The geopolitical thrillers to watch during COP26

This year is a bumper year for the UK in terms of international summitry; in June Prime Minister Boris Johnson hosted the G7 ‘Build Back Better’ conference in Cornwall; and on Sunday he welcomes participating countries to 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.

Before the 13-day summit, which perhaps ominously begins on Halloween, the PM jets off to Rome for the G20. International conferences and high-stakes meetings being largely static events, are not inherently cinematic, although movies such as Oslo (2021), The French Minister (2013), Paris 1919 (2009), In the Loop (2009), Conspiracy (2001), and The Name of the Rose (1986) all enjoyed popularity with audiences.

Back in 2014, BBC2 dedicated a 3-part mini-series to following the conferences, phone calls and meetings of political leaders from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914 to the United Kingdom declaring war on Germany on 4 August 1914.

Real-life summits have proved popular enough as dramas to warrant recounting multiple times, for instance the negotiations surrounding the formation of The Irish Free State (The Treaty and Michael Collins) and the Reagan/Gorbachev one-on-one in Iceland (Breakthrough at Reykjavik and upcoming Reykjavik).