Spies of Warsaw
BBC4 9pm - 10:30pm
Repeat: Mon 14 Jan 11:45pm
BBC4“Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais”: how good to see that caption on British television once more. Here they’ve adapted Alan Furst’s bestseller for a two-part spy thriller set in 1930s Poland.
David Tennant plays Jean-François Mercier, a decorated First World War hero juggling diplomatic duties with information-trafficking. An excellent cast features Anton Lesser and Julian Glover, and the location filming in Warsaw is a boost. But the broth of accents and intrusive jazz score sometimes jolt you out of the drama. Still, it’s a good, old-fashioned yarn, in the mould of Reilly, Ace of Spies, where stripy barriers across forest roads and trenchcoated figures skulking in the darkness are de rigueur.
Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' two-part adaptation of Alan Furst's spy novel set in Poland, Paris, London and Berlin in the years leading up to the Second World War. It is 1937 and at the French embassy in Warsaw, new military attache Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of the city. At the same time, the handsome aristocrat finds himself in a passionate love affair with Anna, a Parisian lawyer for the League of Nations. Their complicated liaison intensifies as German tanks drive through the Black Forest. Starring David Tennant and Janet Montgomery.
CastJean-Francois MercierDavid Tennant
Anna Skarbek Janet Montgomery
Antoni Pakulski Marcin Dorocinski
Olga MusserAnn Eleonora Jorgensen
Jourdain Burn Gorman
Mme Dupin Ellie Haddington
Maxim Mostov Piotr Baumann
ZollerJan Pohl
August VossRad Kaim
Malka RozenLinda Bassett
Viktor RozenAlan Corduner
Helena SkarbekTusse Silberg
Dr LappAnton Lesser
Col Lessard Richard Lintern
Gen Beauvilliers Julian Glover
Lady Angela HopeFenella Woolgar
Roddy FitzwareRichard Teversen
GabrielleTuppe nce Middleton
MarekMiroslaw Zbrojewicz
Edvard UhlLudger Pistor
Papa HeiningerNicholas Blane
StefanMarcin Walewski
JozefMaciej Marczewski
CecyliaAnia Czartoryska
Princess EwaMagda Poplawska
WladaGrazyna Zielinska
Frau SchimmelMaria Mamona
RenataJoanna Kulig-Bochniak
WeaselGrzegorz Emanuel
GluckJohn Weisgerber
Olga's neighbour Krystyna Rutkowska Ulewicz
Conductor Romuald Krezel
Swiss Border GuardTom Pawlak
PrivateGregg Lowe
Doorm an Lech Dyblik
Steward Maciej NawrockiCrew
Director Coky Giedroyc
Executive Producer Richard Fell
Producer Richard Fell
Writer Dick Clement
Writer Ian La Frenais
Radiotimes
