2003 British television drama series
Cambridge Spies is a four-part British drama miniseries written by Peter Moffat and directed by Tim Fywell,[1] that was first broadcast on BBC Two in May 2003 and is based on the true story of four young men at the University of Cambridge who are recruited to spy for the Soviet Union in 1934.
Plot
The series is set from 1934 to 1951 and follows the lives of the best-known quartet of the Cambridge Five Soviet spies, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt and Donald Maclean, who whilst studying at the University of Cambridge are courted by Soviet agents and recruited into a world of covert intelligence and espionage.[2] Fueled by youthful idealism, a passion for social justice, a talent for lying and a hatred for fascism, the four take huge personal risks to pass Britain's biggest secrets to Moscow. Across almost twenty years of spying and treachery, the four are bound by their beliefs, the secrets they know about one another, and the knowledge that they stand or fall together.
Cast
- Tom Hollander as Guy Burgess, Soviet spy inside MI6 and later the Foreign Office.
- Toby Stephens as Kim Philby, Soviet spy inside MI6.
- Samuel West as Anthony Blunt, Soviet spy inside MI5; he would later go on to be Art Curator to the Royal Family.
- Rupert Penry-Jones as Donald Maclean, Soviet spy inside the Foreign Office.
- Lisa Dillon as Litzi Friedman, an Austrian Communist who was the first wife of Kim Philby.
- Patrick Kennedy as Julian Bell, an English poet and lover of Anthony Blunt. Bell studied at the University of Cambridge with the Cambridge spies and would later die in the Spanish Civil War.
- Stuart Laing as Jack Hewit, a dancer who becomes the lover of Guy Burgess and later Anthony Blunt.
- Julian Firth as Edward, Prince of Wales.
- Anthony Andrews as King George VI.
- Angus Wright as Guy Liddell, a British intelligence officer.
- Alastair Galbraith as John Cairncross, the fifth member of the Cambridge spies, Cairncross was recruited by the Soviets to spy for them inside the Foreign Office, Bletchley Park and finally MI6.
- John Light as James Jesus Angleton, head of Staff A of the CIA's Office of Special Operations, where he was responsible for the collection of foreign intelligence and liaison with the CIA's counterpart organizations.
- Ronald Pickup as Colonel Winter, a British intelligence officer.
- Anna-Louise Plowman as Melinda Maclean, wife of Donald Maclean.
- James Fox as Lord Halifax, British ambassador to the United States.
- Garrick Hagon as Klaus Fuchs, a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who supplied information from the American, British and Canadian Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and shortly after World War II.
- Nancy Carroll as Frances Doble, a Canadian-born actress who had an affair with Kim Philby during the Spanish Civil War.
- Benedict Cumberbatch as Edward Hand, a journalist covering the Spanish Civil War.
- Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth.
- Marcel Iureș as Arnold Deutsch a.k.a. Otto, a Soviet spy responsible for recruiting the Cambridge Five.
- John Guerrasio as General Walter Bedell Smith, the head of the CIA.
- Joe Searby as Walter Krivitsky, a Soviet intelligence officer who defects to America.
Production
Cambridge Spies was commissioned by Jane Tranter, BBC Controller of Drama Commissioning[2] and production was announced on Cambridge Spies in August 2003.[3] The BBC announced that it wanted the audience to be able to sympathise with the spies, whom it would portray as "incredibly glamorous". A BBC spokeswoman said it would be a "fresh" take on the story, and that it was the first time the story of the group as a whole had ever been tackled by film-makers.[4]
Filming
Filming for Cambridge Spies began in September 2003[4] at locations in England and Spain. Filming took place at the University of Cambridge, where four days into filming a truck loaded with prop bicycles was stolen from outside a Cambridge hotel and emptied of its contents.[5]
Various locations in London were used, such as One Great George Street, St. James's Park, Regent's Park, Hyde Park, Ham House; and Highgate Cemetery.[6]
Locations in Spain were used as well with scenes set in Vienna, Austria, being filmed in Barcelona and scenes depicting the 1937 bombing of Guernica were filmed in Madrid.[6]
Episodes
Reception
Ratings
Viewing figures for the series averaged at 2 million per episode.[7]
Critical reception
Mark Lawson from The Guardian said "Cambridge Spies is high-class drama, but historically it's best regarded as a cover story".[8]
Appearing on Newsnight, Will Self, of the Evening Standard said "I think the historical inaccuracy is unforgivable. These are recent events. The real story is exciting and incredibly revealing of the nature of the British establishment at the time and on an enduring level. The historical liberties that have been taken, kick off from the start".[9]
Awards and nominations
The complete series was released on DVD on 2 June 2003.[16]
References
External links
