TV HIGHLIGHTS A blast from the alternative past T

HE BBC has long been synonymous with Sunday night drama – but its latest series, SS-GB, views more like a movie marvel than a small-screen segment.

Produced by Sid Gentle Films Ltd and written by Bafta award-winners Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (the British masterminds behind such big-budget hits as Spectre, Skyfall and Casino Royale), the chilling five-part series is a complex thriller adapted from spy novelist Len Deighton’s 1978 alternate history tome of the same name.

It follows Douglas Archer, a British detective who, forced to work under the brutal SS in occupied London, is determined to continue to do his job in the service of his country, even against impossible odds.

When viewers first lock eyes with the upstanding Archer, it’s 1941 and the vast majority of England and Wales is under Nazi occupation after losing the Battle of Britain.

Pockets of resistance continue to show their defiance against the occupying German forces, but after a German pilot is murdered by a British Resistance fighter, tensions in the capital reach fever pitch.

It’s a tale Robert believed could flourish if thrust into the world of television.

“We were not averse to doing TV, but it had to be something that would benefit from being on it,” he says of the duo’s decision to cross the threshold.

“The book is complex – we Occupational hazard: Sam Riley’s Douglas Archer, right, and Kate Bosworth’s Barbara Barga, left, meet at a time when large swathes of Britain are under Nazi rule have had to make [the screenplay] less complex – so it needs the wide canvas that TV gives you,” he elaborates. “But in particular, it’s the idea that it’s asking the viewer: what would you do in this situation?

“It’s beamed into people’s living rooms and it’s that feeling of, ‘Actually, this could be outside our door, this could be going on’,” adds the 54-year-old. “But it’s the sanctity of the sitting room that is being invaded by this.

“I think that’s why it’s particularly potent and the acting, great production and great direction has made that come to pass, for me anyway,” he enthuses.

“Because it was a contained story, it made it easier for us to move into TV,” agrees Neal, 55. “We could only really view it as a five-hour movie, because we didn’t want to do anything episodic,” he notes. “We wanted it to be a classy film.”

With A-listers Sam Riley as Archer, and Kate Bosworth as New York Times journalist Barbara Barga, it’s hard to imagine it being anything but classy.

The characters meet during a police investigation into what appears to be a simple black market