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MR & MRS SMITH SPY REBOOT

The 2005 spy movie Mr & Mrs Smith starred two of the world’s most beautiful people, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, as superspies — a pairing that spilled over into a real-life love story and brought us ‘Brangelina’.

But when Donald Glover, the creator and star of US comedy Atlanta, decided to reboot Mr & Mrs Smith as a TV series, he didn’t just want it to be about gorgeous secret agents.

Instead, his aim was to explore modern relationships. ‘Why do people get married, if half end in divorce?’ asks Glover, 40. ‘Let’s make a show about what a marriage really is: trust, teamwork and loneliness. I wanted it to speak to people right now.’

The premise is different, too. In the movie, Mr & Mrs Smith are married but neither knows their spouse is a spy until late in the action. The reboot, meanwhile, stars Glover and Maya Erskine (above) who sign up to a mysterious spy agency. The hitch? They have to do their spying as a married couple. Thrown together into highstakes situations, they develop real feelings for each other.

Humour is mined from making these spies far more ordinary than other fictional agents, says

Wearing the wrong shoes has repercussions. You never see James Bond tend to a callus. That’s what we’re aiming for

writer and co-creator Francesca Sloane. ‘John and Jane endure a brutal foot-chase and end up with blisters,’ she says. ‘On our show, wearing the wrong shoes has repercussions. You never see James Bond tend to a callus. That’s what we’re aiming for.’

But there is glamour in the show, not least in spy scenes set in locations like Venice and Lake Como. ‘The show takes place all over the world,’ continues Sloane.

To fit this landscape, Glover wears costumes that echo the heartthrobs of the 70s, the era of big spy films. ‘She [Sloane] kept saying men’s clothes in the 70s were much sexier,’ he says. ‘So I wear a lot of sheer and physique accentuating shirts .’

This show has two flawed characters at its heart. ‘We go on the journey of seeing these two ordinary people become extraordinary,’ says Sloane. ‘We watch them become stronger spies but more vulnerable humans.’