This week on the Ambassador, the crisis strikes too close to home, as the Embassy is taken over and Jennifer is taken hostage by a grieving father. Knowing she cannot give in to terrorism, Harriet struggles to find the best way forward. And meanwhile, John struggles with his inability to rescue Jennifer.

About

The fourth episode of series one of The Ambassador, ‘Cluster of Betrayals’, aired on the 25th January 1998 on BBC One. It was filmed on location in Ireland, and was a production of Ecosse Films & Irish Screen. Written by Tim Prager and directed by Syd Macartney, it stars Pauline Collins as ‘Harriet Smith’, Denis Lawson as ‘John Stone’, Owen Roe as ‘Kevin Flaherty’, William Chubb as ‘Stephen Tyler’ and Alison McKenna as ‘Jennifer’. Additional guest stars this episode include Dominic Mafham as ‘Julian Wadham’, Sean McGinley as ‘Joseph O’Connor’ and Jim Norton as ‘Tom Harnett.’

Lawson fans will recognise McGinley for his guest-star performance as a grieving father in Lawson’s first New Tricks episode. He plays a similar role here, but with a very different context. (They also starred in Bleak House together.)

Availability: Out on Region 2 DVD—currently in print from Simply Media as of 2016. Available digitally from Amazon in the United States—both series are included in Prime and are additionally available for purchase separately.

Cluster of Betrayals

The episode starts with Harriet attempting to page her secretary, Jennifer. Jennifer doesn’t answer. And the reason she doesn’t answer? She’s getting down and dirty with John in the basement. (that’s smooch three, and let’s just count the entire encounter as one because otherwise I’ll start losing track.) It’s nice and racy, and she certainly seems to be enjoying it.

Meanwhile, others are not having so much fun on their visits. Joseph O’Connor, here unidentified, is trying to convince consular staff that he needs a meeting with the Ambassador. In an attempt to persuade them, he brandishes photos of his very ill son. The consular staff dismiss him. At home, Joseph, along with his clearly exhausted wife, tend to their dying child.

Harriet heads off to try to keep Nate in University—he’s been suspended. She fails. Waiting in the car outside, her son Sam is quizzing John and another member of the security staff about the UN security council, and remarking about how it is dominated by nuclear powers. As Harriet leaves, an old friend—Tom Harnett—chases her down. She greets him warmly and invites him to dinner. Afterwards, in the car, John briefs Harriet about the Irish energy crisis. She’s set up a meeting between the Irish and representatives of British nuclear power.

Joseph’s son dies, with his family surrounding him. They are clearly distraught.

Tom Harnett turns up for his dinner invitation, and ends up being quizzed by Sam as he waits. Sam tells him all about what he overheard in the car earlier, about the nuclear energy proposals. When the papers are full of the story the following day, the Embassy staff have no idea who leaked it.

John approaches Jennifer in her office. When she asks what he’s doing for lunch, his answer is “you”. Downstairs, Joseph is once again pleading with the consular staff to be allowed to see the Ambassador. This time, security is called to remove him. They escort him out. Jennifer leaves for her lunch break. A moment later, all hell breaks lose. Joseph storms back in, with Jennifer as a hostage. In his hands is a bottle, labelled as containing radioactive material. John arrives on the scene and takes charge. Quickly realising there’s no negotiating, he calls for a complete evacuation of the building.

Neither Harriet nor Stephen are in the Embassy at the time. They are quickly summoned back, however, and a team meeting (John and Julian in attendance) is called, to discuss what they know. All operations are moved to the residence, and their first priority is finding out what Joseph wants.

Debate breaks out over the involvement of the British Security Services in the operation. Flaherty insists it be left to the Irish, the Brits want their own people in as advisors. Tensions are already running high. Harriet states that any use of force will require mutual consent, which seems to keep everyone happy. She also insists that their first move must be to establish a line of communication, and as soon as she does so, the phone rings: it’s Jennifer. Joseph will negotiate, but only with Tom Harnett—who isn’t on anyone’s good side right now.

After some persuasion, Tom agrees to go in. The situation is tense. Joseph explains, in a rambling manner, that he’s there because his son Liam died of Leukaemia. There are too many children along the Irish coast dying of Leukaemia. And Joseph believes that the Irish sea has been irradiated by British Nuclear Power, and he wants them to accept responsibility. Tom exits the Embassy and goes straight to the assembled journalists, giving them a statement on Joseph’s behalf.

Tom’s information has one benefit: it allows John to identify Joseph. Joseph has no prior links to terrorism. That doesn’t make him any less dangerous. Additionally, his cause has legs—others have raised concerns about the radiation levels in the Irish sea. Flaherty even goes on Irish television and raises the same concerns!

In the Embassy, Jennifer and Joseph talk—on reasonably friendly terms, considering everything. Jennifer offers to speak to Harriet on Joseph’s behalf. Joseph says that he wrote, but the Ambassador never listened. Jennifer makes a horrifying realisation; the letters never even reached Harriet’s desk. She’s the only one who read them.

