Asylum
Inspired by the true stories of whistle-blowers claiming asylum, Asylum is a satirical comedy about a government whistle-blower and a millionaire internet entrepreneur trapped together in the London embassy of a fictional Latin American country. Dan Hern is a serious, self-important egotist who is accused of leaking important documents. After a year in the El Rican embassy Dan is bored, depressed and has no hope of getting out - his only chance is to push his case in an interview with the Guardian. The embassy staff are struggling to attract people to the annual embassy ball, as Dan is old news and nobody wants to come. The Ambassador's oily son decides to offer sanctuary to another international fugitive named Ludo Backslash: a larger-than-life, childish hacker and internet pirate, who set up a file-sharing website and became public enemy number one among the global entertainment community.
Episodes
After a year in the El Rican embassy under the threat of extradition to America, Dan is bored, depressed and has little hope of getting out. Largely forgotten by the media and at odds with the ambassador's son Rafael, his only chance is to push his case in an interview with the Guardian. The embassy staff are struggling to attract people to the annual embassy ball since Dan is old news and nobody wants to come, so Rafael decides to offer sanctuary to another international fugitive: a childlike, internet pirate called Ludo Backslash.
Having failed with Ludo, MI6 try to lure Dan out of the embassy by setting up an internet-based honey trap. Meanwhile, the CIA have placed a mole in the embassy who is leaking staff secrets and framing Dan for it. As a result the staff start acting extremely secretively, so Ludo, who is eagerly awaiting his birthday, starts expecting a huge surprise party. Birthday plans have to be put on hold though, as MI6 and the CIA get closer to Dan, so Ludo and Dan's hapless lawyer Lorna has to intervene.
Feeling trapped with the threat of extradition to America, Dan decides to raise his public profile and present his manifesto to the world by holding a press conference. Unfortunately he inadvertently accuses the El Ricans of torturing him, which does terrible damage to their World Cup bid. The terrifying El Rican foreign minister jets in to try to force Dan to issue a public apology, but with the world suddenly on his side Dan is extremely reluctant. Instead it falls to Ludo to use his hacking skills to get El Rico's World Cup bid back on track.
