Dear All,

It seems both apt and awful that the BBC’s new drama series The Honourable Woman should be showing at the same time as the latest round violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict unfolds. As hundreds of civilians die in Israel’s ‘retaliatory’ bombing of Gaza, and homes are reduced to rubble, this enigmatic story about the conflict and its various players casts a dramatic light on the troubled region.

The eight-part drama is the story of Anglo-Israeli business tycoon Nessa Stein, who has just been elevated to the House of Lords in Britain. Stein (played by the wonderful Maggie Gyllenhaal) is putting her father’s armaments fortune to work in various philanthropic projects in the region because, as she puts it, "poverty breeds terrorism". She and her brother (the rather unreadable Ephra) have lived lives which have been touched repeatedly by violence and cruelty. They realise that the violence related to the region is their legacy, and they put their time and money into trying to be "part of the solution rather than part of the problem".

Not an easy task of course. The Steins, and those close to them, have to navigate a minefield of political intrigue and deception, and work in the extended war zone that consists of anything linked to the Israeli-Palestine conflict. And since a part of the story concerns MI6 officers, that takes us into the murky realms of covert operations and international espionage.

It’s quite gripping drama: sort of Homeland meets Smiley’s People with a dash of Syriana and Sophie’s Choice thrown into the mix. It’s also visually very stylish and has a very distinctive look and feel to it. Writer and Director Hugo Blick has created an intriguing, puzzling story which is often quite dark.

The violence is present throughout: implicit as well as explicit, past as well as present. The images are memorable: the opening scene for example is one which is echoed in events throughout the story and really does make an impression. I for one will never be able to regard the crisp white tablecloths of fancy hotel dining rooms in quite the same way ever again!

"Who do you trust?" asks the narrative voice and then, more ominously, "Everybody has a secret". So far it’s not clear what exactly these secrets are or who the villains of the piece are. What is fairly clear is that in this story the regional conflict has brutalised all the various players involved.

The Honourable Woman is compelling drama, and Blick manages to keep viewers on tenterhooks. But is it good or bad that a drama featuring the Palestinian issue and Gaza should become this popular? Does this, at all, ‘fictionalise’ a complicated and cruel conflict? Does it turn war into a soap opera or does it actually give it a human face? How does it influence our ability to process or receive news report. That is certainly something to reflect upon even as we follow this particular story…

Best wishes