State of Play is a British television drama series, written by Paul Abbott and directed by David Yates, that was first broadcast on BBC One in 2003.

The series tells the story of a newspaper's investigation into the death of a political researcher, and centres on the relationship between the leading journalist, Cal McCaffrey, and his old friend, Stephen Collins, who is a Member of Parliament and the murdered woman's employer.

The series stars David Morrissey, John Simm, Kelly Macdonald, Polly Walker, Bill Nighy, and James McAvoy in the main roles.

[1][2] In 2006, however, a second series appeared to have been abandoned, with Abbott telling Mark Lawson on Front Row for BBC Radio 4 in November that he "couldn't find a way to make the story work".

[citation needed] While investigating the murder of fifteen-year-old teenager Kelvin Stagg in what appears to be a drug-related gangland killing, journalist Cal McCaffrey of The Herald (John Simm) and his colleagues Della Smith (Kelly MacDonald) and editor Cameron Foster (Bill Nighy) find a connection with the coincidental death on the same day of Sonia Baker (Shauna MacDonald), a young political researcher for rising star MP Stephen Collins (David Morrissey).

As their investigation progresses, a love affair scandal between Collins and Baker rapidly emerges and they uncover not only a connection between the murders, but also a political conspiracy having links to petroleum industry-backed corruption of high-ranking British Government ministers.

Despite political and legal pressure, the investigation by Cal McCaffrey and the Herald team begins to bear fruit, in particular thanks to information from an executive at U-EX, who subsequently takes his own life.

Paul Abbott's State of Play, which has had me swallowing double doses on a Sunday evening whenever the schedules allowed, left us with the first kind of let-down rather than the second.

The film was directed by Kevin Macdonald from a screenplay written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, Peter Morgan, and Billy Ray.

In an April 2009 interview to promote the film, Affleck, who plays Congressman Stephen Collins, said he drew on the experiences of Gary Condit, Eliot Spitzer, and John Edwards while preparing for the role.