London Spy starts on BBC Two - Monday 9 November - 9pm

[sadwidow28]

A new 5-part thriller is starting on BBC 2, 9th November at 9pm

A romance between an MI6 code genius and an ordinary man promises happiness. But tragedy strikes when the spy dies in suspicious circumstances, forcing his lover to pursue the truth behind his death.

Have a look at the trailers and write-ups and see if you fancy watching it and joining in this MN thread.

''You might be the most innocent person I know'' - This is a clip from episode 1: On a walk by the sea, Danny flirtatiously questions whether Alex did background checks on him before going on their date.

Gosh, what a let down - it just turned into beautiful nonsense, IMHO.

The plot was full of holes, the invention wasn't at all logical as PP have pointed out.
It was a lot of trouble to go to when they could just have killed Danny and made it look like he od-d.

Ben and Jim deserve better. They all do, really.

Why lock him in a trunk anyway? Why not just wave a threatening syringe in his face & then if he failed the test, chuck him in the river?

He had a boyfriend known to take drugs, it would have been easy to explain.

The scene with all the people there & then calling his mum to talk to him was really odd.

He invented a way of analysing whether people are lying through a computer program.
I think when he was being questioned in the trunk they were purely relying on what his iris did in response to the questions, which if they can do anyway, rather negates the need for his computer program. Unless that form of analysis only works up close and while that person is under a great deal of stress?
Anyway was very disappointed in the conclusion and don't think it was a patch on the Honorable Women!

I didn't really get what the purpose of Charlotte Ramping training 'her son ' into being an uber spy. Was it just for her redemption and pride, or were we meant to see some kind of underlying idealogical motivation?

And we still never got to the bottom of Alex-stair's accent.

True, Squoosh. Fine he grew up with a poor woman and plummy woman, so between 2 accents.
But maybe as part of his super-sleuth training, he was sent to Switzerland for some reason? Not to international school as that's a whole other accent.

V odd.

Agree. Odd & annoying.

Such a great cast & such a daft plot.

And poor Scottie. Why kill him but not Danny (would have been easily explained as a guilt suicide) or HW or sour-faced Marcus (?)

Were we ever told (apart from the Guardian synopsis) that Danny had been left the house and car? Why did Danny climb through the sash window? What was the point of his parents and the photo?

The point of going to see his parents was so they could delete the stuff on the whatsit (technical term). Is that even possible, that a device can wipe data from USB sticks like that?

Not sure why he stuck the photo back together. Just to make it all a bit more depressing I think.

He climbed through the window of the ground floor flat opposite his (the one he'd been suspicious of for ages) because it was suddenly empty and he wanted to see if there were traces of any surveillance equipment or whatever left behind.

The cut up photo? I took that as a visible expression of his mind working, seeing that things didn't fit together as they ought, eventually realising that the picture they had painted of Alex's family background was as skewiff as his own, just for a different reason.

What a crock of shit. I am so annoyed with myself for continuing to watch this after the first episode (which annoyed me greatly).

Can I ask, bearing in mind I've watched and really enjoyed the first three, if I'm likely to enjoy the last two and the ending? (no spoilers please!)

only - the last two episodes are still beautiful, Wishaw does wonderful emotions, there's poignant bits - and a fair bit of WTF??
Worth seeing, I think, despite flaws.

Sort of what I was thinking – thanks! Ben W has been amazing in it so far. Perfectly happy to watch just for him, really.

All solved except the crypto thingy round Danny's neck. What was in it? He never found the code?

Yes, he did work out the code for that. It was 0001, wasn't it? From the fact that Danny was Alex's first lover. Once it was open he found the USB inside it and that was how they got the discovery.

I thought it was a good series but it didn't live up to its early promise. There was a lot of wonderful acting but the plot really didn't work. Tom Rob Smith could learn a lot from Le Carre about plotting.

Hmmm I wonder if it wasn't for some fab acting from Danny, Alex, Scottie and France's whether I would have enjoyed this as much. Plus the stylish filming. Take that away and it becomes a show trying to be too clever for its own good. I was hoping it ended satisfactorily coz I want Ben Whishaw to win an award, but I think the writers let him down in the end.

