Spy thriller packed with Strong performances A

GRITTY and intense espionage thriller for you to get your teeth into – the Fox channel’s first ever British drama. Mark Strong (you may know him from films like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Zero Dark Thirty or Kingsman: The Golden Circle) plays our hero Max Easton, an ex-MI6 agent who is dragged back into service against his will.

Set in Britain, the US, Iran, Lebanon and France, this has that international secret spy feel, like The Night Manager or McMafia.

Ok, there’s no James Norton, but on the up side, there’s no talk of hedge funds, which can only be a good thing.

As it starts, Max is living an idyllic life in France, making pancakes for his two daughters before school, making furniture for fun (and why not), kissing his beautiful wife...

We’ve seen enough thrillers that alarm bells are already ringing. No one is this happy for long.

Meanwhile, a covert MI6/CIA team called The Section has been tasked with assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists in Tehran.

When it all goes wrong, Max is called back out into the field for one last job – if he refuses he will be putting his family in grave danger. Is there any other kind?

“Just a week, then it will be back to normal,” he assures his wife Anna.

Pah, he’s not even convincing himself.

The front door has barely closed behind him before Anna starts investigating her husband’s past where there are surely secrets lurking.

Action-packed and hugely tense, expect lots of twists and turns.