Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris, Johnny Flynn, Rob Benedict, Elena Delia, Eric Meyers, Geoffrey Arend, Laurel Lefkow, Rufus Wright, Jon Jon Briones, Armand Schultz, Philip Desmeules, Lourdes Faberes, Eric Sirakian, Tim Ahern, Yung Quang, Kerry Shale, Greg Lockett, Ian Porter, Raad Rawi, Patrick Poletti, Carlyss Peer, Walles Hamonde, Jennifer Armour, Carin Chae, Nathan Osgood, Jonathan Nyati, Flynn Avo, Valentina Arena, Marina Koem, Ferandi Yennas, Branko Tomović, Phillipe Bosher, Kelly Marie Tran, Stephen Kunken, Thaiger Mguyen.
The second series of Greg Haddrick’s and Jeremy Fox’s acclaimed radio drama series, Central Intelligence, goes deeper into the world of the distinguished CIA agent Eloise Page’s time at the heart of the American espionage network, one at which time sees the United States Of America, despite having seemingly having an endless pot of resources, an abundance of cash, and as the 1950s shifted onwards, as the 1960s began, so it seems they had an ever growing issue with paranoia, that their whole system of belief was eroded internally by a mass delusion of mistrust and fear.
The words attributed to President Kennedy with regard to ‘splintering’ the Agency into a thousand pieces are almost prophetic as the life and times of Eloise Page reaches the era of the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, the humiliation of being found out about lying about the Gary Powers incident, and the sheer sorrow of Kennedy’s own assassination which caught the service allegedly unawares…such actions show that the service was painfully, laughingly, no longer fit to spread the counter offensive it had been once famed for, and as it over reached, as it responded to a changing world with an apprehension in its ability to stop the Communist threat, so it was left to Ms. Page to clear the mess left by those with physical war in their heart and not the soft touch required.
Returning as Eloise Page and Allen Dulles, Kim Cattrall and Ed Harris capture the idealism, and underhanded nature of their business with subtly, dramatic tension, and an exposed truth that damns the organisation in its most troubled period, one further trashed by the approaching in Vietnam.
The successes that the team enjoyed after World War Two started to falter, too many wars, too many fronts opening, numerous countries, especially in Asia, wanting to be rid of old-world empires, its people demanding change and quickly, even it meant altering a perspective that would come to haunt them in equal measure.
Directed once again by John Scott Dryden, and with a superb cast that includes Johnny Flynn, Elena Delia, Rob Benedict, and Geoffrey Arend, what the listener faces is the knowledge that for all of our lives the covert operations of a system of government has achieved little but contradicting what it means to keep the world safe; from whom exactly?, Leaders and those that follow blindly whose stock in trade is paranoia? Whose currency is spreading fear? then the answer is to mistrust them all, for their intention is to rule without intelligence.
A tremendous series, Central Intelligence is fast becoming the go to radio drama of the decade.
Ian D. Hall