Sarcasm is an adjusted stress reaction.

Well, there's the actual interesting plot, about the Suez crisis and the limitations on reporting. (For example, there was a law that television news and newsreels couldn't comment on Parliamentary debates until two weeks had passed.)

Then there's the slightly silly plot, about an MI6 agent turned traitor, a Soviet mole in the BBC and a KGB list of potential traitors to Britain.

And then there's the annoying plot, about the Bel-Freddie-Hector love triangle. With Hector's wife and Anna Chancellor sort of floating on the edge, both being more interesting than everyone else. And, parallel, the endearing plot about the shy Jewish assistant with ambitions to write comedy sketches, the secretary with whom he's infatuated, and the Jamaican medical student she's dating.