User reviews

In the 1950s, John Le Carre (as he wasn't yet known) had to leave his job in the British secret service following the defection of the Kim Philby. Le Carre adopted his pen name and took up a new career as a writer of spy thrillers; and most directly fictionalised the Philby story in his most famous novel, 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'. This was adapted into a brilliant, talky television drama, featuring many of the outstanding British actors of the 1970s. It was more recently made into a film; but in a very different style. 'A Spy Among Friends' is new, less fictionalised account of Philby's defection, but it's far more like the 1970s version of Le Carre's work than the later film. Guy Pearce, Damian Lewis and Anna Maxwell Martin, among others, sit around talking. I should absoultely love it, given how much I adore its spritual predecessor, and it is good; but it's a little bit too clever, and it can be hard to follow all the subtle twists of plot. The Australian Pearce in particular is very good (and convincingly English) as Philby, but it's a muted affair.

Written by Alexander Cary of Homeland fame, and also starring Damian Lewis of Homeland fame alongside Australia's own Guy Pearce, A Spy Amongst Friends tells the story of disgraced British double agent Kim Philly (Pearce) - by all accounts, one of the biggest intelligence coups of the Cold War, on either side - and his friendship with Nicholas Elliott (Brody, who is brilliant) and the defection of Philby to Russia. Elliott is being debriefed by British officials in the aftermath of that defection. This is one of those shows, similar to the early seasons of Homeland, where you need to pay very close attention to everything going on. A slow burn series, but a very good one.

I have to say I was initially sceptical given some of the bad reviews until I saw a pattern, most of the negative reviewers hadn't bother to finish it so I persevered and I'm glad I did. This show offers something that's missing from so many TV shows out there - an intelligent story told by actors with real talent. Sure the story jumps back and forth but if you actually pay attention and give it time the rewards are there. All are on fine form especially Damien Lewis who is superb.

If you like intelligent well crafted TV dramas that offer a twisty tale for grown up this might just be for you.

1963, British MI6 Agent Nicholas Elliott is placed in an impossible situation, when he's forced to consider the possibility that his friend Kim Philby, a fellow agent, has detected to The KGB, and spent 25 years working as a double agent.

This was a little hit and miss for me, it's a famous, real life story of a cold war espionage, I was hoping for some excitement, but Part from episode five, it was quite a slow moving affair, it's definitely dialogue heavy.

It's interesting, the story itself is absorbing, but I fear the pacing may be off putting for quite a few viewers.

I'm really surprised that Irvine Welsh's Crime was given an obscure transmission slot, and that this was given a primetime Sunday evening slot on ITV after being shown on Britbox, Crime in my opinion is by far the superior show.

In terms of production values, it is visually incredible, the period detail, cars and sets are faultless, you even have the atmosphere, which takes you straight back to 1963.

I feel they could easily have told this story over four episodes, that would have done a great deal to increase the causal pacing I expect.

Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce are outstanding, the acting is beyond question, the pair truly delivered.

Mrs Thomas, I couldn't make my mind up how I felt about her character, not part of the original book, her presence felt awkward, as though she was there simply to balance things out, she mentions her humble background several times, and as for that accent, it slipped quite a few times.

6/10.

This must-see addition to the Cold War spy genre leans heavily on the visual and stylistic tropes established by the definitive 1979 BBC dramatisation of John Le Carre's 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'.

The lighting, settings, dialogue and pacing all pay homage to this classic series.

The production is absolutely sumptuous, with no expense spared. Beautiful photography, set decoration, locations and a legion of telephone boxes, pillar boxes and handily placed furniture vans (together with a cavalcade of vintage vehicles, archive footage and outstanding CGI matte shots) transform modern-day London and Bucharest into the Europe of the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

The narrative is often difficult to follow. Some streamlining and signposting of the plot would help. I watched all six episodes back-to-back and, at times, it felt like I was reassembling the shredded CIA files after the Fall of Saigon. One dark, wintery street, full of shuffling brown shapes, looks much like any other.

But the acting is top-notch. BAFTA-worthy performances from Anna Maxwell Martin, Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce, and the story really rewards those who stick with it. Plaudits for the original score too.

Heartily recommended, though, for multiple viewings, I'd opt for Alec Guinness every time.

Based upon the real life events of the Russian infiltration of the British security services from around the rise of Nazi Germany through to the early 1960s when the infiltration was exposed and 'agents' fled Britain.

