Categories Spy Wars

Spy Wars Now Available on History Play

Critical and Remarkable Intelligence Operations

by Staff | Sky History | June 3, 2021

Damian Lewis: Spy Wars is available now on History Play. Starring Damian Lewis in his first factual role, Damian Lewis: Spy Wars reveals remarkable true stories behind the most gripping and significant international spy operations of the last forty years. Now available on HISTORY Play, Amazon Prime UK subscribers can watch the whole series for just £0.99 along with other award-winning Sky HISTORY documentaries and factual series.

A first in the worldwide factual genre, the new series focuses on many of the most critical and remarkable operations which have defined intelligence warfare. Damian explores the action and the context of key incidents which, in several instances, brought the world to the brink of war. By presenting an all-encompassing 360-degree perspective, each case is unpacked by experts and former spies on all sides: ex-Mossad, ex-CIA, ex-KGB and ex-MI6. Damian provides an unprecedented insight into the spy operations which literally shaped today’s geo-political climate.

Continue reading Spy Wars Now Available on History Play

Categories Spy Wars

Spy Wars Streaming on Paramount Plus – Feb 14, 2021

Spy on Spies

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | February 14, 2021

 

As part of the Smithsonian Channel family, you can now stream Spy Wars with Damian Lewis via CBS All Access/Paramount+ here beginning March 4, 2021. Paramount Plus is both a new video streaming service made for a global audience, and a rebranding of the existing CBS All Access service.

Visit the Smithsonian Channel here for more information about the series.
*Spy Wars is also available to stream on Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Google Play, and Vudu.
For fans in Germany and Austria, here is how you can watch the series in your country.

Categories Spy Wars

Spy Wars with Damian Lewis Now Streaming – Nov 20, 2020

Operation Binge Watch

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | November 20, 2020

As part of the Smithsonian Channel family, you can now stream Spy Wars with Damian Lewis via CBS All Access here.  Plans are as low as $5.99/month and you can start a free trial with your first 7 days complimentary. You can cancel or change your plan at any time. Watch all 8 episodes in 7 days! Find out episode information here.

Visit the Smithsonian Channel here for more information about the series.
*Spy Wars is also available to stream on Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Google Play, and Vudu.
For fans in Germany and Austria, here is how you can watch the series in your country.

Categories Spy Wars

Spy Wars Available on NOW TV – May 27, 2020

Watch All 8 Episodes in 7 Days For Free. Here’s How.

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | May 27, 2020

Watch Damian Lewis: Spy Wars instantly on NOW TV.  The series is streaming until October 6, 2020.  Want to watch for free? Start your 7-day free trial of NOW’s Entertainment Pass, then it auto-renews at £8.99 a month, unless cancelled. Watch all 8 episodes in 7 days! Find out episode information here.

Visit NOW TV’s website here for more information.

Categories Print Media Review Spy Wars

Wall Street Journal Review: Spy Wars With Damian Lewis – March 19, 2020

Espionage in the Spotlight

by Dorothy Rabinowitz | The Wall Street Journal | March 19, 2020

Smithsonian Channel’s series tells shockingly true stories of the clandestine variety. In 1968, a loyal officer of the KGB is so shaken by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia that he becomes an operative for British and American intelligence—one, “Spy Wars” reveals (begins Sunday, 8 p.m., Smithsonian Channel), destined to be of historic importance. This is the saga of Oleg Gordievsky—subject of the first episode of this eight-part weekly series, and a rich portrait it is. When his role of many years as a spy for the British and Americans finally becomes known to the Kremlin, quick exfiltration becomes an urgent necessity. His 1985 getaway in the trunk of a car driven by unflappable MI6 agents, who get him safely to Finland despite suspicious Russian border guards—and the howls of their alert dogs, who quiet down when the car’s driver throws them a treat—is an escape sequence to cherish.

In 2001, Robert Hanssen—one of the FBI’s most trusted agents—is unmasked as the mole who had, for 20 years, betrayed the identities of American assets in the Soviet Union and then Russia, thus ensuring their deaths at the hands of execution squads.

Continue reading Wall Street Journal Review: Spy Wars With Damian Lewis – March 19, 2020

Categories Spy Wars Video

Watch Spy Wars Episode One For Free – March 15, 2020

Spy Wars with Damian Lewis: The Man Who Saved the World (Full Episode)

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | March 15, 2020

Click here to watch video if playback below does not work.

At a time when the Cold War spying game was in full swing, Oleg Gordievsky was one of the KGB’s rising stars…and biggest traitors. For years, he provided top-secret Russian intelligence to the British, but he is best remembered for risking his life in 1983 to pull the world back from the brink of nuclear annihilation. Presented by host Damian Lewis and backed by firsthand accounts by Gordievsky himself, we detail the spy’s incredible career as a double agent and his gripping defection out of Russia.

