The Little Drummer Girl
FIVE BURNING QUESTIONS as the spy thriller reaches its explosive finale…
DRAMA BBC1 HD, 9pm Kurtz (Michael Shannon) and Becker (Alexander Skarsgård) are concerned about Charlie (Florence Pugh) and where her loyalties now lie.
BBC1 SPY DRAMA The Little Drummer
Girl has had us gripped with the exploits of Charlie Ross (Florence Pugh), the British actress recruited by the Israeli intelligence service to infiltrate a Palestinian terrorist cell.
The John le Carré adaptation has been ramping up the tension in recent episodes, and it comes to a nerve-racking climax this week.
After coming face to face with notorious terrorist Khalil, Charlie now finds herself at the centre of a plot to plant a bomb at a London university, but is this the final act of her greatest performance, or has she joined the Palestinian cause for real?
We put our questions to executive producer Simon Cornwell, who also happens to be John le Carré’s son…
1 IWHERE DO CHARLIE’S LOYALTIES
LIE?
‘The reason we’re not sure where Charlie stands is because Charlie isn’t sure where she stands,’ says Cornwell. ‘She grew close to the Palestinians in Lebanon and was deeply affected by the bombing of the refugee camps, so she’s struggling to get things straight in her mind.’
2 IHAS BECKER LOST FAITH IN THE MISSION?
‘Becker is becoming torn,’ explains Cornwell. ‘He wanted to work like a surgeon rather than a
butcher, but the bodies are piling up and Charlie seems in more danger than ever. Does he still have faith in Kurtz and the cause he’s fighting for?’
3 ICAN KURTZ AND BECKER TRUST COMMANDER PICTON?
‘Picton doesn’t have a lot of time for Israelis,’ says Simon, speaking about the British intelligence officer played by Charles Dance. ‘Underneath it all he’s a very ruthless man who doesn’t like being used. He knows what Kurtz and his team are up to and he has to swallow it, even though he doesn’t like it.’
4 IHAS KURTZ UNDERESTIMATED KHALIL?
‘Kurtz knows that
Khalil would enjoy seeing a British girl carrying out an attack on British soil,’ says Cornwell. ‘But it’s possible they’ve still underestimated him. We know he’s in Britain to plant a bomb, but what else is he up to?’
5 ICAN BECKER AND CHARLIE BE TOGETHER?
‘They’ve fallen for each other,’ says Cornwell. ‘But there’s no knowing how the operation will go and they might never meet again. If they both survive, they’d both have to make some big compromises if they were to have a future.’