This is not an action spy drama, it's a drama based upon intrigue and strategic thrust and parry - as such it's very successful and weaves a gripping tale. Just what exactly is going on? Whom can we trust? Is this opportunism or another move in the long game, or both...?

The three leads, Lewis, Martin & Pearce each offer nuanced performances that between them create and carry the bulk of the show's dramatic tension - and they each do a fine job of conveying a sense of the 'times they lived in' - times overshadowed by the cold war, memories of fascism and an horrendous world war, and of a looming new world struggling to shake off these attachments and mires of the old world.

The unfolding of the story is a little complicated, with frequent time shifts, which clarify and re-clarify understanding - so this is not a casual viewing show. It demands the audience pay full attention and think about and consider what they're witnessing. It all adds up to a very satisfying experience if you're prepared to invest the time - but mostly, you'll simply get sucked into the story and crave resolution.

On the production side, the world created is a very convincing one depicting, primarily, London in the 60s.

Superb!

One of the first commissions for new UK Streamer ITVX this six part drama has quality written all over it. The production values are high and there is a premium cast led by Damian Lewis, Anna Maxwell Martin and Guy Pearce.

Its a fascinating story that focuses on Philby and how MI5 played their hand once they conclusively worked out that he had been a long term Soviet agent.

For me the strength of it was in the production and the acting. I think some will find a bit slow moving and dull as the setup involves lot of scenes of interrogation and relatively little action seen in occasional flashbacks. Its more 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' than Mission Impossible' which is fine unless you're expecting the latter.

Quibles, as usual it was photographed way too darkly, it was sometimes hard to see the actors at all. Anna Maxwell is a great actress but if the story demanded a strong female character from Durham couldn't we have had an actress authentically from the area? The shifts in time were also hard to follow and over-used.

But for fans of the genre its definitely one to savour and enjoy.

'A Spy Among Friends' is hard work. So hard, in fact, that even having watched it to its conclusion I'm not absolutely certain of what was going on throughout its six episodes. And the reason for this is two-fold:

1. The story concerns spies and counter-spies and. For all I know,. Counter-counter-spies, and that itself makes for a difficult road. But, 2. Making matters more difficult (by far) is that the series goes back and forth and back again and forth again between time periods so that we can never grow comfortable with what's going on in the 'current' story-line. The series plays with us in this regard. A 1963 character walks into a room and in the next instant we see the same character in 1945 entering an altogether different room. And while we're trying to make sense of all this, the story moves to another time or place entirely.

Damien Lewis as one of the film's leads is excellent. There is about him an effete upper-crust quality that at times gives way to a very humane and caring side. Guy Pearce as 'The Spy' has a less complex role, but he carries it off nicely. We do not experience the battles within his mind as well as we might; his duplicity is, after all, the reason for this story (based on a true UK spy Kim Philby who in fact spied FOR the Soviets. Anna Maxwell Martin as a government interrogator (MI5) is absolutely wonderful. If there's a hero in this series, it is she.

In short, hard work. At times fatiguing. But worth giving it a try.

But if while watching it you begin to hope that the following episodes will be 'more clear', you can forget about sticking with it.

They won't.

If you want a Mission Impossible style bang fest or a Bond style romp this isn't your thing. If you need a plot recap after every ad break you lack the concentration for this.

But if you want a drama that engages, immerses, and makes you think then this will do the job.

Some reviewers have said it's slow, drab, tedious, the constant changing between timelines is distracting and that Mrs Thomas is an anachronism.

I think they're missing the point.

This is only 20 years after WWII, 20 years after these events government offices looked little different. Anyone who was in the Civil Service during that period will know the details are accurate.

The tension and mistrust between CIA, the Security Service, and SIS that followed the war, Blake, Burgess, and McClean is abundantly clear and so to the extent this hampered both their efforts.

One must also remember that this was only 2 years after the Cuban Missile crisis and the suspicions of East about West and the efforts and paranoia of intelligence and counter intelligence operations is very apparent.

This drama is a mind game that reflects the way that Philby manipulated his friends and acquaintances over decades. The constant reviewing of events by those involved akin to the thoughts of a cuckolded husband as he tries to spot what he has missed. The sense of betrayal almost palpable.

The drabness, the politeness, the ordinariness in stark contrast to the fatal impact of Philby on those he betrayed.

Pearce is exceptional as the idealistic Philby and there is an almost physical change as the realisation of his decisions and the realism of living in the Soviet Bloc hit home.

If he had been born half a century earlier Lewis could have been Elliot in reality. I couldn't make up my mind if he was an exceptional actor, or not acting at all he was that convincing.

