This week on The Ambassador, a British Minister gets himself into a spot of trouble and calls on John to sort the situation out. But things aren’t as simple as they seem, and John finds himself caught between covering up a crime and coming clean.

About

The fifth episode of series one of The Ambassador, ‘Trade’, aired on the 1st February 1998 on BBC One. It was filmed on location in Ireland, and was a production of Ecosse Films & Irish Screen. Written by Julian Jones 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’, Michael Angelia as ‘David McNaughton’ and Su Lin Looi as ‘Lau’.

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.

Trade

Harriet arrives at a very posh hotel for a trade meeting. She’s accompanied by a junior minister: David McNaughton, who is currently busy conducting talks on behalf of Britain with the Irish. Despite being the man of the hour, McNaughton begs off trade duty. He has another meeting. Harriet is not impressed by this, and rightly so; McNaughton’s ‘meeting’ is in fact, a liaison with a young man.

McNaughton’s reputation as a bit of a sleaze precedes him—Harriet goes so far to ask John to keep an eye on him. Her priorities lie in keeping the peace at the trade meeting, where a group of Ulstermen are very concerned about the possible outcome of the talks. John takes up his usual shadowy place by Harriet’s side, until he receives a phone call from McNaughton, summoning him upstairs. John goes—looking very dashing in his tux—and discovers a dead body in McNaughton’s hotel room. John inspects the situation with all the nonchalance of a serving MI6 officer.

And as the local MI6 officer, this mess is John’s responsibility. McNaughton has spoken to the Cabinet Office, who have authorised a cover-up. Nothing illegal has happened here—they were both consenting adults, McNaughton says—but the optics of it are not good. Not only is it not suitable for a junior minister to be involved with a death, but he would have to go public about being with a man! John, reluctantly, agrees to sort it out. But it has to be kept a complete secret. Harriet can never know about it, as it would put her in a compromising position. Unfortunately, Harriet’s suspicions are already raised by the disappearance of her right hand man & an important minister and she doesn’t seem particularly convinced by John’s claims of ‘unofficial diplomacy’.

The next morning another crisis is already brewing. A picture of Sam attending Catholic mass whilst staying at a friend’s has made itself into the papers. Given the tensions in the North, this is not good. Harriet says that Sam will have to be brought home, for his own safety.

Meanwhile, at the Embassy, a young woman approaches the consulate. She demands a British visa, claiming that she can link McNaughton with the boy who died at the hotel Julian laughs her out the place. This backfires on him, because once John finds out Julian sent her away, he’s fuming.

Harriet and McNaughton are preoccupied with their talks with the Irish government. The talks are stalling on one particular point: the Irish want to ban Ulstermen from holding their march through the Ulster community. It’s a huge security issue. Harriet attempts to broker a compromise between the two groups, but she doesn’t get anywhere.

The discovery of a witness is a major deal. John knows she has to be silenced. But her demands have increased now: she requires British Citizenship. He’s also still waiting for official sanction from the Cabinet Office, which hasn’t come through.

And worst of all: Harriet knows that there’s something amiss. She questions John on the matter, who is evasive—no crime has been committed, and therefore, Harriet needs not concern herself. Only that’s not true. The boy was only sixteen, under the age of consent. (In 1998, that would be age of consent for men having sex with men was seventeen in Ireland, which had equalised age of consent, and twenty-one in the UK, which hadn’t.) Despite this, John refuses to tell Harriet anything; he knows if she has the information, she’ll be required to act on it. He’s protecting her.

As part of the talks, a fancy shindig is happening at the Residence. John receives confirmation that his cover-up of McNaughton’s actions wasn’t sanctioned. And now, the Irish are starting to suspect that McNaughton may be involved. The Garda are treating it as a murder inquiry. When Harriet learns of this, she’s incensed, and she demands answers from John.

John admits that he knows more than he’s told. There were other witnesses, aside from Miss Lau. McNaughton’s Garda protection officer saw McNaughton go to the floor where the boy’s death happened. And a security camera captured footage of McNaughton with the boy. John has the only copy of the tape, but it’s incriminating. Harriet says that they both have a duty to report it—but it would compromise the talks.

Harriet confronts McNaughton, who is a slimy git of the highest order. There’s no outwitting Harriet though. She knows the real reason he wanted a cover up; not to save the talks, but to prevent damage to his own political career. She’ll wait until the talks are concluded, but she issues an ultimatum: either he resigns, or she will expose him.

