Categories A Spy Among Friends BFI London Film Festival Print Media Review

Review: A Spy Among Friends – Deadline

Damian Lewis With His Mona Lisa Smirk

by Stephanie Bunbury | Deadline | October 7, 2022

Nothing has quite the same screen allure as a secret world. Espionage is so secret, by definition, that we have to take even its existence as a matter of trust; all we know about what goes on behind the intelligence agencies’ closed doors is what is relayed to us through books, films and series like A Spy Among Friends, based on Ben Macintyre’s book about the British double agent Kim Philby. Presumably, a certain kind of person is drawn to that world where nothing can be let slip outside it. To work for both sides, one must constantly be aware of who said what to whom, who knows what, who saw you where, who remembers you there — that anyone should want that life is a mystery in itself.

A Spy Among Friends – two episodes of which are screening as part of the London Film Festival – reunites Alexander Cary, a writer and producer on the long-running espionage series Homeland, with actor Damian Lewis, who also steps up as an executive producer of the new series. Lewis is best known on both sides of the Atlantic as Homeland’s Nicholas Brody, the Marine Corps sniper imprisoned and possibly “turned” by Al-Qaeda. Here he enters another secret world, but in a very different guise: He plays Nicholas Elliott, an operative with foreign security agency SIS, who also is the closest friend of Philby (Guy Pearce).

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Categories A Spy Among Friends BFI London Film Festival Print Media Review

Review: A Spy Among Friends – The Telegraph

A Cerebral and Fiendish Remix of the Kim Philby Tale

by Jasper Rees | The Telegraph | October 7, 2022

Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce are magnificent in a satisfyingly complex drama which focuses on Philby’s escape to Beirut in 1963.

Nothing illustrated the length of the journey made by Kim Philby from West to East, from British mandarin to Soviet icon, than his funeral. The casket, in the Russian style, was open, enabling his widow to lean in for a final caress of that infamous poker face. (You can watch the footage for yourself in Adam Curtis’s compendious forthcoming BBC series about the death rattle of communism.)

In a sense the lid will never close over the coffin of England’s most notorious traitor. Like other enigmas – see also Albert Speer – the story of a third man with two paymasters and four wives can never be definitively told, the case never closed. Hunting for the real Philby among the false fronts and double lives is like wandering around a maze uncertain if you’re looking for the entrance or the exit. From every new angle glint more questions.

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Categories A Spy Among Friends BFI London Film Festival Film Festival Gallery Red Carpet Screenings

Damian Lewis Attends ‘A Spy Among Friends’ World Premiere at BFI London Film Festival 2022

World Premiere and Red Carpet

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | October 7, 2022

A Spy Among Friends starring Damian Lewis received its World Premiere at BFI London Film Festival Friday, October 7, 2022. Damian spoke with press for interviews and walked the red carpet before the screening. Episodes one and two of A Spy Among Friends premiered at 6:30 p.m. on screen one at Curzon Mayfair to a sold out crowd. The drama will consist of a total of six episodes. Not only is Damian in one of the lead roles, but he also served as a producer. A Spy Among Friends is set to air in November 2022 on the new streaming platform ITVX in the UK. US release pending.

In 1963, MI6 agent Kim Philby (Guy Pearce) was revealed to be a KGB spy in one of the most humiliating chapters of Britain’s involvement in the Cold War. This adaptation of Ben Macintyre’s best-selling book explores the impact of this notorious betrayal of the British establishment. It focuses specifically on what happened during the final meeting between Philby and his close friend and fellow MI6 agent Nicholas Elliott (Damian Lewis), in the days leading up to Philby’s defection.

Outstanding performances from Lewis, Pearce and Anna Maxwell Martin bring to life the layered and deeply intelligent script by showrunner Alexander Carey (who previously worked with Damian on Homeland). Part gripping spy thriller in the Le Carré mould, part incisive dissection of the British class and power structures still in place today, A Spy Among Friends is, above all, a moving portrait of friendship and betrayal.

The 66th annual festival took place in venues across the UK capital beginning Wednesday October 5 and will go through Sunday October 16, 2022. Video clips:

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Categories A Spy Among Friends BFI London Film Festival Film Festival Screenings

A Spy Among Friends World Premiere at BFI

BFI London Film Festival 2022

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | August 31, 2022

A Spy Among Friends starring Damian Lewis will receive a World Premiere at BFI London Film Festival this October. The 66th annual festival will take place in venues across the UK capital on Wednesday October 5 through Sunday October 16, 2022 and will host 22 feature films, three episodic selections and several documentary cinema. Episodes one and two of A Spy Among Friends will premiere on Friday, October 7, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. at Curzon Mayfair, screen 1. The screening is sold out.

The miniseries explores MI6 agent Kim Philby’s defection to the Soviet Union and stars Guy Pearce and Damian Lewis, the latter reuniting with showrunner Alexander Cary following their previous collaboration on Homeland. Above all, it is a moving portrait of friendship and betrayal. Other UK debuts launching at the festival include Fridjof Ryder’s dark thriller Inland, starring Mark Rylance.  Some key dates:

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Categories Broadcast Media Jeffrey Archer: The Truth

‘Jeffrey Archer: The Truth’ Now Available for Streaming – Aug 26, 2020

The Truth, the Whole Truth and Everything But the Truth

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | August 26, 2020

Jeffrey Archer: The Truth is now available on BFI Player for those with subscriptions in the UK. Damian plays Jeffrey Archer in this 2002 film, a satirical look at the fascinating ‘secret’ true life of disgraced 1980’s Tory politician turned bestselling author Jeffrey Archer. The truth, the whole truth and everything but the truth.

Visit BFI here

Categories Brides Broadcast Media

‘Brides’ Now Available for Streaming – Aug 25, 2020

How a Love Letter Begins

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | August 25, 2020

Brides (Nyfes) is now available on BFI Player for those with subscriptions in the UK. Damian plays Norman Harris in this 2004 film. Set in 1922, a mail order bride, one of 700 aboard the SS King Alexander, falls in love with an American photographer. She is bound for her new husband in New York and he is on his way home to a failed marriage.

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Categories Events Helen Media Print Media

Damian Lewis Attends ‘Loving Vincent’ Premiere – Oct 9, 2017

Damian Lewis Attends ‘Loving Vincent’ Premiere 

by Julia Pritchard for MailOnline – Daily Mail – October 9, 2017

Damian Lewis at Loving Vincent Premiere, Getty

Damian Lewis was back in London to attend the Loving Vincent UK Premiere and live broadcast at the National Gallery on October 9, 2017.

The film,  Loving Vincent is presented as part of the BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express®, which runs from 4–15 October 2017; bringing the world’s best new films to venues across London.

Starring Helen McCrory, the film encapsulates the life and troubling myths surrounding the controversial death of Vincent van Gogh as told by his paintings and by the characters that inhabit them.

Helen was  joined by her co-stars and husband Damian Lewis at the screening in London.

The flagship Loving Vincent Exhibition will open in Noordbrabants Museum on 13 October 2017. The exhibition will contain 119 oil paintings from the film Loving Vincent, 10% of the paintings remaining after the filming process. 

Loving Vincent will be in cinemas 13 October 2017. For more information, please view the Loving Vincent UK premiere announcement and see our updated gallery.

There’s something familiar about Vincent…

Source: Loving Vincent Film & Getty

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