And as for Maxwell-Martin, yes, Mrs Thomas was made up. My interpretation was her character aptly contrasted with the old boys club of Philby and Elliot and was created for this purpose. If SIS and the Security Service had had more like Mrs Thomas to challenge the status quo then perhaps the Soviet moles might not have burrowed so far into the establishment.

So stick with it. I thought it well worth a few hours of my time.

As others have said, it's too dark. I was hitting my monitors brightness button, but it was already at max.

Constantly swapping eras never makes for easy following in a complex, dense spy thriller plot, and because of this it was difficult to feel any sense of trepidation or intrigue.

Olivia Coleman's apparent understudy, Anna Maxwell Martin, played an anachronistic and historically revisionist character that is an insult to those who suffered the class, race and gender discrimination of the times.

Everything else, including Damien Lewis, Guy Pearce, and the costumes and sets, kept me watching.

I was really looking forward to seeing this. All the ingredients are there, a true spy story, Damien Lewis, Guy Pearce and Adrian Edmondson. So what went wrong?

1. Well, as many others have stated, it's annoyingly so dark, sometimes I thought my TV had been turned off it was so dark. This is something I've noticed is happening in a lot of recent productions.

2. The unnecessary addition of Anna Maxwell Martin's character, not in the book. There would never have been a woman debriefing agents in the sixties let alone one who was married to a black man. We know why these two were crow-barred into it don't we? And why oh why was she made to attempt a, failed, Durham accent? I mean the character is fictitious so she could have just spoken in her real one. This alone spoils it for me.

The acting however is superb, especially Guy Pearce with Damien Lewis a close second but after 2 episodes I can't watch anymore.

Pretty much anything with Damien Lewis will get me interested as I think he's a fine actor but I didn't really enjoy his performance in this. I felt he was a bit wooden. Adrian Edmondson was very good but ironically, I thought Anna Maxwell Martin was right up there. Ironic, of course, because she played a completely fictional character which is completely unnecessary in a story of this kind. Ben McIntyre had written yet another fascinating book but for some inexplicable reason, The TV people have done this. Not inexplicable at all really, I'm sure we can all see why a fictional northern, woman married to a black man was added to the story.

'A Spy Amongst Friends' is a demanding dramatic production. It insists its audience vest close attention in both the key actors, and the rather complex plotline.

Set in the sixties era of the early cold war, it is a classic British spy drama.

For me, supported by an exceptional supporting cast, it is Anna Maxwell Martin who stands out as a performer. Her character, Lily Thomas, is delightfully situated. In her role, she delivers. Her character is positioned as an antithetical antagonist to the misogynist MI5 organisational culture. In a male dominated social space, entrenched by upper class British intellectuals, and peers of the realm, stupidity falls at the feet of the old boys club.

Lily Thomas is literally the cat amongst the pigeons, tasked to evaluate and assess a senior MI6 (SIS) spymaster. Noncompliant with the male network of trust and innately insular existential social hierarchy, she (Lily), cuts through the masculine dogma and gender obfuscation.

This is a fictional drama which uses mostly real world player's involved in a time of near collapse of the British secret services. It is very well written. Actors et al deliver a collective continuum of stella performances. This is not an action movie, but for the attentive, vested viewer it is exciting, compelling and highly rewarding.

A cheerful music in different context will appear sad.

Somehow a contrast of a traitor to a country vs to a friend. Both intelligence officers, Elliott never knew that his best friend Philby is a spy, for more than 20 years.

For me, it's hard not to notice that both main actors, who excel being an antagonistic character could both act as Philby the double agent. Interestingly in this one, Damian Lewis became the lesser evil. But this difference can be notice that, they are suitable for each role in the last episode.

The thing is, if you are not the hard core fan of spy drama, it will be hard to enjoy A Spy Among Friends. Pay attention to Drama keyword, because it's very different with Spy Action one. I would not say you must pay close attention while watching A Spy Among Friends, because I don't think the Series is that hard to digest. I would not say also that the Series is highly rewarding, because much of them are subtle. Also with a subtle ending, giving some vibes, I just wish the process had been more magical atmosphere given somehow more often monotonous.

In the end it's almost a story that try to explore the friendship with unusual situation as the foundation for that relationship. Ah, the irony.

