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A Spy Among Friends review – don’t take your eyes
off this star-packed espionage thriller
Guy Pearce is a charismatic traitor, Damian Lewis is
an enigma and Anna Maxwell Martin carries along a fabulous drama that’s full of
excitement – if a tad stuffy
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Rebecca
Nicholson
Thu 8 Dec
2022 01.00 EST
The story
of the notorious MI6 agent and Soviet spy Kim Philby has been told numerous
times before, but A Spy Among Friends (ITVX) has a fresh bash at it, using Ben
Macintyre’s book of the same name as its source and inspiration. The stakes are
high. This is one of the flagship dramas to launch ITV’s revamped online player
and new subscription service. It comes with a starry cast and what should be an
irresistible tale of intrigue, double-crossing and suspense, stretched out over
multiple locations from Istanbul, Beirut and London to Moscow and Ohio.
It begins
with the big reveal that Philby (Guy Pearce) is a traitor who has been working
for the KGB and feeding them intel for the past 20 years. His close friend and
fellow SIS (AKA MI6) agent Nicholas Elliott (Damian Lewis) is tasked with going
to Beirut to retrieve Philby and extract a full confession, despite appearing
to doubt the depth of his friend’s betrayal. It becomes a sort of espionage
stew at this point, jumping around in time from the early days of Philby and
Elliott’s friendship in the second world war, to MI5’s 1963 interrogation of
Elliott, to work out who knew what about Philby and when.
This is not
the kind of drama one can watch with an eye on something else. Heaven forbid
you get distracted by a text message; there are a couple of instances where I
had to rewind several minutes because I briefly looked away. There are so many
layers to peel back. Elliott is looking into Philby’s betrayals, but MI5 are
looking into Elliott and Philby and MI6, and everyone involved is hoping the CIA
doesn’t find out about it before they get their ducks in a row. That is a lot
of spy-on-spy spying.
There’s no
denying that this is a fabulous cast. Lewis is suitably ambiguous as Elliott,
who carries with him the hurt of a jilted lover and the confusion of a man
whose entire belief system is falling apart. Pearce makes Philby’s charisma
apparent for all to see, and makes the most of his range, whether that’s taking
part in a West End song and dance or dealing with the fallout from his
unmasking. Anna Maxwell Martin plays Lily Thomas, an MI5 agent looking into
what exactly happened. Lily is a “composite” of real people, an invention to
carry the drama along. When she sits down to business, at a desk with a tape
recorder, Line of Duty fans will surely be waiting for that long beep. “Could
you explain to me why you let the most dangerous Soviet penetration agent this
country has ever known leg it?” she asks, sternly, as we learn how Philby was
able to abscond.
There are
plenty of small thrills to be had from a world built on codes and double
meanings. Men with umbrellas exchange instructions in newspapers; names are
seemingly mispronounced, in order to convey a clandestine message. The most
intriguing code of all, which A Spy Among Friends excels at exploring, is that
of class and tradition. There is an upper-echelons fantasy of Englishness at
play. MI6 is an old boys’ network where decisions of international importance
are hashed out in members’ clubs and on cricket pitches. When that is
questioned by one of their own pledging his allegiance to the communist cause,
they are almost as baffled and offended as they are alarmed. But the old world
is changing, and Thomas – northern, female, married to a Black doctor – is
supposed to represent that. It’s laid on a bit thick, but Maxwell Martin just
about carries it off.
Yet
ironically, given that it deals with the fall of the stuffy old guard, there’s
something a little stuffy and uptight about the whole thing. There is plenty of
excitement in the material – ambushes, bombs, chases, executions, and, of
course, a royal connection, when Sir Anthony Blunt turns up – yet it still
manages to drag its feet. It tries to get around the complexity of the plot
with a number of conversations simply explaining what is going on. These are
useful but oddly static, and certainly slow the momentum. Perhaps it suffers
from an unfortunate comparison with another recent series adapted from a
Macintyre book, SAS Rogue Heroes, which channels its fascinating history lesson
into something far more vivacious and entertaining. This is all very fine and
elegant, but it’s lacking in charisma.
A Spy Among
Friends is available on ITVX in the UK and BritBox in Australia
A Spy Among
Friends is a British espionage thriller television series, starring Guy Pearce
and Damian Lewis. It is based on the book of the same name by Ben Macintyre,
adapted by Alex Cary.
Critical
reception of A Spy Among Friends was mixed, with Rebecca Nicholson of The
Guardian saying, "There are plenty of small thrills to be had from a world
built on codes and double meanings."Stephanie Bunbury with Deadline wrote
that the "unfolding of their negotiations" was "not
seat-of-your-pants televisual excitement, but it is the stuff of sustained
intrigue". Jay Skelton with Reel Mockery called A Spy Among Friends
"frustrating to watch". However, Nick Hilton with The Independent
said, "there is much to enjoy about A Spy Among Friends".
EPISODES
1 "Boom-ooh-yatatatah[2]" Alexander Cary Nick Murphy 8 December
2022
2 "The Admiral's Glass" Alexander Cary Nick Murphy 8 December
2022
3 "Allegory of the Catholic
Faith" Alexander Cary Nick Murphy 8
December 2022
4 "Vodka" Alexander Cary Nick Murphy 8
December 2022
5 "Snow" Alexander Cary Nick
Murphy 8 December 2022
6 "No Man's Land" Alexander Cary Nick Murphy 8
December 2022
Based on A Spy Among Friends by Ben
Macintyre
Written by Alex Cary
Directed by Nick Murphy
Starring
Damian
Lewis
Guy Pearce
Country of
origin United Kingdom
Original
language English
No. of
episodes 6
Production
Executive
producers
Alexander
Cary
Bob Bookman
Alan Gasmer
Peter
Jaysen
Patrick
Spence
Nick Murphy
Producers Chrissy Skinns
Damian
Lewis
Production
companies
Sony
Pictures Television
ITV Studios
Veritas
Entertainment Group
Ginger
Biscuit Entertainment
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