A Spy Among Friends - Episode GuideFull series drop on ITVXWeekly on ITV1 starting Sunday 9 JulyOFFICIAL PRESS RELEASENEWS PROVIDED BY ITV Press Centre Episodic guideEPISODE ONE: “Boom-ooh-yatatatah"In the wake of Kim Philby’s escape to Moscow, his closest friend in Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MI6.), Nicholas Elliott, is under investigation by Mrs. Lily Thomas from the Security Service (MI5): Did he facilitate Philby’s escape because he’s also a traitor working for the Russians, or is it just that his judgement was clouded at a critical moment by their twenty-three year friendship? Or maybe, just maybe, he in fact had the last laugh having manipulated Philby to run to the bosom of the KGB for foreign intelligence purposes. EPISODE TWO: “The Admiral’s Glass” EPISODE THREE: “Allegory Of The Catholic Faith” EPISODE FOUR: “Vodka” In Moscow, Angleton’s CIA field agents are led into a trap by Philby and killed by the KGB. Philby used them, and Angleton, to prove that he is still very useful to the KGB. EPISODE FIVE: “Tea Time” EPISODE SIX: “No Man’s Land” Lily has forced him to remember more than he perhaps ever wanted to about Philby, but in doing so he’s inclined to agree with her that he and men of his and Philby’s privilege and class are the real danger to England (and America), more than any one man. Then there’s Angleton, and how he has been infected by Philby to never trust any of his friends and colleagues again — an infection that will surely spread through the CIA and could even destroy it from within. So, informed by how Philby played Angleton, Elliott and Lily understand that their suspicions of Hollis are a construct of the now invisible hand of Philby and must therefore be questioned and treated with caution, if not dismissed entirely before they cripple British Intelligence. Several months later, Philby sends Elliott a letter asking for a meeting to bury the hatchet in an East Berlin bar. At Christmas that year (1963) Elliott travels to East Berlin, not to be sucked into another game of friendship, but to return an umbrella — which he has always treasured — that Philby once gave him in gratitude for his loyalty and friendship. And Lily is invited to join the Intelligence Service, while the Soviet Union launches the first — and, to this date, last — solo woman pilot into space. AboutBased on the New York Times best-selling book written by Ben Macintyre, the six-episode series dramatizes the true story of Nicholas Elliott and Kim Philby, two British spies and lifelong friends. Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet double agent in history. This is a story of intimate duplicity; of loyalty, trust and treachery. Philby’s deeply personal betrayal, uncovered at the height of the Cold War, resulted in the gutting of British and American Intelligence.
Source ITV Press Centre
July 7, 2023 5:07am ET by ITV Press Centre |