''London Spy'' is a British-American five-part drama television serial created and written by
Tom Rob Smith
Tom Rob Smith (born February 19, 1979) is an English author, screenwriter and producer.
Personal life and education
The son of Swedish mother Barbro and English father Ron, both antiques dealers, Smith was born and raised at Norbury, South Lon ...
that aired on
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
from 9 November until 7 December 2015. It was aired on Netflix in 2018.
Plot
''London Spy'' begins as the story of two young men: Danny (Ben Whishaw)—gregarious, hedonistic, and romantic—falls in love with Alex (Edward Holcroft)—asocial, enigmatic, and brilliant. Just as they discover how perfect they are for each other, Alex disappears. Danny finds Alex's body. They lived very different lives: Danny is from a world of
clubbing and youthful excess; Alex, it turns out, worked for the
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
. Although utterly ill-equipped to take on the world of espionage, Danny decides to fight for the truth about Alex's death.
Cast
Main
*
Ben Whishaw
Benjamin John Whishaw (born 14 October 1980) is an English actor and producer. After winning a British Independent Film Award for his performance in ''My Brother Tom'' (2001), he was nominated for an Olivier Award for his portrayal of the titl ...
as Daniel "Danny" Edward Holt
*
Jim Broadbent
James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the feature film ''Iris'' (2001), as well as winning a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe for hi ...
as Scottie
*
Edward Holcroft
Edward Patrick Holcroft (born 23 June 1987) is an English film, television and stage actor. He is best known for his roles in the ''Kingsman (franchise), Kingsman'' film franchise and in the television series ''Wolf Hall (miniseries), Wolf Hall'' ...
as Alistair "Alex" Turner
*
Samantha Spiro
Samantha Spiro (born 20 June 1968) is an English actress and singer. She is best known for portraying Barbara Windsor in the stage play ''Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick'' and the television films ''Cor, Blimey!'' and ''Babs'', DI Vivien Frie ...
as Detective Taylor
*
Lorraine Ashbourne
Lorraine Ashbourne (born 10 April 1961) is an English actress.
Career
Ashbourne has appeared on British series and television films, including: ''The Street'', ''True Dare Kiss'', '' Thin Ice'', ''In a Land of Plenty'', ''Boon'', ''Playing the ...
as Mrs. Turner / Nanny
*
David Hayman
David Hayman (born 9 February 1948) is a Scottish film, television and stage actor and director, known for his role as DCS Mike Walker in ITV drama ''Trial & Retribution'', as Jonas Franks in BBC period drama '' The Paradise'' and as Brace in ...
as Mr. Turner / Groundsman
*
Clarke Peters
Peter Clarke (born April 7, 1952), known professionally as Clarke Peters, is an American-British actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his roles as Lester Freamon in the television series ''The Wire'' (2002–2008) and Albert Lambrea ...
as the American
*
Charlotte Rampling
Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model.
She was cast in the role ...
as Frances Turner
*
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss (; born 17 October 1966) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. His work includes writing for and acting in the television series ''Doctor Who'', '' Sherlock'', and '' Dracula''. Together with ...
as Rich
*
Harriet Walter
Dame Harriet Mary Walter (born 24 September 1950) is a British actress. She has received a Laurence Olivier Award as well as numerous nominations including for a Tony Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 20 ...
as Claire
*
James Fox
William Fox (born 19 May 1939), known professionally as James Fox, is an English actor. He appeared in several notable films of the 1960s and early 1970s, including '' King Rat'', ''The Servant'', ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'' and ''Performanc ...
as James
*
Adrian Lester
Adrian Anthony Lester (born Anthony Harvey; 14 August 1968) is a British actor, director and writer. He is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for his work on the Lo ...
as Professor Marcus Shaw
*
Riccardo Scamarcio
Riccardo Dario Scamarcio (; born 13 November 1979) is an Italian actor and film producer.
Life and career
Scamarcio was born in Trani, Apulia, the son of Irene Petrafesa, a painter, and Emilio Scamarcio.
He went to train as an actor at the Sc ...
as Doppelganger
Recurring
*
Josef Altin
Josef Altin (born as Yusuf Altın; 12 February 1983) is a British television and film actor who had the role of Pypar in the HBO fantasy TV series ''Game of Thrones''. Other notable performances is his role as Ekrem in ''Eastern Promises'' and h ...
as Pavel
*
Zrinka Cvitešić
Zrinka Cvitešić (born 18 July 1979) is a Croatian film, television and theatre actress.
Biography
The elder of two daughters, Zrinka Cvitešić was born in Karlovac, in the Karlovac County to Ivan and Višnja Cvitešić. Her mother played or ...
as Sara
* Nicolas Chagrin as Charles Turner
*
Richard Cunningham as Danny's Lawyer
Production
The series was commissioned by
Janice Hadlow
Janice Vivienne Hadlow (born November 1957) in Lewisham is a former BBC television executive. She was the controller of the BBC television channel BBC Two, taking over this position in November 2008 having previously been controller of BBC Four. At ...
and Polly Hill, and produced by Guy Heeley for
Working Title Television
Working Title Films is a British film studio that produces motion pictures and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast. The company was founded by Tim Bev ...
