Keeping power and influence is the priority task of Sir Simon Macdonald, the permanent secretary - the chief civil servant - in a Foreign Office headed, for the moment, by foreign secretary Boris Johnson. Politicians may come and go, but civil servants remain. We follow the diplomats as they wrestle with a series of crises and challenges.

In this second episode, we join the Europe director Caroline Wilson with Boris Johnson on their whistlestop tour from RAF Northolt to Lisbon and Paris.

The way most Britons come into contact with the Foreign Office is when they get into trouble overseas. We follow three diplomats as they try to aid Brits who unexpectedly find themselves in serious trouble on the other side of the world.