The Cold War double agent Kim Philby didn’t just betray his country

With its moles, traitors, double agents and secret dossiers, the scandalous tale of the Cambridge spies is as electrifying as anything John le Carré ever dreamed up. It’s no wonder the story of five Oxbridge graduates secretly spying for the KGB during World War II and the Cold War has been adapted for numerous TV dramas. 

But a riveting new six-part TV series takes a fresh approach to this astonishing tale of betrayal by looking at Kim Philby’s outrageous behaviour and casting two huge Hollywood stars, Homeland’s Damian Lewis and LA Confidential’s Guy Pearce, in the lead roles. 

Based on the non-fiction book by master storyteller Ben Macintyre, the show centres on the lesser-known tale of the close friendship between agents Kim Philby (Pearce) and Nicholas Elliott (Lewis). 

As the drama opens in January 1963, Elliott is reeling after discovering that his best friend and colleague of 23 years, Philby, has been a traitor all along and has defected to the Soviet Union, betraying him as well as his country. In flashbacks we see how their friendship developed into a deep bond despite Philby’s secret treachery. 

Guy Pearce as Kim Philby

Damien Lewis (left) and Guy Pearce (right) star in a new six-part TV series that takes a fresh approach the tale of the Cambridge spies

Pearce confesses he was agog at the story. ‘I spent the entire shoot having moments every few days thinking, “I can’t believe this actually happened,”’ he says. 

‘I can’t believe that for 30 years he was able to get away with this. It’s well referenced in our story that the elite class in Britain on some level had become lazy. 

‘Once they knew who your father was, once they knew what school you went to, they tended to just immediately go, “Oh, well, you’re one of us.” Philby and others exploited that. 

Philby was part of the infamous ‘Cambridge Five’, a group of double agents that also included Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross, all of whom attended the elite university’s Trinity College and were at some point recruited by Soviet intelligence. 

Anna Maxwell Martin as Lily Thomas in A Spy Among Friends. Lily is an MI5 agent from the northeast, who is brought in after Philby’s shock defection to investigate whether Elliott knew of his friend’s traitorous activities

Anna Maxwell Martin as Lily Thomas in A Spy Among Friends. Lily is an MI5 agent from the northeast, who is brought in after Philby’s shock defection to investigate whether Elliott knew of his friend’s traitorous activities

They all pursued successful careers in the British government and from that privileged position obtained and passed large amounts of information to the Soviets. Philby began working for MI6 in 1940 and soon struck up a friendship with Elliott, another former Trinity student. 

In A Spy Among Friends, screenwriter Alex Cary deals with the immediate aftermath of Philby’s defection and how it wasn’t what the traitor expected. ‘Rather than the hero’s welcome he may have been expecting, he’s interrogated by a sceptical KGB officer,’ says Cary. 

Philby tries to convince the Russians that he’s still at the top of his game as a spy, ‘which is a sort of sad and slightly pointless fight because he never really spied again. He just died of drink [in 1988]’. 

The project reunites Damian Lewis with Homeland writer and producer Cary, who offered him either of the lead roles. ‘I think quite quickly we realised that actually I wanted to play Elliott,’ muses Damian, 51. 

‘Because although Philby is the rock star – he’s brilliant, charismatic, urbane, but he’s also a traitor, cheat and liar – I wanted to play the guy that we knew less about, his best friend. 

‘Elliott’s arc is tragic because of his adoration and love for Philby, he really facilitated his treachery over the 30 years. He kept excusing him, kept defending him every time it seemed Philby would be exposed. 

‘If Elliott had cared to look a bit closer, I think he might have seen something,’ continues Damian. ‘But I think at every opportunity that he might have looked closer, he didn’t. 

Kim Philby’s a rock star – brilliant, charismatic, urbane – but he’s also a traitor, liar and cheat. -Damian Lewis 

‘He was just blinded by that [old boys’] code and by a deep-seated romance, and love, for this man that everybody loved.’ 

