musings about the actor and the characters he brings to life
Elliott: Do you remember The Admiral’s Glass?
Philby: The Admiral’s what?
Elliott: Glass. By Southwark Bridge.
As her husband picks up the carrots he grew in their London backyard, Lily listens and re-listens to the Beirut tapes. What happened at The Admiral’s Glass? And why on earth is Philby seriously alarmed when an ambulance with sirens on arrives at their building? Continue reading “A Spy Among Friends, Episode 2: The Admiral’s Glass”
I just finished watching the six-part A Spy Among Friends on ITVX and cannot wait to share my episode reviews with you! Since, unlike Billions that releases one episode per week, ITVX has dropped all episodes together. So my plan is to share one episode recap per week. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do putting them together.
First things first: As someone who read Ben MacIntyre’s book twice, I find Alexander Cary’s adaptation very clever. Nick Murphy’s background in documentary is evident and Joanna Eatwell proves once again she is the master of costume design. Damian Lewis, Guy Pearce and Anna Maxwell Martin give off-the-chart brilliant performances.
A Spy Among Friends is slow-cooking, captivating and elegant. It is cinematic to a degree that I envy the viewers who could see the first two episodes on big screen at the BFI London Film Festival. There are time jumps and you need to pay attention – don’t text and watch 🙂 So, yes, ladies and gentlemen, A Spy Among Friends is exactly my cup of tea!
So shall we?
Continue reading “A Spy Among Friends, Episode 1: Boom-ooh-yatatatah”
Kim Philby is arguably the most famous – or should I say infamous? – secret agent of all times. He may not be as well known as James Bond, but in contrast to 007, Philby was a real-life spy and the most successful member of the Cambridge Five, a group of spies recruited by the Russians to pass information from the UK to the Soviet Union during the Second World War through 1950s. A charming and brilliant Cambridge graduate, he quickly rose to the top of the counterintelligence unit at the MI6. He became the head of the anti-Soviet unit, served as the MI6 chief in Istanbul and ultimately became MI6’s Washington-based liaison with the CIA. Having his confidantes at MI6 and becoming close friends with James Angleton, a rising star at the CIA . While his betrayal got some of his colleagues into big trouble and took several Soviet defectors to their deaths, nobody suspected Philby for years. And when some at the MI5 flagged him, his colleagues at the MI6 and the CIA came to the rescue. When they finally had the evidence to confront him, Philby had already provided secret information to the Soviets for 30 years! Continue reading “What to Expect When We Are Expecting ‘A Spy Among Friends’ *CONSTANTLY UPDATED*”
If you have been following this blog for some time, you certainly know about my obsession with Homeland and Brody in particular. And so you probably think this post is yet another one about my all-time favorite fictional character…
Well, you’re wrong! 🙂
This post is about Damian Lewis and My Homeland – the country that I was born and raised in: Turkey. I have been inspired to write this post in London this summer when Damian signed the set list I stole from the Omeara stage in Turkish:
“Tesekkur, Bahar.” (“Thanks, Bahar.”)
Continue reading “Fan Fun London Spy Reports From ‘A Spy Among Friends’ Premiere in London”