be the dark political thriller to get you through the rest of winter.

The Undeclared War streams on TVNZ+ from Wednesday 17 August.