. The
executive producer
Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...
s were Juliette Howell,
Tim Bevan
Timothy John Bevan, (born 20 December 1957) is a New Zealand-British film producer, the co-chairman (with Eric Fellner) of the production company Working Title Films.
Bevan and Fellner are the most successful British producers of their era, ...
,
Eric Fellner
Eric Fellner, (born 10 October 1959) is a British film producer. He is the co-chairman (along with Tim Bevan) of the production company Working Title Films.
Early life and education
Fellner was born to a Jewish family in England. From 1972 t ...
, and Polly Hill. Filming began in 2014 in London,
West London Film Studios
West London Film Studios ("WLFS") is a British film studio and television studio complex located in Hayes, Middlesex.
The studios cater to small and large productions; for films, television shows, TV adverts and photo shoots.
History
Frank ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, on the
Isle of Grain
Isle of Grain (Old English ''Greon'', meaning gravel) is a village and the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula within the district of Medway in Kent, south-east England. No longer an island and now forming part of the peninsula, the area is ...
and at
Dartford
Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and
is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in ...
.
The story was inspired by the
death of Gareth Williams
Gareth Wyn Williams (26 September 1978 – ) was a Welsh mathematician and Junior Analyst for GCHQ seconded to the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) who was found dead in suspicious circumstances at a Security Service safe house flat in P ...
, an MI6 agent found dead under similar, mysterious circumstances.
Release
The first episode premiered in the U.K. on
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
at 9pm on Monday 9 November 2015, and the serial concluded 7 December 2015. In the U.S., it premiered on
BBC America
BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary ser ...
starting 21 January 2016. In 2018 it was carried on Netflix.
Episodes
Critical reception
Reviewing Episode One for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', Lucy Mangan called it "an unutterably delicious, satisfying dish," with "Jim Broadbent, in fully teddy-bear-carrying-a-switchblade mode.." and Whishaw "the most powerful actor ever made out of thistledown and magic."
''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
''s Jasper Rees was unconvinced: "Whishaw's intense fixity of purpose could do nothing to defibrillate his DOA dialogue..."
The same newspaper's Harry Mount gave a critical review of episode 3 which he regarded as "wearily unconvincing" with "long spells of ennui."
After Episode 4 had screened, several prominent critics agreed that, whatever they thought of its story, the series possessed a haunting quality. Gabriel Tate of ''The Daily Telegraph'' wrote: "''London Spy'', has been adored and abhorred. Its ambition has delighted and infuriated, its obfuscation has intrigued and frustrated. It is, if nothing else, a singular vision..."
A.A. Gill
Adrian Anthony Gill (28 June 1954 – 10 December 2016) was a British journalist, critic, and author. Best known for his food and travel writing, he was also a television critic, was restaurant reviewer of '' The Sunday Times'', wrote for '' Va ...
of ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' wrote: "This is a strange, inexplicably compelling story. There are vast lacunas in the plot, filled with the unblinking performance of Ben Whishaw, made more memorable because most of it is done without words. Everyone else revolves around him, but he remains essentially a hole at the centre of the doughnut. It is a characterisation of great depth, in a plot that is nothing more than a series of enigmas, presented enigmatically."
Jack Searle in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' called it an "intoxicating series" with "a beguiling emotional aesthetic." "It was inevitable that, when prosaic explanation finally had to intrude on all this elliptical artistry, the spell was partly broken. A thriller hasn't so boldly made the genre beautiful since ''The Shadow Line''. ''London Spy'' has lived in the gap between plot and subtext – between what it's about, and what it's really about. It's really about self-knowledge, and how lovers try to know each other while lying about themselves."
Following the screening of the final episode, Gabriel Tate wrote in ''The Guardian'' that the series had "a somewhat daft and implausible ending, but there was still much to enjoy, mostly from the brilliant Ben Whishaw." Benji Wilson in ''The Daily Telegraph'' called it "wonderful and infuriating in equal measure..Has there ever been a television series that's frustrated as much as ''London Spy'' (BBC 2)? Over five weeks this contemporary thriller has scaled giddy heights and then plumbed ludicrous depths, gone from being completely gripping to turgid as hell, thrown up single scenes of startling brilliance then followed them with some preposterous self-indulgence... ''London Spy'' potentially great script was in desperate need of some doughty editing."
''The Guardian''
Mark Lawson
Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author. Specialising in culture and the arts, he is best known for presenting the flagship BBC Radio 4 arts programme ''Front Row (radio programme), Front Row'' between 1998 and 2014. ...
named the series one of the best shows of 2015.
The series was nominated for the
British Academy Television Award for Best Mini-Series
The British Academy Television Award for Best Mini-Series is one of the major categories of the British Academy Television Awards (BAFTAs), the primary awards ceremony of the British television industry. The category is described by the BAFTA webs ...
and the
GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series
The GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series is one of the annual GLAAD Media Awards which is offered to the best LGBT-related television limited series or movie. At the 31st GLAAD Media Awards, the award was split and honore ...
.
References
External links
*
*
*
London Spy' on
BBC America
BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary ser ...
* {{IMDb title, 4108134
2015 British television series debuts
2015 British television series endings
2010s British LGBT-related drama television series
2010s British mystery television series
BBC mystery television shows
BBC television dramas
English-language television shows
Gay-related television shows
Secret Intelligence Service in fiction
Television series by Working Title Television
Television shows set in London
American spy thriller television series