The next morning, Joseph requests food and water. John sees an opportunity for a rescue; put a sniper on Joseph, and hope they can grab Jennifer. John makes the decision to go in himself—in a Garda bullet-proof vest, and yes, that’s a very good look. For the handover, Joseph has Jennifer in front of him, like a shield. Despite the odds being low, John makes an impulsive decision—he attempts to grab Jennifer and calls the shot. The entire escapade fails. Joseph pulls Jennifer back and the sniper shots end up in the Embassy’s bullet proof glass. They’ve blown it.

Afterwards, John stands as the very picture of melancholy on the Embassy lawn. He admits to Harriet that he’s involved with Jennifer, though Harriet has already guessed as much.

News of the shooting gets out, and leads to even more rounds of press. Joseph accepts the inevitability of his fate. Meanwhile Harriet attempts desperately to arrange a meeting with Joseph, going so far as to reach out to Tom Harnett.

Tom comes through; he’ll get her in. Every single member of her staff counsels her against entering the Embassy, but Harriet disregards them all. They enter alone. Upon meeting Harriet, Joseph tells Tom to leave, and to take Jennifer with him. Outside the Embassy, a tearful Jennifer falls straight into John’s arms.

Back inside, Harriet and Joseph talk calmly about his cause, his reasons for taking the building. He knows he’s screwed up. All he wanted was for someone to listen. Unfortunately, British Security Forces are storming the building. As they rush the room, Harriet throws herself in front of Joseph to protect him. In doing so, the container of radioactive material is broken. It turns out that all it contains is water from the Irish sea. Maybe it’s dangerous over time, but it’s not immediately lethal.

The entire affair over, life at the Embassy returns to normal. Harriet even considers giving Tom Harnett another chance, given that he helped end the entire thing. But then it’s revealed how Tom got the leaked information about nuclear power: from Sam. And well, Harriet considers maybe she doesn’t want to be friends with a man who takes advantage of her son.

Verdict

Alison McKenna—who plays Jennifer—is simply excellent in this episode. She really doesn’t get the credit she’s due, but this entire episode hangs on her shoulders, and she pulls it off. It’s a real shame she isn’t in more things. (@ casting directors, fix that, please, I’m pretty sure she’s available for work.) Sean McGinley is also really good—he’s probably the best guest star in the series.

Now to John and Jennifer. We learnt last episode that there was something between them; here, it becomes something a little more than workplace fun. (And it certainly is fun, let’s have no doubts about that, Jennifer is enthusiastically into it, as seen in the opening scene.) All the reasons why they shouldn’t be in a relationship are on pretty stark display here, though. Whilst John says that it doesn’t affect his judgement, I’m not so sure. He’s emotionally volatile throughout this episode, and it’s difficult to imagine him having the same reaction if it was Stephen or Julian taking hostage. (Harriet is a different matter, but we’ve known from day one that he’s compromised as far as Harriet is concerned.)

Honestly, I think he’s far more emotionally involved than she is. He’s always the one hanging about, waiting for her, demanding a little more of her time. When she’s taken, he can’t think straight—he’s irrational, angry, going so far as to basically lose it when Flaherty deigns to even suggest that Joseph might have a point. Following the botched rescue, he even says it’s now his fault if anything happens to her. Meanwhile, Jennifer doesn’t have any expectations of John. If she expects a rescue from him, it’s because he’s head of Embassy security—not because he’s her boyfriend. It’s an interesting dynamic, and one I wish we saw just a little more of.

This is the highest rated episode of the entire series on IMDb and—although I wouldn’t trust those ratings a whole lot, given some of the episodes aren’t rated—I think that’s pretty on the mark. It’s definitely a stand-out episode. The acting is great. The writing is dramatic, without being over the top. The tensions between Britain and Ireland are spot on—it may well be that British Nuclear Power is killing Irish children, and Harriet knows that, but that doesn’t mean she can bow to terrorism. It makes its point and makes it well. If I was to recommend an episode, I’d recommend this one.

I’d also like to thank wardrobe for providing several spot on looks for Denis Lawson this episode. There’s the bullet-proof vest, fuelling every fantasy I have where he plays a bodyguard. (MI6 Agent is almost as good, so I’ll take it.) His distracted, shirt-sleeves half rolled up, collar open look is also wonderful. Excellent choices, thank you.

Grateful every single time someone puts him in an ensemble like this. (I don’t know if it’s Lawson himself, or just a character quirk he likes, but left to his own devices his characters are chronically unable to keep all the buttons done up, I swear!)

Next time

A British Minister’s involvement in trade negotiations is compromised by a situation which John is called upon to deal with and Harriet attempts to keep the peace between all parties who have their own agenda. All this and more next week in The Ambassador: Trade.