Mattie Storin

Mattie Storin is a young political correspondent hungry for a real story, sharp-eyed among the Westminster old boys who underestimate her. She meets Francis Urquhart with a reporter's instinct for what he isn't saying, flattered and intrigued by his attention, determined to find the story beneath the leadership contest everyone else is missing.

Susannah Harker plays her with a clever mix of ambition and naivety, a journalist smart enough to sense manipulation yet not quite immune to it. The character gives the drama its outside eye, someone chasing the truth Urquhart is busy burying, and her scenes with him crackle with a very particular, off-kilter tension.