ITVX – Damian Lewis

Best TV Shows of 2023: A Spy Among Friends

On November 29, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Nail-Biting Espionage

by Mike Hale | New York Times | November 29, 2023

TV in 2023 was like synchronized swimming. Below the surface, there was roiling and churn. The writers’ and actors’ strikes wiped out much of the production year. The hangover from the corporate binge on streaming platforms led to cancellations and cutbacks. A number of hall-of-fame series left the air, with no clear plan of, as it were, succession.

But above the waterline, the dance went on. As usual, it was challenging to whittle down my year-end list to 10. (So I picked 11.) As usual, I am listing it in alphabetical, not ranked order. As usual, I made it a rule not to repeat shows from the previous year, and as usual, I broke that rule. (I couldn’t not include “Reservation Dogs.”)

Continue reading Best TV Shows of 2023: A Spy Among Friends

A Spy Among Friends Awards

A Spy Among Friends Wins Radio Times Screen Test Award

On November 7, 2023November 8, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Best Box Set

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | November 7, 2023

The Radio Times Screen Test Awards 2023 voting results are in and A Spy Among Friends won Best Box Set on Tuesday, November 7, 2023! The public was able to vote for shows in seven key categories that made them feel good and improved their wellbeing over the past year.

Congrats to all the cast and crew. We are proud of the mini-series and its accolades.

A Spy Among Friends Broadcast Media

A Spy Among Friends Available on Amazon Prime

On September 28, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Stream This Spy Thriller

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | September 28, 2023

A Spy Among Friends is available to stream on Amazon Prime and the first episode is free! Remaining episodes require adding a free trial of MGM+ to your Amazon Prime account, however, you can cancel MGM+ add-on at any time to avoid further fees. The television mini-series first aired on the new streaming platform ITVX in the UK back in December 2022, followed by Amazon Prime Video in Canada since February 2023 and more recently on MGM+ in the US from March 2023.

Based on Ben Macintyre’s book by the same name, Nicholas Elliott (Damian Lewis) is working for Britain’s SIS as an intelligence officer and is left in turmoil when he learns his close friend and colleague, Kim Philby (Guy Pearce), has been secretly working as a double agent for the KGB since 1932. Elliot interviews him in Beirut, and then Philby defects to the Soviet Union. The series was nominated in the best mini-series category at the British Academy Television Awards, announced in March 2023.

A Spy Among Friends Broadcast Media

A Spy Among Friends Heads to ITV and Sky Italia

On July 4, 2023July 7, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Broadcast Syndication

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | July 4, 2023

A Spy Among Friends is coming to ITV1 beginning Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 9:00 pm and Sky Italia on July 17. The television mini-series first aired on the new streaming platform ITVX in the UK back in December 2022, followed by Amazon Prime Video in Canada since February 2023 and more recently on MGM+ in the US from March 2023.

Based on Ben Macintyre's New York Times best seller #ASpyAmongFriends – starring Damian Lewis, Guy Pearce and Anna Maxwell Martin, tells the true tale of friendship between British spies Nicholas Elliott and Kim Philby – notoriously known as a double agent for the Soviet Union🕵️.… pic.twitter.com/0mduGnBd5G

— ITV (@ITV) July 3, 2023

Continue reading A Spy Among Friends Heads to ITV and Sky Italia

A Spy Among Friends Print Media Trailer Video

A Spy Among Friends MGM+ Official Trailer

On February 2, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Espionage Series Hits MGM+ in March

by Charles Barfield | The Playlist | February 2, 2023

Being a spy requires a lot of discretion. You have to not only keep most of what you do at work a secret, but you sometimes even have to lie to those closest to you to protect that work. But what happens when your best friend is also a spy? And not only that, what if that best friend who is a spy might also be a double agent, working for the enemy? That drama is what propels the plot of the new limited series, “A Spy Among Friends.”

Continue reading A Spy Among Friends MGM+ Official Trailer

A Spy Among Friends Print Media

A Spy Among Friends: The Making of the Espionage Drama

On January 13, 2023March 30, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Two Lifelong Friends, One Double Agent

by Michael Pickard | Drama Quarterly | January 13, 2023

Stars Damian Lewis and Anna Maxwell Martin join the team behind A Spy Among Friends to discuss the making of this ITVX espionage drama, which is based on the true story of two lifelong friends and British spies – one of whom is a double agent. When he was initially approached to star in A Spy Among Friends, Damian Lewis didn’t know which of the two leads he would play.

In this DQTV interview here, star Damian Lewis, who plays Elliott, and writer Alex Cary discuss why they wanted to give viewers a peek behind the curtain of this notorious spy story. They talk about why Elliott emerged as the focal point of the drama, their roles behind the scenes as executive producers and the fallout from the damaged friendship at the heart of the story.

Continue reading A Spy Among Friends: The Making of the Espionage Drama

A Spy Among Friends Print Media

I, Spy

On January 5, 2023 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Are You Lonesome Tonight?

by Peter Craven | The Spectator | January 5, 2023

Just now you can see Pearce in A Spy Among Friends as Kim Philby, that dazzling double agent.

The streamer goes for six episodes and if you’re quick and lethal you can join BritBox for a free trial period and watch this extraordinary story of how Damian Lewis as Nicholas Elliott, the patriotic mate, tangles with the problem of Philby two-timing for the Russians.

