The Game

The premise is this: a Soviet agent holed up as a university professor in England gets called up for a major operation that consists in waking up sleeper cells in numbers for an unstated grievous purpose. He defects and spills the beans to the MI5. The MI5 - represented, for the most part, by the love-child of Morrissey and a flock of cats (Tom Hughes) - expects the worst and stands up to the challenge, monitoring the operation in desperate hope that they may get one step ahead of the Russians. Needless to say, with 6 hour-long episodes, it's easier said than done. All this takes place in the bleak environs of early-1970s London, in cramped spaces, dilapidated housing, and persistent rain (reminiscent of "Se7en"). The series is well-made and entertaining. The pace - initially somewhat pedestrian - quickens by the 4th episode to get you panting by the 5th. At first, the drama seems very facile - seeming to boil down to a personal duel between Tom Hughes's "Joe Lambe" and a KGB killer on the loose in England. But there's enough of side story to this to keep you thinking there's more to it than that. And, frankly, you do get rewarded. On the technical side, the editing is near-perfect and the acting is pretty good, too. I was stuck on Victoria Hamilton' performance in "Mansfield Park," but she's a completely different thing here, with enormous self-assurance and power. Brian Cox is also a perfect hit as the head of MI5 ("Daddy"). If anything, it's Hughes that seems rather odd - his appearance and demeanor is somewhat out of place. On the one hand, this may be a virtue, since he does portray a far less bleak character than it initially appears. On the other hand, he's anachronistic - a poster-boy for the new romantic or a candidate for a remake of "Anna Karenina." The portrayal of "the game" resonates with all that an avid reader of le Carre will know - that it's almost never fun and games, and that it's not about the spectacular at all. The "games" we see played out in the series are not just about espionage - they are also about the personal lives of the characters who either play or get played. While it's not on level with the classic le Carre stuff with Alec Guinness, there's enough substance here to make you hope there's more to come from this source. This is really good enough to see.

As for Cold War events, the Brits and lately the Germans as well have produced so many good series that, from time to time, one might wonder that is it possible to outmatch them, to possess good framework and maintaining thrill, yet without insipid cliches. It is to my liking to announce that The Game has got into the list of the best of them in every aspect: there are lots of twists and turns, including each episode ending, the cast is even and distinguished, the mood and era have skilfully captured, and - last but not least - high-society British English is heard all the time. Well, one might ponder if the situation in the UK was then so harsh and unpredictable, with suspicious persons in the very top of the society, but all this does not seem ridiculous, as the logic and shift of scenes are motivated. I liked all the episodes, and it is regrettable that only one season was produced. People like Brian Cox, Shaun Doodley, Victoria Hamilton are always pleasant to follow, they have no trivial roles.

I thought this series was a great show and want to know when or if you are making another. I enjoyed watching how the characters were built and unfolded and trying to work out who was what (baddie or goodie) in the characters. Also enjoyed the slower pace of the story as opposed to one and a half hour movies that squeeze as much out of the time as possible without portraying the 'real life' pace and how in 'real life' it is the bringing together of lots of small pieces of information that result in collating the whole picture/story.

Hope you make another one.

Call it a Le Carré light. MI5, spies and Cold War. Toby Whithouse, Sarah Dollard and Debbie O'Malley deliver 6 episodes of good fun and high entertainment full of suspense and surprise. Excellent mood and camera play, the viewer is convincingly cast back to a London of the 70's.

A tremendous performance from the entire cast especially Paul Ritter playing the hypocritical British public school creep! Worth watching if only for his performance and the exquisite interaction with his assistant the superb Chloé Pirrie (a touch naive, upright, loyal researcher).

The suspension of disbelief is perhaps called for to draw maximum enjoyment. The strength of the production rests chiefly on the convincing relationships fleshed out.

Why oh Why does the BBC have to nip above average productions in the bud. Xen is another example. It seems that the minute a viewer's brain is in any way engaged the Corporation pulls the plug out on it! Let's have some more please!

What a welcome return to television for this genre, cold war spy thriller, so popular back in the 1980's and for many years criminally absent. The Game was an awesome five part series, incredibly written and scripted, it was dark, pacey, loaded with intrigue and thoroughly engaging.

Superbly acted, I've been a little critical of Tom Hughes in the past, a guy that looks like a model I found a little one dimensional, but he silenced me in this, he was outstanding. Brian Cox, Paul Ritter, Judy Parfitt etc all fantastic, but Victoria Hamilton was on another level, always been a fan but here she was unbelievable, an awesome actress.

Part 4 was without a doubt one of the best hours of television I have ever watched, outstanding.

Utterly devastating that a second series wasn't commissioned, the BBC missed a golden opportunity with both this and Banished. Nevertheless The Game was a magnificent piece of drama, 10/10