Categories Announcement Print Media Spy Wars Trailer Video

Smithsonian Channel Enters the World of Global Espionage in Spy Wars with Damian Lewis – Feb 12, 2020

Official Press Release, Trailer, and Episode Guide

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | February 12, 2020

NEW SERIES HOSTED BY THE EMMY® AND GOLDEN GLOBE® WINNING ACTOR TO PREMIERE SUNDAY, MARCH 22 AT 8PM ET/PT

Where to watch streaming: Hulu Live, iTunes, Amazon Prime, fuboTV (free 7-day trial), YouTube TV w/Smithsonian Channel, and Vudu.

NEW YORK – February 12, 2020 – Smithsonian Channel is set to investigate some of the most shocking and explosive cases of espionage over the last 50 years. SPY WARS WITH DAMIAN LEWIS features the incredible true stories of spy wars fought in the shadows, from the turbulent years of the Cold War to the Iran Hostage Crisis and the discovery of a complex web of sleeper agents living in the U.S. – a major inspiration for the plot of The Americans. Each episode of this new eight-part series sees host Damian Lewis revealing these remarkable tales of the secretive world of government intelligence, surveillance and international conspiracy plots with interviews from the experts and eyewitnesses that lived through them. SPY WARS WITH DAMIAN LEWIS premieres Sunday, March 22 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Smithsonian Channel.

The series premiere episode, THE MAN WHO SAVED THE WORLD, recounts the story of Oleg Gordievsky – a KGB agent who may have singlehandedly averted World War III. Posted to the Soviet embassy in London by the KGB, Gordievsky would become disenfranchised by the Soviet agenda and, in a shocking move, flipped to become a double agent for British intelligence MI6. What was to follow was a years-long effort by Gordievsky to pass Soviet intelligence to the British, all but preventing a nuclear Armageddon between the Soviet Union and the West.

Continue reading Smithsonian Channel Enters the World of Global Espionage in Spy Wars with Damian Lewis – Feb 12, 2020

Categories Interviews Print Media Spy Wars

Lewis Pulls Covers Off Espionage – Nov 4, 2019

From Espionage to History

by Debashine Thangevelo | Cape Argus / IOL / International | November 4, 2019

Damian Lewis is a recognizable face on the big and small screen. Of late, he has been praised for his roles as King Henry VIII in Wolf Hall and Bobby Axelrod in Billions. He was also cast as Steve McQueen in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood. And let us not forget his role as Nicholas Brody in Homeland.

Having covered a gamut of genres, from espionage to history, it does make his latest stint as a narrator for History’s Damian Lewis: Spy Wars almost surreal.

“This Mossad mission, I’m sure 98% of people watching won’t have heard of this story. So, I think it’s a little glimpse through a window of what they did; it’s an incredible story. You will sit and watch and be utterly engaged. I think that’s true of all our stories. Even the Argo story – we come in from a slightly different angle with a bit more backstory, from the intelligence part of it rather than the film making aspect of it.”

On being a part of this project he adds, “As soon as you put yourself in front of a camera, or in front of an audience, as a performer, there’s a whole intricate web of thoughts that run through your head – how you want to be presented and how can you successfully be a credible part of your show, your story, whatever it is – and we had to work quite quickly.”

“I was flying in and out of New York from Billions and we had a budget, obviously, we had to be aware of.”

Continue reading Lewis Pulls Covers Off Espionage – Nov 4, 2019

Categories In Development/ Pre-Production News Print Media Spy Wars

Broadcasters Sign Up for A+E’s Damian Lewis: Spy Wars – Oct 11, 2019

Going Global

by Joseph O’Halloran | Rapid TV News | October 11, 2019  -and-
by Peter White | Deadline | October 11, 2019

As we head into the leading global content trade show and world’s entertainment market MIPCOM 2019 next week, A+E Networks and A+E Networks UK have signed a slew of top international broadcasters for its latest factual co-production, Damian Lewis: Spy Wars.

Earlier this year we reported here that Spy Wars was heading to the Smithsonian Channel for US markets, a joint venture between CBS Corporation’s Showtime and the Smithsonian Institute. And now it seems other broadcasters will be joining Smithsonian Channel’s lead. The docu-drama currently airing on History UK and Blaze in the UK will now be available in the following markets: Blue Ant (Canada); POP TV (Slovenia); Bilibil.com (China); TVNZ (New Zealand); Historia and Atresmedia (Spain). A+E Networks says that multiple other deals are in negotiation. No word yet when television viewing audiences in other countries will see Damian hit their small screens, but rumor has it early 2020 for US customers.

In the series, award-winning actor Damian Lewis unpacks some of the most thrilling covert missions in modern-day history with the help of new declassified information, high-profile experts, and intelligence officers who were there. The program ranges from the most notorious spy exchange of recent times to the fake film production that freed Americans during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis to in-depth profiles of the world’s most skilled and lethal double agents and has been described as James Bond meets every John le Carré thriller you’ve ever read.

