- Radio Times
- Review by:
- Mark Braxton
“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.
About this programme
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.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Jean-Francois Mercier
- David Tennant
- Anna Skarbek
- Janet Montgomery
- Antoni Pakulski
- Marcin Dorocinski
- Olga Musser
- Ann Eleonora Jorgensen
- Jourdain
- Burn Gorman
- Mme Dupin
- Ellie Haddington
- Maxim Mostov
- Piotr Baumann
- Zoller
- Jan Pohl
- August Voss
- Rad Kaim
- Malka Rozen
- Linda Bassett
- Viktor Rozen
- Alan Corduner
- Helena Skarbek
- Tusse Silberg
- Dr Lapp
- Anton Lesser
- Col Lessard
- Richard Lintern
- Gen Beauvilliers
- Julian Glover
- Lady Angela Hope
- Fenella Woolgar
- Roddy Fitzware
- Richard Teversen
- Gabrielle
- Tuppence Middleton
- Marek
- Miroslaw Zbrojewicz
- Edvard Uhl
- Ludger Pistor
- Papa Heininger
- Nicholas Blane
- Stefan
- Marcin Walewski
- Jozef
- Maciej Marczewski
- Cecylia
- Ania Czartoryska
- Princess Ewa
- Magda Poplawska
- Wlada
- Grazyna Zielinska
- Frau Schimmel
- Maria Mamona
- Renata
- Joanna Kulig-Bochniak
- Weasel
- Grzegorz Emanuel
- Gluck
- John Weisgerber
- Olga's neighbour
- Krystyna Rutkowska Ulewicz
- Conductor
- Romuald Krezel
- Swiss Border Guard
- Tom Pawlak
- Private
- Gregg Lowe
- Doorman
- Lech Dyblik
- Steward
- Maciej Nawrocki
Crew
- Director
- Coky Giedroyc
- Executive Producer
- Richard Fell
- Producer
- Richard Fell
- Writer
- Dick Clement
- Writer
- Ian La Frenais
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