Sleepers

The most amusing mini-series about the end of the Cold War to be done in 20 years!

In 1966, an ambitious Soviet agent sends two sleepers (spies who infiltrate a country and do not act until they receive their activation code-word) to England on an undisclosed mission. Unbeknownst to the agents, their controller is imprisoned during an official purge, and they never receive their activation code! Now, 25 years later, the records of the mission have been unearthed but the agents are nowhere to be found--or, at least, that's the way they want it! One is a wealthy stockbroker, the other a married brewery worker with three children!

Perhaps the funniest scene is when the KGB agent-in-residence-in-London, Victor Chekhov (David Calder) is confiding in the situation to his British counterpart (William Chubb). Both men are mooning over how dull the spy world has become, compared to the past. "Yeah," says Chekhov, wistfully, "remember the Good Old Days?"

Bear in mind, this is not a slam-bang action series, but a touching human comedy. The sleeper agents are two men who until now have been happy with their lives. But now, with their buried pasts starting to catch up to them, they have to decide what to do. It's humorous, and at the same time ironic because it's really a story about how change comes to all things.