Author: Gingersnap

ITVX’s Adaptation of Ben Macintyre’s Bestseller Invents Female Officer

by Anita Singh | The Telegraph | November 29, 2022

Kim Philby’s career as a double agent was a betrayal not just of his country, but of the old boys’ network at MI6.
A new television drama about his treachery aims to inject some gender balance by inventing a female character who exposes the British intelligence services as a world of entitled, public school “dinosaurs”.

The drama, A Spy Among Friends, is an adaptation of Ben Macintyre’s bestselling book about the friendship between Philby and Nicholas Elliott, a fellow agent.

Damian Lewis plays Elliott, who has been blind to Philby’s betrayal. He gradually learns the truth through his dealing with Lily Taylor (Anna Maxwell Martin), a working class MI5 officer called in to investigate.
The drama, co-starring Guy Pearce as Philby, launches on December 8 on ITVX, the streaming service which is replacing the old ITV Hub.

The creation of Lily Taylor follows a trend for inserting fictional female characters into stories that, in their original form, had no place for women.

“This character enabled us to tell a particular story,” said Lewis. “About a generation of white, upper class dinosaurs, who’d been responsible for two world wars, failed intelligence missions, and had curated and nurtured our most famous double agent. The redemptive thing for Elliott is that he has the foresight and humanity to recognize in this young, female MI5 officer that here might be a way forward. He sees in her something rather brilliant – he sees the future.”

Continue reading A Spy Among Friends Exposes the Public School, Old Boys’ Network at MI6

Episode Titles and Descriptions

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | November 28, 2022

A Spy Among Friends will be available on ITVX on December 8 and BritBox AU on December 9, but for those of us across the pond, we will have to wait until its US release. Until then, we will continue to update this page with episode titles and descriptions as information is published,

Episode 1: Boom-ooh-yatatatah
Description: 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.

Continue reading A Spy Among Friends Episode Guide