A new Cold War drama is on the way as Deadline reports Damien Lewis (Billions) and Dominic West (The Affair) are in talks to star and executive produce A Spy Among Friends, the true story of MI6 operative Nicholas Elliot and his friend and KBG double agent Kim Philby.
The six-episode limited series will be based on the biography about Elliot and Philby’s lives by Ben Macintyre. It will be produced by Alexander Cary (Homeland) and Sony Pictures Television for Spectrum Originals and the UK streaming service BritBox.
A Spy Among Friends “follows the defection of notorious British intelligence officer and KGB double agent, Kim Philby (West), through the lens of his complex relationship with MI6 colleague and close friend, Nicholas Elliott (Lewis). The show examines espionage through their friendship, the fallout of which affects East-West relations to this day.”
Philby’s defection in the early 1960s was a huge point in the brewing Cold War between the West and Russia with Philby being a member of the infamous ‘Cambridge Five’, a group of British spies or officials who were double agents. Philby’s defection served as the basis for John Le Carre’s groundbreaking novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which has been adapted as a miniseries starring Alec Guinness and feature film starring Gary Oldman.
A Spy Among Friends was to go into production in the UK during the fall, but the lockdowns on the majority of productions has forced a delay on the series beginning production. Lewis in particular still needs to complete filming on the current season of Billions, which went on lockdown before the last five episodes could be produced.
The miniseries is currently scheduled for a Fall 2021 premiere, but we’ll see if the delays push that back further.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
