(1989; English, German, Urdu) The British TV-miniseries (six episodes) from Simon Moore, with its haunting Shostakovich theme, that inspired both Steven Soderbergh's motion picture Traffic and David Simon's The Wire (possibly the best US television program of all time) was directed by Alastair Reid.

Episode One, "The Farmer." In Hamburg, German undercover cops bust a drug deal, killing one gangster and capturing Jacques Ledesert (Peter Lakenmacher), who negotiates a deal with detectives Dieter (Tilo Prückner) and Ulli (Fritz Müller-Scherz) by revealing the network of an "illegal empire." Implicated in the confession, German businessman Karl Rossholde (George Kukura), returning from Pakistan, is arrested at the airport, where his British-born wife Helen (Lindsay Duncan), a former Olympic medalist swimmer, and their two young children are waiting for him; he's charged with smuggling heroin. A shipment of 70 kilos of smack is confiscated.

In Pakistan British Minister Jack Lithgow (Bill Paterson) inspects by helicopter the fields of a "crop-replacement scheme," in which farmers are encouraged to grow wheat and sugar beets in place of opium poppies ("richest weeds in the world"); he must decide whether or not to recommend expansion of aid. Farmers, such as Fazal (Jamal Shah), complain that funds promised have not been delivered to them. Fazal says to Lithgow that while he grows opium to earn money to feed his family, the problem of heroin belongs to the West. Confronted by Pakistani soldiers, the farmers flee when fired upon - Fazal receives a bullet wound in his right hand - and their poppy crop (bald blue-gray bulbs atop tall stems) is burned.

Faced with financial ruin (if Karl's convicted, all the couple's assets will be seized), Helen (Lady Macbeth incarnate) takes matters into her own hands.

Episode Two, "The Addict." Jack's daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond), a Cambridge university student, is arrested for possession of heroin after a young man dies following a party; locking her inside her room, Jack administers his own method of putting her through withdraw from the drug. Her mother Rachel has known of her daughter's addiction for a year without telling Jack.

Desperate to save her wealth and social privileges, Helen contacts Kilmer, the owner of a restaurant and link in the network of traffickers, threatening to send the police documentation of his involvement if he doesn't pay her for the drugs he's received; the cops raid the restaurant (Ledesert having already fingered the chef) while Helen's on the premises.

Fazal heads for Karachi, getting a ride in Kamal's truck (carrying contraband for drug lord Tariq Butt), in hopes of staying with his brother and finding work, after which he can bring his wife and children to the city. But jobs are scarce, so Fazal (using his wits) goes to Tariq with proof of his honesty: "I'll do anything." Tariq gives Fazal a truck to carry contraband.

Part Three, "The Criminal." Given only a week to provide 3 million marks for the drugs Karl had received but then lost in Hamburg, Helen as a last resort goes to Karel Lynch, a financier in London, after her son is kidnapped; she then contacts Tariq Butt to resume business.

Earning further respect from his employer, Fazal becomes Tariq's personal chauffeur. After noticing a woman taking photographs, Tariq instructs Fazal to follow her. Complaining that "Doing nothing seems to take the longest time of all," Roomana (Feryal Gauharshah), an idealistic, intrepid lawyer and the daughter of a high-ranking Pakistani official, goes to a judge with her evidence of Tariq Butt's involvement in the heroin trade with a plan to trap the drug lord as he's about to purchase the opium harvest; however, she's frustrated by the wealthy gangster's ability to "buy justice."

Applying his own rough sense of righteousness ("I do not lose") to Caroline after he discovers she's managed to sneak drugs into the house and then burglarize her own home, Jack informs her: "You're not my daughter."

Part Four, "The Chemist." After listening to Fazal's explanation of how the Pakistani government has forced poppy farmers farther and farther afield away from the good acreage, Tariq says: "Go where the authorities have no power. Afghanistan." (There the American CIA is providing support to mujahideen against the Russian occupiers.) "Watch me and learn how I do business," advises Tariq, who then arranges for Fazal to become the chemist Macmoud's assistant in the manufacture of heroin.

But when Tariq directs Fazal to assassinate the chemist for his earlier insolence and the former farmer protests, the drug lord reminds his hired hand: "When I employed you, you said you'd do anything."

Chairman of the Drug Abuse Committee, Jack has begun to turn a personal problem into a political one by contradicting the government's policy during a televised discussion. Caroline steals from her grandfather (he's on morphine) in a nursing home and then, hooking up with Lee - an artist, addict, and dealer - begins injecting white horse into her veins before suffering an overdose. Impatient with a doctor's theory of how Caroline's drug addiction has an underlying basis prior to her taking drugs, Jack flatly demands she be cured at an expensive private clinic.

Telling Enrico Domenquez, her lawyer, "I regret everything," Helen realizes that her only chance of saving Karl from prison is to eliminate Ledesert before he can testify in court.

Episode Five, "The Politician." Back in Pakistan - "I loathe this place. I don't understand it" - to sign an extension of British aid, Jack begins to realize, with the help of Roomana ("Until you sign that agreement, people will listen to you") and her cousin (taking him on a tour through the lawless western tribal territory where everything is traded openly: "And nobody will ever win a war against us here") the importance of demanding more arrests of major heroin traffickers and closing down open markets of drugs from the Pakistani government in exchange for economic assistance.

Fearing Tariq, not wanting to become like him, Fazal plans to flee with his wife Sabira and their two young boys; instead, Fazal is arrested with a shipment of heroin, conveniently arranged by the authorities to placate Minister Lithgow.

With evidence of Domenquez's actual identity and criminal past, Detective Ulli, looking for the assassin of his partner, attempts to turn the Rossholdes' lawyer against Helen. Proving to be exceedingly brazen as well as clever, not crazy, Helen flies to Karachi to deal directly with Tariq, who imposes his own daunting terms for resuming business. Roomana implores Jack: "Search your own conscience."

Episode Six, "The Courier." Upon his return to London, Jack finds that Rachel has left him, Caroline has run away from the clinic, and he's about to be sacked by the Prime Minister. Lynch expects repayment from Helen for the loan. To save Fazal, who's incarcerated, Sabira agrees to become one of Tariq's mules to carry heroin into the UK. Tipped off about the transport of drugs, Roomana informs Jack, but striking customs workers refuse to cooperate, allowing a free-for-all of smuggling.

Jack airs his conclusion that stopping the supply of drugs is impossible; therefore, demand must be curtailed by improving the conditions of people's lives. This ignores his own daughter's example. He's unable to make the leap to an understanding that only by legalizing drugs - he and Roomana debate the definition of what's an illegal drug, dependent upon one's culture: heroin vs alcohol - can supply be removed from the hands of dangerous drug lords and demand better controlled through domestic efforts of education and rehabilitation.

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