London Spy, Pt1/5, BBC2, 21.00-22.00hrs each Monday

[vinteuil]

Should I persevere?

I think so. If you're not gripped by the 'thrill' element in the final minutes of the first episode, then you're hard to please!

But it's much more than a thriller - more an exploration of identity, what can anyone ever know about anyone, etc etc.

And the acting - the writing - and the photography!

Whether our MI6 agent wd really have chosen the foreshore just in front of the MI6 building for his intimate walk with his gay pick up - well, he was someone who liked risks - perhaps...

[ardcarp]

Ok. I will log back in...after supper.

[ardcarp]

Oh dear. Not my thing.

[Ferretfancy]

Remember the MI6 man who was found locked in a suitcase a couple of years ago? It was thought that he'd managed to lock himself in. There's surely some plot inspiration there. Wonderful performances from all concerned, and Jim Broadbent's older character is very familiar to me as I once had just that kind of support when life was difficult.

[DublinJimbo]

I'm well and truly hooked after the first episode. In the old days, before I could record and watch later, I'd be rearranging my calendar to make sure I was in front of the telly on Monday evenings.

[VodkaDilc]

Remember the MI6 man who was found locked in a suitcase a couple of years ago? It was thought that he'd managed to lock himself in. There's surely some plot inspiration there. Wonderful performances from all concerned, and Jim Broadbent's older character is very familiar to me as I once had just that kind of support when life was difficult.

I caught part of a radio interview with someone (the writer, perhaps), who said that this incident had been in his mind when he wrote the series. I recorded the first episode and watched last night. Even better than I expected. (Though the mechanics of how the central character removed 'an item' from his friend's flat stayed in the mind longer than I might have wished.) Ben Wishaw's characterisation was stunning - complete with the awful intonation which the young use these days.

[mercia]

wiki says the writer of this is in a relationship with the head of BBC Drama Commissioning. That was a lucky match. [am I allowed to say that ?]. Compellingly odd characters and good-looking locations, but fairly slow-moving for a 'thriller', in my opinion.

[Nick Armstrong]

[am I allowed to say that ?]

You are indeed.

[vinteuil]

... tickled by one antiquated touch - "Let's stay up and wait for the morning's papers... ".

In the 21st century they just might have looked online...

Loved the location shots at the ancestral pile with la Rampling. Of course the question hanging over Alex was -

"Do you like Rampling?"

"I don't know - I've never been rampled... "


[... coat on, and out the door. ]

[DracoM]

Sorry, I just do NOT get why people are drooling over this series.

Amazingly slow, laced together and almost justified by sequences of very, very self-conscious camera tricks, long on 'meaningful' silences, low on dialogue, and if it were not for Jim B and BW, would anyone be talking abut it at all? And as for the ubiquitous Charlotte Rampling.........

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Compellingly odd characters and good-looking locations, but fairly slow-moving for a 'thriller', in my opinion.

Isn't it more of a "suspense" drama than a "thriller"? A gradual building up tension, an inexorable sense that things are going to get horrible.

DracoM - as far as I'm concerned, it's the marvellously written script, the beguiling plot, the captivating performances, and the great photography. Otherwise, no - I can't see what all the fuss is about.

[Barbirollians]

... tickled by one antiquated touch - "Let's stay up and wait for the morning's papers... ".

In the 21st century they just might have looked online...

Loved the location shots at the ancestral pile with la Rampling. Of course the question hanging over Alex was -

"Do you like Rampling?"

"I don't know - I've never been rampled... "


[... coat on, and out the door. ]

True but I saw no sign of a computer in Jim Broadbent's flash pad ! Also some have a paywall !

[Tevot]

Hello there,

Haven't seen episode 2 yet but I did finally get to see the first one yesterday. Thought it was really well done and I thought the acting - particularly Jim Broadbent - excellent... I loved his "interrogation" of 'Alex' at dinner...

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[greenilex]

Stylish, gripping and quite noir enough for yours truly.

[Stanley Stewart]

Glad to see that London Spy has reached No 2 in the Barb ratings at 3.2.

The surreal plot and mystery even encouraged me to revisit Le Carre's, Smiley's People - a masterclass from Alec Guinness - and Martin Ritt's harsh thriller, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)in similar dark locations and scary sense of isolation, Richard Burton in one of his best performances.

So, tomorrow, (30 Nov), we have the penulimate episode and I'll do a prompt DVD transfer of four episodes to DVD before hard drive gremlins interfere and the series disappears into cyberspace.

The bitterness and disillusionment throughout sent my imagination reeling in the direction of Eliot's, Four Quartets, (Burnt Norton), "Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past..."
I have a hunch that I may have cracked the plot - peace, peace, my lips are sealed! -
as I drifted towards Eliot, I also envisaged 'O, what a tangled web we weave...'as I eagerly await the outcome where at least I can conceal my blushes.