Continue reading I, Spy

A Spy Among Friends Print Media

What an MI6 Spy Told Me Over Lunch

On December 31, 2022 By Gingersnap Comments Off

He Gave Me The Slip

by William Keegan | The Guardian | December 31, 2022

The English of a certain generation seem to be divided between those who are fascinated by the Cambridge spies and those who are not. For the former, the fascination and in my case memories have been rekindled by the recent release of the television series A Spy Among Friends, starring Guy Pearce as the treacherous Kim Philby and Damian Lewis as Nicholas Elliott, his close friend for many years at the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), also known as MI6.

The bond between Philby and Elliott was tested when the latter discovered that he had unwittingly been one of Philby’s prime sources for top-secret intelligence as part of the notorious Cambridge spy ring who passed information to the Soviet Union during the second world war and, later, the cold war. This was all the more galling for Elliott, who had helped to clear Philby’s name when he had come under suspicion some years before his ultimate confession in Beirut in 1963.

Continue reading What an MI6 Spy Told Me Over Lunch

A Spy Among Friends Print Media

A Double Agent, a Lifelong Friend and a Personal Betrayal: A Spy Among Friends

On December 15, 2022December 18, 2022 By Gingersnap Comments Off

Now Streaming In UAE on TOD

by Enid Grace Parker | The Khaleej Times | December 15, 2022

Wondering what to binge-watch this weekend? Why not check out the 6-part series A Spy Among Friends, an intriguing tale of espionage, friendship, and betrayal that dramatizes the true story of Britain’s most notorious double agent and defector, Kim Philby. Philby is played by Australian actor Guy Pearce (Neighbours, Memento) while Homeland star Damian Lewis takes on the role of his lifelong friend, MI6 agent Nicholas Elliott. Based on the New York Times best-selling book by Ben Macintyre, A Spy Among Friends chronicles Philby’s deeply personal betrayal, uncovered at the height of the Cold War, which resulted in the gutting of British and American Intelligence.

Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Lewis – who received a CBE from Britain’s King Charles on December 14 – told City Times in a recent virtual group interview that roles based on real life are “more challenging” but “always more interesting” to him.

Continue reading A Double Agent, a Lifelong Friend and a Personal Betrayal: A Spy Among Friends

A Spy Among Friends Print Media Review

A Spy Among Friends Dramatizes The Treachery of Kim Philby

On December 14, 2022December 15, 2022 By Gingersnap Comments Off

“All the Thrills, Intrigue and Skulduggery of its Source Material”

by Staff | The Economist | December 14, 2022

“If i had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friends,” E.M. Forster wrote in 1938, “I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.” The English author’s words are used as an epigraph to “A Spy Among Friends”, Ben Macintyre’s bestselling book of 2014 about Harold “Kim” Philby, as well as for a new television adaptation. Yet the British intelligence officer and double-agent made no such choice: he betrayed his country, his friends and his family for decades and without remorse.

Philby’s name is synonymous with treachery on a colossal scale. Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess, John Cairncross and Donald Maclean—the other members of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring—committed many duplicitous deeds for their Soviet masters, but none can claim the title of Britain’s most notorious spy. Philby played his high-stakes game of double-cross so ruthlessly, so successfully and for so long that he acquired a different level of infamy after he was unmasked.

Continue reading A Spy Among Friends Dramatizes The Treachery of Kim Philby

A Spy Among Friends Print Media Video

VIDEO: Nick Murphy Explains Why A Spy Among Friends Deliberately Jumps Around

On December 12, 2022 By Gingersnap Comments Off

“The Jump-Around Is Part Of The Point”

by Brenna Cooper and David Opie | Digital Spy | December 12, 2022

A Spy Among Friends director Nick Murphy has has explained his reason for the show’s confusing narrative, saying it was a deliberate choice to “discombobulate” viewers. Throughout the series, the show jumps between several locations across 30 years as it tells the story of Nicholas Elliott (Damian Lewis) and KGB double agent Kim Philby (Guy Pearce). Murphy explained that it was a conscious decision from the beginning not to explicitly label each location and year, in order to focus on the show’s emotional storyline.

“The show jumps around over 30 years in London, Berlin, Moscow, Vienna, Istanbul… We made a decision quite early to not caption things as we jump around, because it would become this endless litany of captions on screen,” he told Digital Spy in a video here.

Continue reading VIDEO: Nick Murphy Explains Why A Spy Among Friends Deliberately Jumps Around

A Spy Among Friends Print Media Video

VIDEO: Damian Lewis and Alex Cary Discuss A Spy Among Friends’ Saddest Scene

On December 11, 2022 By Gingersnap Comments Off

It Is Even More Heartbreaking Than You Think

by Jacob Sarkisian and David Opie | Digital Spy | December 11, 2022

A Spy Among Friends‘ first episode ends with a heartbreaking scene, but the makers of the show have explained the personal connection that makes it sadder than you think.

In the scene, Damian Lewis’ character watches Guy Pearce’s character on stage. As he watches, he starts to cry. However, Pearce’s character isn’t actually there and it’s all in the mind of Lewis’ character. Watch video here.

Continue reading VIDEO: Damian Lewis and Alex Cary Discuss A Spy Among Friends’ Saddest Scene