Organised crime, spies and intrigue all in a day’s work for British consulate in Barcelona, in BBC’s The Diplomat
- Sophie Rundle plays British consulate officer Laura Simmonds, busy protecting British holidaymakers and workers in Barcelona in The Diplomat
- Meanwhile on Netflix, Teo Yoo and Kim Ok-vin play a lawyer and a film star in the ‘opposites attract’ romance Love to Hate You
Funny how television shows evolve to reflect holidaymakers’ changing tastes in destinations.
Time was when crime dramas and sitcoms would follow British expatriates to the Spanish coast. But in the age of the city break the setting is more likely to be, say, Barcelona – hence crime thriller The Diplomat (BBC First).
Sophie Rundle plays British consulate officer Laura Simmonds, whose job ordinarily involves assisting tourists who have been robbed at knifepoint, relieved of their passports, or otherwise scammed.
Intimidation, blackmail and sordid, illegally obtained sex videos posted to grotty websites in the interests of “extortion porn” are all more grist to the consular mill.
But as we join the fun, “Britons abroad” matters have taken a sinister turn with the suspicious death of a barman, seemingly the victim of a jet ski accident. The case forms the basis of the six-part series, which quickly begins to peel back layers of shady diplomacy, organised crime and the dodgy dealings of the British intelligence services.
Even new Consul General Sam Henderson (Steven Cree), sneaking off for midday backstreet assignations, looks like he could be a dodgy prospect himself until his true colours start to emerge.
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With Catalonia’s finest often bystanders on their own turf, the consulate’s staff are obliged to be a combination of counsellor, police officer and lawyer in a string of distressing cases proving that vacations are sometimes no holiday.
Fight or flight
She’s a lawyer – as well as a fearless, ultra-feminist, one-woman justice league.
He’s a famous actor, swooned over by legions of screaming girl fans yet solicitous to a fault – except when it comes to every querulous female co-star.
But she believes him to be a “misogynistic pervert […] who thinks all women are prostitutes”, or at least out to snare rich husbands, and he reckons she is little more than a groupie trying to use her privileged position to seduce him.
Clearly, they are destined for the inevitable, steamy intimacy that sparks from the attraction of opposites; it’s just a question of how and when they reach the point of congress.
Such is the unusual take on the familiar “boy-meets-girl (and each despises the other) story of Love to Hate You (Netflix). All 10 binge-worthy first-series episodes are now available, tracing the implausible romance between her, Yeo Mi-ran (played by Kim Ok-vin), and him, Nam Kang-ho (Teo Yoo).
As part of her plan to disgrace him, Mi-ran wheedles her way into employment with a firm that has a host of celebrity clients, including Kang-ho, and quickly becomes his personal legal practitioner, bodyguard and even physical trainer for fight scenes.
That last area of expertise facilitates our introduction to Mi-ran, who, like a disguised vigilante – amusingly, in a pandemic mask rather than any Hollywood superhero gear – is found on a Seoul highway after dark, putting the boot in on an armed mugger.
It also allows her, later, to work out some anger towards Kang-ho, soundly beating him before realising, to her shame, that she has misread him and his intentions.
Nor is our heroine bashful when it comes to action between the sheets, although her attitude to sex makes her seem almost as (allegedly) callous as the man she has sworn to take down. So who, exactly, is the cad here?
