Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: David Tennant, Janet Montgomery, Marcin Dorocinski, Linda Bassett, Piotr Baumann, Nicholas Blane, Kenneth Collard, Dan Fredenburgh, Adam Godley, Burn Gorman, Ellie Haddington, Julian Harries, Ann Eleonara Jorgensen, Radoslaw Kaim, Grzegorz Kowalczyk, Anton Lesser, Richard Lintern, Tuppence Middleton, Andrew Sachs, Fenella Woolgar.
The noose around Poland that was being held between Germany and Russia was getting ever tighter as the second and final part of Ian La Frenais and Dick Clements’ adaptation of Alun Furst’s novel Spies of Warsaw came to its conclusion.
Audiences that were gripped by the pre-Second World War opening part would not have been disappointed as the time ticked by as the countdown to Germany’s invasion of Poland begun and the true horror of what awaited the brave people of that nation.
Where the action slowed down, the time in Paris for instance in which David Tennant’s recently promoted Jean-François Mercier spent precious time trying to get his military superiors to believe that France was as vulnerable as Poland and Belgium, was captured in its difficult laboriousness with a certain amount of ease. For the easily distracted it may have been a pointless exercise but it added to the effect of the feeling that people all over Europe were feeling in the days and weeks before the war started. Nothing felt real, however everything was coming to its head and the result would not be good.
David Tennant, Janet Montgomery and Anton Lesser continued to shine in their respective roles but there was the little extra nugget of gold in a nod to television past with the great Andrew Sachs having a small but vital role on screen as the plan to keep part of Poland’s resources out of Nazi hands. This precious moment of television looking after one of its greats was as touching as it was unexpected, a real treasured piece to savour.
Spies of Warsaw should be seen as a great drama, which was only enhanced by the story it was conveying and the very gentle love affair between Mr. Tennant’s and Ms. Montgomery’s characters under stressful and evil times. Whilst not quite in the same league as the Hayley Atwell led Restless that was on over the New Year, it still shows there is an appetite for spy thrillers, even from times gone by.
Ian D. Hall