L'agent secret

The Secret Agent based on Joseph Konrad's work of the same name, for me at least, is rather uninspiring and badly dated.

This series, on first view, feels like a "dull artifact" that expresses stale, somewhat paranoid sentiments, from a bygone era.

Unlike similar series, such as Reilly Ace of Spies, there's nothing overly exciting on offer here. Reilly beautifully captured the essence of an early period of political intrigue and built an enjoyable tale around it. By contrast, The Secret Agent, simply feels like a proxy for the exhumed opinions of long dead political elites, afraid of the Communist bogey man.

The acting in this series and production values, as is often the case in the UK, are of a high standard. Its not for me, the performances, that are in question, however. The whole proposition seems anachronistic, when filtered through 21st century eyes. The Secret Agent, might have worked as a satire or adapted to a comedic format but, as serous drama, to me, it feels like an absurdity. Five out of ten.

We enjoyed the production, the filming and actors were excellent though we thought it a bit slow. I became interested in the locations because of a book I was reading that mentioned there had never been a "Great Southern Railway" so the main line railway station with that title was a bit of a mystery. The station building and interior appears to be Kelvinhall Art Gallery in Glasgow, presumably with some CGI to change the name on the building. The opulent "embassy" staircase seems to be Glasgow City Hall, and the "Windsor Castle" ship seen at the docks looks like the ship purchased in 2014 by the Royal Yacht Britannia organisation, so are the docks buildings at Leith?

The first episode does start out rather slow and it has a lighthearted feel to it. Seeing Toby Jones in this type of role for the first time takes a bit of time to get use to ,but He does come through and gives a great performance.

A real stand out performance from Vicky McClure and the rest of the cast give a good performance too. By episode 2 it starts to get dark and much more enjoyable to watch.

Episode 3 is really good ,it takes some really dark twists and holds your interest .

The music really adds to the feel of it all, as does the great location scenes. I thought it well acted and produced, it leaves you wanting more.

Joseph Conrad's novel, 'The Secret Agent', is justly acclaimed, a compact and bitter satire nominally about anarchist terrorism but in fact about the wretchedness of the human condition: while ordinary people labour and suffer, we talk about principles and love but will in reality sacrifice anything for an easy life. With hardly a superfluous word, it could easily be adapted into a 90 minute film; but this adaptation lasts three hours, and is slow-paced and boring. Not only that, but the padding serves to undermine the original purpose to no beneficial effect. One of the great characters in the book is the Professor, an extremist (with all the best lines) who asserts he will give everything for the cause, even down to blowing himself up with a bomb he carries on his person at all times should the police come to arrest him. But no actual cause is ever sufficiently revolutionary to earn the Professor's support, and as we see when he is confronted by the stupid, cowardly policeman Heat, his supposed willingness to cause carnage is sufficiently strong to ensure that no-one is ever likely to put him to the test. But in this adaptation, Heat is brave and humane, and he confronts the Professor only for the Professor's bomb to fail to explode when he tries to detonate it, developments that completely miss the point. It's a particular shame to see the usually excellent Vicky McClure stilted and unable to save the story. Sometimes it seems as if those responsible for adapting a story have utterly failed to understand what it is really about; and this series is one such example.

I had a look over some of the reviews and wondered why they were so hard on this show. After all, it's the type of characters in this show that started The First World War. Few shows actually show us this world. And the characters, given it's such an undeveloped area of period drama, are, for me, hard to beat, bordering on truly original, and brilliantly enacted. The original author is, after all, part of the literary canon for a reason This is comparable to Charles Dickens, but stands on its own merits. The Secret Agent a period piece like nothing I'd encountered before. There are no heroes, only flawed but passionate people, dangerously entwined with the lives of essentially honest people who are, for the most part, unaware of the dangers brewing beneath their floorboards. I really don't know how anyone could have not been totally refreshed by this cinematic experience. Like all good British productions there is a wealth of detail and realism that make this story a true transportation back to the period, with a ripping yarn to keep one glued. And there is a moral here too, relevant to any time.