Today, Britbox releases the espionage thriller A Spy Among Friends.
A Spy Among Friends introduces us to Nicholas Elliott (Damian Lewis, Homeland), an MI6 intelligence officer working with foreign security agency SIS in 1963.
The show’s opening hour begins with Flora Solomon (Anastasia Hille, The Ipcress File) wanting to spill the beans on everything she knows about Kim Phillby (Guy Pearce, Neighbours). The series then explores different missions, the first of which takes place in Beirut where Kim was living when MI6 finally blew his cover as a mole.
With the agency hoping to keep this information to itself, it tasks Kim’s long-time colleague and confidant Nicholas to go and confront him off the record.
Nothing can ever stay secret for long, and MI5 investigator Lily Thomas (Anna Maxwell Martin, Line of Duty) feels like friendship may have come before professional responsibility.
Screenwriter Alex Cary holds the answers but gives the two leads lots of material to unravel. It’s a slow burn approach that requires audience attention, but it’s a creative move that should pay off as the six-episode series progresses.
Lewis and Pearce give measured and compelling performances in the first two episodes watched for this review, which feel more like two-hander episodes.
Your weekend binge is set with A Spy Among Friends.
4 Stars
A Spy Among Friends is now streaming on Britbox.