Yesterday I might have said that the writer over complicated a flimsy story by throwing in mysteries that added nothing to the central plot ...

Now, after nearly 24 hours, I'm inclined to think that the mysteries actually underlined the theme. The moral of the story seemed to be that liars win. The people who couldn't lie; Alex, Scottie, Danny, were either killed or suffered horribly. Those who were prepared to live with a lie or just keep quiet - didn't exactly prosper but their lives were easier. The entire edifice was built on lies, Alex's mistake was that he thought lies could be dealt with as a theoretical concept, while at the same time completely failing to have any clue how to deal with the lies in his own backyard.

And poor Danny was incapable of seeing a lie without confronting it.

Rather wonderful actually.

Do we think Frances, the biggest liar of all, actually won though? (viz the moral that liars win)

She took another woman's child, forced the woman to live as her servant employee and was hated for it. She forced her 'son' to live in her own perceived image, hot housed and manipulated and when the result of his brilliance was finally reached, she was instrumental in his destruction. He was not only taken from her, but it seems, taken from life.

She now has to live with that fact and those memories, which could be said to be a greater punishment than any of the others were subjected to, even those who lost their lives.

You know, I had the impression she would have been lying to herself for years, justifying what she had done. And that she only truly began to suffer when she was forced by Danny to start telling the truth ...

However, mothers are proud of their children. Bet she wakes up every day thinking "I knew I could produce a genius. And I did! In my next life I'll handle it better."

Yes remembered now about the code... Watched much of it with copious amounts of red wine which is probably why I got the gist of it

PQ

I think it's a really interesting debate Gruach. From seeing the husband (so not real father) from when he was silent through to his rant. Learning that his career prospered and was valued at the expense of Frances's, the disdain she held for him and his colleagues and the satisfaction she gained from processing Alex-stair (like the NN by the way)
She was one cold fish and would've probably made an excellent spy rather than a wife and mother.

I think she suffered before Danny confronted her, she certainly seemed to when she saw that Alex was going to die, but I suppose those feelings had been buried inside her until Danny released them.

I'm not sure I'd follow another series. I think it probably was watched with copious amounts of wine because the actual plot wasn't as tight or as good as some of the viewers' ideas I've read online. Although we knew that all along when I said we've been overthinking it

The interesting thing about this plot is that, if I'm interpreting it correctly, MI6 actually were putting Alex's invention into use, and presumably will continue to do so. (BTW there was clearly a lot more to it than just measuring his iris and pupils). Therefore he probably has succeeded because, once it's being used, you can't put the genie back into the bottle. So the implication is that there is something there for Alex and Frances to track down.

Awww missed Danny's intense, brooding face yesterday but made up for it with the bonkers-mess that is Sherlock instead!

I'm missing it too!

I finally watched it all and I think that, objectively, the actual spy/intelligence story was basically a lot of overly complicated and far-fetched hooey. And I can't decide whether the ending was more like Thelma and Louise or Butch and Sundance.

But it was saved by how beautiful and moody it all looked and sounded, and by the performances –I think Ben was genuinely brilliant, and loved Charlotte R and Jim B particularly as well.

It falls apart once you start to analyse it, but go along for the ride and it's very enjoyable in many ways.

I also agree with those saying that the spy stuff seemed to matter less than the love story/stories. I think it was a bit of a meditation on what it means to love or to not have love, and on how difficult it can to really know people even when you think you're close to them.

It was also about truth and lying, and how we lie to and conceal things about and from ourselves as well as others.

Highlights for me include: the first episode (all of it); Scottie's beautiful house and art; London looking alternately buzzy and busy, and derelict and lonely; Ben W in that suit the escort agency made him put on; the freezing-looking, washed-out scenes with Danny and Scottie on Hampstead Heath; the HIV clinic scene when Danny waits, on his own, twice, for his results (a mini tour de force) and the scene where Danny tells Alex about his night of psychosis when he invited the world and their dog round. Unrelenting close-up, his need for truth and forgiveness/recognition, and heart-rendingly beautifully shot; you see so clearly the pain and shame but also relief in his eyes. He looks like a wrecked angel.