London Spy

Did You Know?

• The story was inspired by the death of Gareth Williams, an MI6 agent found dead under similar mysterious circumstances.
• Filming began in 2014 in London, West London Film Studios, Kent, on the Isle of Grain and at Dartford.
• The series was commissioned by Janice Hadlow and Polly Hill.

Plot

Danny, gregarious and hedonistic, falls in love with Alex, asocial and enigmatic. Alex worked for the Secret Intelligence Service, and Danny, though ill-equipped, seeks the truth about his death.

Critical reception

Lucy Mangan of The Guardian praised the first episode as "an unutterably delicious, satisfying dish," highlighting Jim Broadbent's performance and Ben Whishaw's acting. Jasper Rees of The Daily Telegraph found Whishaw unable to enliven dialogue he considered DOA. Harry Mount, also in The Daily Telegraph, called episode three "wearily unconvincing" with "long spells of ennui." After episode four, critics noted the series' haunting quality. Gabriel Tate of The Daily Telegraph described it as a singular vision that had been both adored and abhorred. A.A. Gill of The Sunday Times called it a strange, inexplicably compelling story with vast plot lacunas, filled by Whishaw's unblinking performance. Jack Seale in The Guardian termed it an intoxicating series with a beguiling emotional aesthetic, noting that the spell partly broke when prosaic explanation intruded, and that the series lived in the gap between plot and subtext, ultimately about self-knowledge and how lovers try to know each other while lying.