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| Shady character – Hayley Atwell as Eva. Pics BBC |
BBC1: Starts Thursday, 27 December, 9pm
Story: One day in 1976, Ruth's mother Sally suddenly tells her she has been living a double life. She is not respectable Sally Gilmartin but in fact Eva Delectorskaya, a spy for the British Secret Service who has been on the run for 30 years.
Most of us would burst out laughing if our mum told us she used to be a spy. But in Ruth Gilmartin's case, her mother has always been a bit off-kilter.
As Ruth's young son says, 'Is Sally your real mummy… She's so strange.'
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| Charlotte Rampling and Michelle Dockery |
Michelle Dockery and Charlotte Rampling
Ruth, played by Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery, is still incredulous as she learns more of Sally/Eva's story. When she demands that her mother then speak Russian to her and her mum does so, Ruth realises that she barely knows her. Sally then says Ruth's father also never knew of her secret past.
'We all have secrets,' says Sally, played by Charlotte Rampling. 'No one knows even half the truth about any one else.'
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| Shadowy Rufus Sewell |
Rufus Sewell is the mysterious Romer
But once this is forgotten, the plot thickens nicely. We learn how Rufus Sewell as the mysterious Lucas Romer recruits Eva in France after her brother is murdered by fascists. Reluctant at first, Eva turns out to be excellent spy material – she's bright, resourceful and multi-lingual (as a Russian emigre in France who once had an English nanny).
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| Michael Gambon as the older Romer |
She ends up with Romer's team in the USA, planting news stories intended to tip public opinion in favour of Uncle Sam joining the war. This is all suspenseful stuff. Eva does well but feels a bit like a pawn at times, with the added peril of possible betrayal by a British team member when a Russian agent passing them information turns up dead.
Engrossing adaptation of William Boyd's novel
This strand is juxtaposed with the older Eva appealing to her daughter for help in finding the older Romer, as she believes he is only man who can help her now that her decades-old cover has been blown. 'Someone's going to try to kill me very soon,' she says.
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| Eva must seduce an ally |
Restless is, of course, based on a novel by William Boyd, the man behind the next 007 novel. The alternating modern and wartime intrigues are both engrossing, and the characters grow convincingly into their dangerous lifestyles and keep us wondering how they will get through (and what would we do in their place?).
It's an accomplished, rich drama. You can afford to miss two hours of Dullton Abbey this Christmas – but don't let this spy thriller stay undercover.
Cast: Hayley Atwell Eva Delectorskaya, Rufus Sewell younger Lucas Romer, Michael Gambon older Lucas Romer, Michelle Dockery Ruth Gilmartin, Charlotte Rampling Sally Gilmartin
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Really looking forward to this one
ReplyDeleteDespite what she tells her daughter, Sally Gilmartin clearly was never Eva Delectorskaya, for she looks nothing like her, and people do NOT change their eye colour unless they start wearing coloured contact lenses. Having obtained Eva Delectorskaya's file, she is clearly deceiving her daughter and trading on her connections at Cambridge University to get to Lucas Romer. If I'm wrong about this, the BBC's casting is totally ludicrous.
ReplyDeleteSpent the whole time expecting a twist with Sally Gilmartin admitting to not being Eva. Why on earth would you cast actresses with completely different eye colours? Ruined it for me.
ReplyDeleteLoved the whole thing (including wrongly matched eye colour which didn't bother me). Just one twist I didn't understand at the end. Why did she need to fake her handler's suicide? If he had twigged what actually happened he wasn't a threat to her? If he had reported his newfound knowledge to Roma, what difference would that have made?
ReplyDeleteMildly confused of Hertfoshire.
A complete waste of time. Good actors and not a bad storyline (although there was a lot of confusion with the story and plot holes) but a horrible script.
ReplyDelete