Danger at the height of the Cold War
Saturday night on BBC4 has long meant one thing – the best in international drama. It’s a slot that many people associate with ‘Scandi noir’ following the success of the Danish thriller The Killing, and Swedish-danish co-production The Bridge, but the channel has cast its net far wider than that. For example, earlier this year, we had The Gone, which was a collaboration between New Zealand’s TVNZ and Ireland’s RTE.
Now we’re getting Spy/master (Saturday, BBC4, 9pm), which comes to us from Romania. Sue Deeks, Head of BBC Programme Acquisition, says: “A classic spy drama set at the height of the
Cold War, Spy/master is an atmospheric, complex thriller, dripping with style and suspense.” Alec Secareanu, who is no stranger to British TV – he played organised-crime boss Darius Knezevic in Happy Valley and has also cropped up in Baptiste and the movie God’s Own Country – heads the cast as fictional character Victor Godeanu, who is a trusted advisor to Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu (Claudiu Bleont).
The dictator is becoming increasingly paranoid, but when the series begins he is unaware that he should be most wary of his right-hand man who, when he’s not dishing out advice, is also feeding information to the
Soviets.
However, Victor fears that his double life is about to be exposed, and the drama plays out over one tense week as he tries to stay ahead of his own country’s spooks and the KGB. In the first episode, Victor realises he is grave danger when he hears that his nemesis is gathering evidence against him. So, he decides to use a diplomatic mission to Germany as an opportunity to defect to the US, but his plan runs into trouble when his CIA contact, Frank Jackson (Parker Sawyers), gets stonewalled by his superiors.and even if Victor can start a new life in the US, will his wife and child be left to deal with the fallout at home?
The tension continues to build in the second instalment as Mircea (Laurentiu Bãnescu) outs Victor to Nicolae and his wife, Elena (Elvira Deatcu), as the Soviet’s mole.
Victor’s old flame, undercover Stasi agent Ingrid Von Weizendorff (Svenja Jung), also seems dangerously close to figuring out what he’s up to. Meanwhile, Frank tries to sidestep the official channels to help him, but it could be too little, too late as Victor is summoned back to Bucharest.