Michael Frayn 's adaptation of his own novel ends a five-year absence from television since the Emmy-award winning First and Last.
By special request of the Prime Minister, civil servant Stephen Summerchild and philosopher Elizabeth Serafin are given the unusual brief of finding the true meaning of happiness. Twenty years after Summerchild's mysterious death, a Cabinet officer investigates, and uncovers a secret world high in a Whitehall attic and a curious romance that disturbed Summerchild's superiors.
The secrecy of the civil service intrigues Frayn. "Some of my most intelligent friends at university went into the civil service," he says, "and although they are close friends I know very little about what they do."
Producer David Snodin ; Director Nicholas Renton NOTE: Screen Two: Sin Bin on 18 May was written by Catherine Johnson : we apologise for omitting her name from our listing.
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