Running a country is a tough job – unless you’re UK Prime Minister Robert Sutherland (Robert Carlyle), in which case it’s all but impossible. Previous seasons of COBRA have seen him try to steer his country through a string of crises including – but not limited to – solar flares devastating the nation’s infrastructure and a cyber-attack laying waste to the country’s institutions. So a protest about a new rail tunnel? That’s hardly worth getting out of bed.
Well, there is one problem: Sutherland’s daughter Ellie (Holly Cattle) is one of the protestors who’ve joined the Planet Resistance group, currently being driven by Henry Wicks (Ben Crompton). She’s fired up about taking direct action to block a planned high-speed rail line tunnel – exactly the kind of protest action her father’s government has just brought in (unpopular) legislation to crack down on.
Just to make things even more tricky for Sutherland’s increasingly shaky Tory government, there’s a state visit on the horizon from Crown Prince Samir (Khalid Laith) from the Gulf State of Shirasia. It’s an economically important nation that’s morally a bit on the nose due to a bloody civil war. Which means yes, even more protestors on the march.
COBRA has a well-earned reputation for skilfully mixing political drama with big blockbuster-style disaster movie action. So, it’s no spoiler to reveal that at least one of these protests goes extremely wrong in a way nobody saw coming. As the death toll rises, things for Sutherland – and for the UK – are about to go from bad to much, much worse.
Robert Carlyle and Victoria Hamilton in COBRA. Credit: Matt Squire / Sky
Like all good disaster stories, COBRA has a lot going on at once. It’s not enough to just have a natural (or is it?) disaster shock the nation: there’s got to be political intrigue, shady deals, family conflict, at least one terrorist (or is it?) organisation, and a growing risk to life and limb as the mood of the streets goes from outraged and angry to outright murderous.
At times like these you want to surround yourself with people you can trust. Sutherland? Well, his crew are a bit hit and miss.
Defence Secretary Victoria Dalton (Jane Horrocks). Credit: Matt Squire / Sky
COBRA stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, which is the room where British PMs traditionally hold important meetings. Sitting around the big desk getting updates from the big screens are new Defence Secretary Victoria Dalton (Jane Horrocks), Home Secretary Joseph Obasi (Richard Pepple), and Foreign Secretary Archie Glover-Morgan (David Haig), alongside Anna Marshall (Victoria Hamilton), who’s Sutherland’s chief of staff.
Their loyalties are mixed at best. Some will back Sutherland to the hilt; some will do what they believe to be best for the nation, whether Sutherland agrees or not. Others might find themselves following a different path all together – and in one case, they might find Sutherland’s personal problems working to their advantage,
Wait, what personal problems? It turns out that having a daughter in the spotlight puts a lot of pressure on the PM’s already rocky marriage to Rachel (Lucy Cohu) – which is possibly a mixed blessing, because it’s not like the PM hasn’t grown somewhat close to one of his colleagues in recent months. But if Sutherland does find new love in the arms of a close confidant, he becomes a PM carrying on an affair in Number 10 while his list of enemies grows longer every day. That’s basically giving them a loaded gun to use against him.
Richard Pepple returns as Home Secretary Joseph Obasi. Credit: Matt Squire / Sky
One of the many things COBRA does well is use the basic realities of politics to help crank up the tension. Sutherland’s new legislation against protests emboldens the police, but when a rising tide of protests leads to an over-reaction, Sutherland’s response drives a wedge between him and the law enforcement community. Now on top of everything else, he’s dealing with a police force that’s deliberately sitting on its hands just as a wave of protests sweeps the country.
Likewise, when Planet Resistance is seen as going too far, opposition minister Francine Bridge (Marsha Thomason) – previously a public supporter of the environmental activists – has to do some serious re-positioning. But her own investigation into what happened soon uncovers a whole lot of shady links between various groups, some of which are happy to kill to keep their secrets.
But while there’s plenty of backroom wheeling and dealing, this is still about as far from a dry political thriller as you can get. Natural disasters, multiple bomb threats, thumb drives full of secret information, double agents and a high-tech weapon that could kill thousands are all in play. Sutherland’s at its centre of a hurricane of bad news, desperately trying to contain a dozen things spiralling out of control.
… though with so much going on, it’s a little surprising that they didn’t throw in an actual hurricane. Guess they’re saving that for season four.
Three seasons of COBRA are streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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