In from THE COLD
MAX IRONS takes on the Russians as spy thriller Condor returns
WHEN WE LAST saw CIA analyst
Joe Turner (Max Irons), he had fled to Europe after surviving a massacre at his workplace and stumbling across a terrorist plot that threatened millions.
As the Sky One spy thriller
Condor, loosely based on the Robert Redford film Three Days
of the Condor, returns for a second season, Joe has pitched up in Budapest, intent on leaving his CIA career behind. That, however, is going to prove difficult.
‘Joe’s moving on and doing what he thinks is best, for the people and the country he loves,’ explains Irons. ‘Consequently, he’s hopping from city to city, rather lost. And then he gets dragged back in by the very forces that pushed him out in the first place.’
While season one focused on terror threats in the US and Middle East, the new series has Eastern European locations and a new plot involving the Russian secret service.
CHESS GAME
‘It’s much more of a slow burn – a chess game,’ explains Irons, 34. ‘I have a long-running fascination with the Cold War, and Russia in general, and the new season looks at some of their battlefield techniques, like active measures [political warfare], psychological campaigns, and asymmetric warfare [between combatants of hugely differing strengths].’
As Joe reluctantly returns to his old life in Langley, Virginia – home of the CIA – he is caught up in the search for a traitor, but he is still wrestling with his conscience and dealing with trauma from the death of loved ones.
‘He finds himself, morally and ethically, between a rock and a hard place,’ says Irons, who played Egyptologist Howard Carter in ITV’S 2016 series
Tutankhamun. ‘It’s the old question: do you let one person be hit by a train to avoid 10 people being hit by the same train further down the track?’
Season one had a strong female cast, including Kristen Hager as the wife of Joe’s CIA colleague Sam, Mira Sorvino as Terrorism Task Force leader Marty and Leem Lubany as assassin Gabrielle. This season, House of Cards’
Constance Zimmer joins as FBI agent Robin Larkin.
‘Everyone has an agenda, and all is not as it seems,’ teases Irons.
‘Joe is always kept in a state of never knowing whether what he is doing is ever really right. Also, can he trust anybody in this game of cards?’
‘He finds himself, morally
and ethically, between a rock and a hard place’
MAX IRONS