Fifth of six stories from within the Foreign Office.
The Pioneers’ Story. The break-up of the Soviet Union has meant that a country that was once represented by one ambassador has split into 15 different states. With a shrinking budget, the Foreign Office is responding to the demand with one-person embassies, housed in whatever accommodation comes to hand. In Minsk, the British embassy is a backroom next to the kitchen in the old East German consulate. How efficient are these shoe-string missions, and what kind of people run them? Associate producer Roger Courtiour Series producer Stephen Lambert