Ironically, Damian himself was part of that old boys’ network. He went to the poshest of public schools, Eton College, attended by the Cambridge spy Guy Burgess as well as former prime ministers Boris Johnson and David Cameron. Damian has previously spoken of his Eton career. 

‘That confidence is instilled in you [by the school],’ he has said. ‘When it’s perverted in any way it becomes entitlement, it becomes arrogance.’ 

He says his parents instructed him to keep his privilege in check always.

Interestingly, Guy Pearce, 55, says he experienced something similar as a pupil at one of Australia’s posh public schools – the private Geelong College, near Melbourne. 

‘It’s over 150 years old and bases itself on that very British tradition of boys’ school, elite, establishment privilege,’ explains Pearce. 

‘There is this underlying belief that if you are there, you’re protected forever, and that your loyalty is unwavering. And that the way in which you view the world is from above. 

During the series, Philby tries to convince the Russians that he’s still at the top of his game as a spy (stock image)

During the series, Philby tries to convince the Russians that he’s still at the top of his game as a spy (stock image) 

‘So, on some minor level, I lived the experience that perhaps Philby might have experienced himself.’ 

Pearce was born in Cambridgeshire – his mother is English – but the family moved to Australia when he was three. As a result, he says, getting a handle on Philby’s posh accent proved troublesome. 

‘I felt like I could get into it quite easily,’ he says of the accent. ‘But then I listened back and I heard the Australian influence come into it sometimes. 

‘I didn’t have a dialect coach as such, certainly on set, but if there were things that stood out, [director] Nick Murphy and Alex [Cary], who himself is highly educated, would point it out to me. I felt like I was slightly out of my depth, but I was in good hands.’ 

To help with telling the story, Cary invented a character, Lily Thomas, played by Anna Maxwell Martin. Lily is an MI5 agent from the northeast, who is brought in after Philby’s shock defection to investigate whether Elliott knew of his friend’s traitorous activities. 

She serves as a counterpoint to the old boys’ network and is an ambitious female navigating a man’s world. 

‘She’s appointed because she’s sort of a wolf in sheep’s clothing,’ explains Anna, 45. ‘She looks very unassuming. 

‘She’s a woman. I wear lots of dowdy, woolly tights! But she’s really clever and she knows how to infiltrate what is going on with Philby.’ 

Anna wasn’t new to the story of the Cambridge spies – her late exhusband, Notting Hill director Roger Michell, was a history buff. They had divorced in 2020 before his untimely death last year. 

‘I wasn’t completely ignorant because my late husband was obsessed with spying and prisoner of war camps and that kind of thing, so we have a lot of literature in the house,’ she says. 

‘In fact, we had Ben’s [Macintyre] book in the house, so I knew a bit, though I’m too busy watching Married At First Sight to be reading that kind of thing!’ 

The character of Lily is intended as a comparison to the posh men who had been running the country for aeons, explains Damian. ‘She enabled us to tell a particular story about a changing of the guard,’ he says. 

‘About a generation of white, upper class dinosaurs who’d been responsible for two world wars, failed intelligence missions, one after the other, and had curated and nurtured our most famous-ever double agent. 

‘The redemptive thing for Elliott is that he has the foresight and humanity to recognise in this young, female MI5 officer that here might be a way forward – he sees in her someone rather brilliant; he sees the future, I think.’ 

Chiefly, A Spy Among Friends examines a platonic bromance that was ruptured irrevocably by the most terrible of betrayals. Damian Lewis found that he and Guy Pearce didn’t have to manufacture their chemistry for the cameras, either, as they bonded easily over a shared love of music. 

Both play guitar – Damian has announced plans to release his first music album next year, and singer-songwriter Pearce has released two albums.

Damian says, ‘Guy as Philby was very easy to get romantically involved with! He’s a lovely, egoless man who didn’t bring any airs and graces with him and just wants to do the work and is committed and serious. 