To guard against further complications, John needs to get Lau out of the country. He finds her walking the streets of Dublin. Before he can make a move, the Garda appear, arresting her for solicitation. Julian is ordered down to the Jail, acting as her lawyer. They think she’s just been arrested on the solicitation charges, but the Garda still want to interview her about the boy’s death. Julian is allowed to speak to her first, and he attempts to convince her to say nothing to the Garda, and to plead guilty to the charges so they can get her out. She doesn’t want to. But she eventually gives in.

It seems like everything is going the way Harriet wants. Then she arrives for another round of talks and discovers that McNaughton has given into every Irish demand. He’s done a deal with the rest of the British Government, and in the process, has sold out the unionists in Northern Ireland. He’s smug about the deal, but Harriet isn’t going to let him have the last laugh.

After all, she and John have that security tape. They have undeniable proof that he’s involved, and deal or not, the Garda will be interested. And so McNaughton hands in his resignation.

Verdict

For all that we know that John is capable of no good, this is the first episode we really see it. Until now, he’s been engaged in some light spying and deception. There’s always been that implication that he’s capable of more—Harriet certainly believes it, and has probably seen him doing it—but in Ireland, he’s clearly trying to be legit. This episode though, he is incredibly shady. He covers up a crime like it’s nothing! And clearly has the expertise on exactly how to do it; this is not the first time he’s made a problem like this go away.

Is it the right thing to do? As it turns out—no. John confesses to Harriet that, perhaps, he should have been more careful. But there’s not a lot of regret over erasing the crime, more that he did it for the wrong person.

Put simply? John would absolutely bury a body for Harriet, sanctioned or not, and wouldn’t feel the least amount of guilt about it.

He does feel bad about hiding it from her, though. He doesn’t tell her for her own protection, initially. He makes it very clear to McNaughton that she can’t know, because it will compromise her. It’s the only bit of emotion he shows in the clean up—protecting Harriet is important to him. But when it becomes clear that she needs to know the facts at hand, he hands them over. He’ll always defer to her.

John and Harriet’s close relationship hasn’t gone unnoticed by other characters. McNaughton, upon realising that Harriet isn’t going to back down, won’t be threatened, switches tactics—he goes for John’s career. (Not realising of course that John would never allow Harriet to compromise her principles for him.)

John’s relationship with Jennifer, meanwhile, seems not to be going quite so swimmingly. There’s no mention of the events of last episode, which seemed to have driven them closer. Here, John is constantly distracted—though one might say he has good reason to be—whilst Jennifer has turned into a lovestruck fool, hanging onto his every word, desperate for any scrap of attention. It’s quite a change from previous and I’m not a fan of it. Jennifer is a lot more than just the secretary John is screwing, and I wish the writers remembered that.

They do have a very sweet moment when John arrives at the Residency for the shindig, though, where Jennifer steps up behind him to take his coat. 10/10 for that moment.

Also, remember how three weeks ago I said that Julian hadn’t had his biggest screw-up yet? Well, here it is. Lord, the level of ineptness he displays in this episode is something else. He doesn’t take Lau seriously, refuses to treat her with any dignity, and finally, when Harriet and John send him to grovel with her, he still misses the point entirely. At least by that point he’s trying to be nice.

The side-plot with Sam doesn’t really get the attention it deserves, as the fallout from the rest of the episode eclipses it. It does serve to highlight the tensions between the Protestant and Catholic communities—the fact that the British Ambassador’s son went to a Catholic mass is a big deal. Sam does get a cute moment with Harriet though, where she interrupts him playing with a basketball to grab it off him and make a shot. It’s a very nice moment that highlights she’s not always serious.

Wardrobe deserve another shout-out this episode. I’m always going to be a sucker for men-in-suits, but Denis Lawson pulls off the tuxes they put him in superbly well. I’m pretty sure the first time I watched this, every single person I knew was instantly aware of this fact. Pauline Collins gets several nice outfits too, that are pretty but still keep the dignity her age and position demand.

This is another absolutely stellar episode, and certainly one of my favourites. It’s a real showcase for John and his spycraft, and puts his duties as MI6 agent in direct conflict with his relationship with Harriet—not for the last time. The political background is just enough that we understand why it effects the character’s choices—fears about compromising the talks, fears of Irish prejudice over the homosexuality issue—but it doesn’t overwhelm the true heart of the episode. Also, would make it high onto my recommendation list for any Lawson fan just for the tux. So there’s that.

Next time

Fresh security concerns herald the arrival of a new MI6 official. Harriet is tasked with a difficult decision to make about the interests of a friend, and John is torn between his loyalties to MI6 and to Harriet. All that and more on The Ambassador: Playing God.