How modern diplomacy is — and isn’t — like how it’s shown on ‘The Diplomat’

Britain's deputy high commissioner to Canada says the hit Netflix show effectively captures what it's like to manage relationships with allies and prevent crises from erupting.

A top British diplomat to Canada says the ever-important job of maintaining relationships and information sharing between key allies is not much different than what audiences can watch on a hit Netflix drama.

Although The Diplomat is fictional, David Prodger, the British deputy high commissioner to Canada, says the ripped-from-the-headlines storytelling captures what it’s like to keep crises from spilling over from behind the scenes — particularly the “suppressed air of panic” around many of the characters.

“I think a lot of those little vignettes were very, very true to to real life,” Prodger told Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block.

“You’re dealing with big issues, and you’ve got to deal with them quickly as well.”

The thriller stars Keri Russell as a career American diplomat who’s suddenly named the new U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, where she works to defuse disasters at home and abroad. The series has been filmed within real foreign offices and diplomatic residences in Britain and has been praised for its accuracy.

As depicted in the show, Prodger, who’s based in Ottawa, said diplomacy mostly involves keeping and developing smaller relationships between foreign diplomatic officials to ensure the “big picture relationship” is maintained, with officials at all levels constantly talking to each other.

Yet he said the show may overstate the kind of access even high-ranking diplomats like himself would have with government officials.

“I’m not sure I could walk into (Foreign Affairs Minister) Melanie Joly’s office here,” he said.