‘He’s an immersive and nuanced actor – perfect for Philby. As it happens, he loves The Beatles and he plays the guitar a lot. We talked about that all the time. 

‘We were going to inflict ourselves on everyone at the wrap party and play some Beatles together on our guitars, but we never had any chance to rehearse – which is really disappointing to me. That’s a concert we still have to give.’ 

The world is waiting! 

  • A Spy Among Friends will stream from 8 December on ITVX. 

YOUR GUIDE TO NEW STREAMING SERVICE ITVX 

What is ITVX? 

It’s ITV’s new streaming service, launching on 8 December and replacing ITV Hub as the online home of all ITV shows and films. ITVX will commission its own shows as well as buy in programmes and will launch at least one new and exclusive programme every week. ITVX will offer more than 10,000 hours of content in HD, including 250+ movies and 200+ series. All ITV channels will be available to live-stream on the service. 

Will regular ITV shows be on ITVX? 

ITV regular dramas such as The Suspect and The Larkins, soaps and comedies – and some reality series – will be available on ITVX. Exclusive programmes will be shown months before they’re screened on terrestrial ITV channels. 

How much will it cost? 

ITVX is free, funded by adverts, or ad-free for those willing to pay a subscription fee, yet to be announced. Subscribers will also benefit from access to the popular streaming platform BritBox, which showcases classic UK series from ITV, the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 (BritBox subscribers will be folded in to the ad-free ITVX service). 

How do I watch it? 

The ITV Hub apps on smartphones and TVs will automatically update to ITVX. The service will also be available via desktop computers. 

What are the TV highlights?

ITVX original shows available on launch day include ASpy Among Friends (see feature, left) as well as four-part period drama The Confessions Of Frannie Langton. Set in Georgian London, it centres on the turbulent life of Frannie (Karla-Simone Spence), a young woman born a slave in Jamaica and gifted to a wealthy Mayfair couple. 

When they are murdered, Frannie is put on trial and she fights to clear her name. Six-part teen drama Tell Me Everything focuses on Jonny (Eden H Davies), a 16-year-old who’s hiding his mental health struggles from his friends (below, with Jonny second left) in a piece exploring the pressures of social media on adolescents. 

Also debuting is the feature-length finale to the popular ITV2 sitcom Plebs starring Tom Rosenthal and co-writer Tom Basden. Plebs: Soldiers Of Rome will see the misbehaving lads join the army in peacetime in a bid to impress girls but end up on the front line fighting for their lives.

And the films? 

ITVX promises everything from blockbusters to cult classics. Titles released so far include Wonder Woman, the Despicable Me films (inset above and top left) and the Back To The Future trilogy. 

And in the future?

On 15 December, David Tennant stars in Litvinenko (top), the tragic tale of the death-by-poisoning of exKGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, tracking the Met Police’s attempts to crack the case. 

Riches, a glitzy new family saga starring Holby City’s Hugh Quarshie, launches on 22 December, as does A Year On Planet Earth, a six-part natural history series narrated by Stephen Fry and featuring species worldwide (including penguins, inset above left). 

On 28 December, Vicky McClure’s four-part psychological thriller Without Sin will drop, starring the Line Of Duty actress as a grieving mum who faces her daughter’s killer in prison. Early 2023 sees the launch of Nolly, Russell T Davies’s drama about Crossroads star Noele Gordon, starring Helena Bonham Carter. 

Tell Me Everything on ITVX (L-R) Lauryn Ajufo as NEVE, Spike Fearn as LOUIS, Callina Liang as MEI, Eden H. Davies as JONNY, Tessa Lucille as REGAN and Carla Woodcock as ZIA.

Tell Me Everything on ITVX (L-R) Lauryn Ajufo as NEVE, Spike Fearn as LOUIS, Callina Liang as MEI, Eden H. Davies as JONNY, Tessa Lucille as REGAN and Carla Woodcock as ZIA.

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