It was a strange era, the 1950's. The Americans had McCarthyism, and we were affected by it, as the Series demonstrated reasonably well. Civil defence was growing, nobody trusted anybody else, and as Mr Petrukin found out, being Jewish put you right under the radar of MI5. This story captured the feel of the era quite well, and was assisted by some great acting and even thought I found this to be a very slow series, it was fascinating and I had to keep watching.
It was helped considerably by a first class cast, especially Toby Stephens as Samuel. He captured the essence of what it feels like to be the only sane character amongst a company of maniacs, and the rest of the cast including Keeley Hawes as his love interest, were all magnificent. I rather enjoyed Timothy Spall's portrayal of the titled gentleman know it all who tries to manipulate his peer group. Characterisation was what kept this series afloat; the plot meandered and the ending fell flat.
I am not too familiar with Poliakoff's stories but I look forward to watching some of his better works, this was intriguing but not satisfying.