Damian Lewis: Spy Wars is executive produced by Alaska TV’s Chris Fouracre, Ian Lamarra, and Paul Sommers in association with Lewis’ own recently launched Rookery Productions with brother Gareth Lewis.

Read the rest of the original article at Rapid TV News
Secondary Source: Deadline

Categories Spy Wars Trailer Video

Spy Wars Teaser Trailers, Air Dates, and Episode Titles/Descriptions – Aug 21, 2019

I Spy With My Little Eye…

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | August 21, 2019

UK’s History Channel has updated their website to indicate Damian Lewis: Spy Wars will air it’s first of eight episodes on Monday, October 7, 2019! The factual series will reveal the remarkable true stories behind some of the most gripping and important international spy operations of the last forty years. Packed full of espionage, surveillance, undercover work, and covert operations, the series brings forth these real events as well as the profound personal and geopolitical consequences for all involved. Utilizing innovative and highly stylized reconstructions, Spy Wars was shot on location in London, Moscow and Israel.

Be sure to visit our Gallery here for not only promo photos, but some behind the scenes photos as well!

Episode Titles/Plot Descriptions:

EPISODE 1: THE MAN WHO SAVED THE WORLD
This is the story of Oleg Gordievsky, one of the West’s most valuable Cold War agents who risked everything to avert a third World War. Appearing to be an ambitious diplomat stationed at the Soviet embassy in Denmark, Gordievsky was actually a Russian spy and a rising star of the KGB. After a few years in Copenhagen, he was recruited by the British and posted to London by the KGB. Whilst in London, President Reagan authorized the largest NATO war game in its history: Able Archer.

From the KGB’s station in London, Gordievsky passed key intelligence to the British which many believe single-handedly pulled the world back from the brink of nuclear annihilation before being summoned by the KGB to return to the USSR immediately. Uncertain if his cover had been blown, Gordievsky was accused of being an MI6 spy. Refusing to blow his cover, he set in motion his MI6 extraction plan, leaving behind his wife and children. It would take 6 years and the collapse of the Soviet Union before his family could flee Moscow to join him. In 2007, Gordievsky was appointed ‘Companion of the Most Distinguished Order’ for services to the security of the United Kingdom by the Queen. Monday 7th October at 9pm.

Continue reading Spy Wars Teaser Trailers, Air Dates, and Episode Titles/Descriptions – Aug 21, 2019

Categories In Development/ Pre-Production Print Media Spy Wars

Spy Wars Heading To Smithsonian Channel – May 20, 2019

 Showtime and Smithsonian Institute on the Brink of Closing a Deal For Spy Wars

by Peter White | Deadline | May 20, 2019

EXCLUSIVE: Damian Lewis’ spy documentary series is heading to the Smithsonian Channel. The network, which is a joint venture between CBS Corporation’s Showtime and the Smithsonian Institute, is on the brink of closing a deal for Damian Lewis: Spy Wars.

Deadline understands that top brass are keen to keep the British actor’s latest project in the CBS Corp family. It comes after Lewis’ Billions was renewed by Showtime for a fifth season following strong numbers for the financial thriller.

The series, which is the Homeland star’s first foray into factual television, is an eight-part documentary series about spies that was originally commission by A+E Networks’ UK network History. The docu-drama will tell the true stories behind some of the most important international spy operations of the last forty years.

Continue reading Spy Wars Heading To Smithsonian Channel – May 20, 2019

Categories In Development/ Pre-Production Print Media Spy Wars

First Look at ‘Damian Lewis: Spy Wars’ – April 25, 2019

International Spy Stories 

by Tess Lamacraft | What’s On TV | April 25, 2019

Actor Damian Lewis will be delving into some of the most fascinating international spy stories for his new docu-drama series.

Here’s the first sneak peek of Homeland actor Damian Lewis looking very suave in an exclusive new batch of shots taken for his brand new docu-drama, Damian Lewis: Spy Wars set to air this autumn on A+E Networks / History Channel.

The new eight-part series for the History channel, sees the Hollywood star delve into the remarkable true stories of some of the most gripping international spy operations that have taken place over the last forty years, from the Cold War to the War on Terror.

Shot on location in London, Israel and Moscow and packed full of espionage, surveillance and undercover operations, the series will use innovative reconstructions to lift the lid on the spy stories and features Damian, meeting and talking to former spooks from MI6, the CIA, KGB and Mossad.

It will be the first foray into documentaries, for the 48-year old actor who not only fronts the series but is also a producer on it.

The series is a co-production of A + E Netwoks UK. VP of Programming Dan Korn said: “We’re thrilled to have Damian Lewis on History for his first foray into factual television and with the ramping up of intelligence activities on all sides, and renewed tensions between East and West, there can be no better time to explore some of the most iconic spy operations of recent years.”

Read the rest of the original article at What’s On TV