I was a bit pessimistic when I was starting this show, but since I got the flu and bonus time I gave it a try. My main concern was it will become somehow a soap opera centered about love affair between two male spies (as it happens i.e. On every show on Netflix 🙂, secondary concern was ex-Homeland 'agent Brody'...) Instead we are getting a really intelligent and interesting story line that delivers till the end. Acting, pictures and spy story climate is top notch and helps to deliver realistic background for the whole story. Tense, 'smokey' interiors, witty dialogues and focus on small details that matter. Not many shows will keep you hooked up on a story like this one, if you enjoy that type of cinema you won't be disappointed.

I thought I knew the history well but it's just too hard to follow. The scenes chop and change with dates and places as well as other characters popping up.

I'm not surprised ITV didn't launch this six parter on mainstream TV. It's a mess. The lighting in Episode 1 is beyond ridiculous and with the constant chopping and changing of scenes and timelines, the production doesn't make for relaxing viewing.

If ITV want to broadcast this on the network instead of ITVX, Post Production work will be needed with scene titles added. For example, 23 JANUARY 1963... Beirut, Lebanon.

I was really looking forward to this series and ITV have left me very disappointed.

"A Spy Among Friends" is a well-researched and engaging non-fiction that tells the story of Kim Philby, a high-ranking member of the British intelligence community who was revealed to be a Soviet spy in the 1960s. The storyline is rich in anecdotes and asides and provides a detailed look at the era and the people involved in the case. The show is able to balance Nick's admiration for Philby's wit, charm, and erudition with a clear-eyed view of his many betrayals, making it both entertaining and full of humanity. Overall, "A Spy Among Friends" is compelling and informative for anyone interested in espionage or the history of international relations.

Based on the true story of a notorious British secret agent, watching A Spy Among Friends feels like a journey back in time to those classic '60s spy thrillers, with various plot threads that gradually weave into focus. Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce are excellent in their respective roles as conflicted old friends and Anna Maxwell Martin is superb as the sharp, dogged MI5 investigator trying to drill down to the truth. With locations including London, Beirut, Istanbul and Moscow, it takes a while to fathom what's going on. And it does a great job of exposing the smug superiority of the old boys' network that ruled MI6.

Nothing in this presentation discloses exactly what intelligence Kim Philby provided to Russia, nor are we particularly enlightened about what information he provided to the U. K. or to the U. S.

We are reminded that during early days Russia was an ally but we are never truly told what prompted Philby to stay on after the party was over.

There are allusions to just plain old liking socialism but we do not know why.

The grim paradox (irony for those who cannot give up this overused word) is that by virtue of Philby's treason he became a hero among British upper class spies. And the same could be said of the U. S., which, according to this tale, caused James Jesus Angleton to turn into a monster of paranoia, as if he could not have gotten there himself on his own.

A lot of the series is about supposed male friendship. Men sit next to each other, tell dirty jokes, dance in circles, get drunk as lords, feign rescue of each other, and call this friendship. There is, of course, the undercurrent of homoerotica, which in old-timey accounts would be understated in a way unknown to modern producers, a loss to be felt by the audience that does not appreciate being clobbered over the head.

Fine crew and performances but we never really know where this matter ends. Perhaps in the "Siberia" of Philby's own making. But all in all the viewer is left wanting...something. And because this is spycraft, the viewer cannot be sure what is wanted or its significance. Alas!

A Spy Among Friends is an MGM+ limited series based on true events between friends that were part of MI6. Set in 1963 England, Nicholas Elliott played by Damien Lewis who learns his best friend, partner, colleague Kim Philby who is played by Guy Pearce betrayed his country to provide the Russian Empire names of British spies for over 20 years. The chemistry between the gentlemen seemed more than just being friends maybe lovers. The storyline was intriguing much like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and less like Mission Impossible. Most of the characters were actual real life individuals except for Lily Thomas who was played by Anna Maxwell Martin. Director Nick Murphy put together a beautiful piece of time that was slow in the beginning and intriguing by the end. It was good mini series to watch once.

Tedious? No, if you truly love real spy games. For you this is a new classic. Think Tinker Taylor but the old, superb tv series. I do prefer a good story, so I watched the 6 parts non stop and already I am thinking of a second watch.

If you prefer a quicky, a tweet, a comic, there is always one of the Mission Impossible episodes in Netflix or one of Pink Panther's Inspector funny animated shorts in youtube. Thoroughly enjoyable they all are, I have watched them all, but this is different.

Based on Kim Philby and Nicholas Elliot real life, it is very well plotted, photographied like a classic (you really feel a 1960's London is there), acted, and scored. It's good, real good.