The book delivers a fascinating account of Philby’s espionage career, his personal relationships, and the political and social context of the time. The British six-part series is based on the book written by Ben Macintyre that delves into the life and actions of Kim Philby, a notorious British spy who betrayed his country to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But when push comes to shove, poking holes into one’s own fantastical story is not the easiest task.Īnd that is the reason why Nicholas Elliot (Damian Lewis) and Kim Philby (Guy Pearce) might not be infallible spies but flawed human beings. We recall those moments as something we wanted them to be. More often than not, human behaviour does not allow the realization of a certain event that happened like it did. It is not about looking at the present through the prism of the past but looking at the past for what it was. Instead of having anything remotely viewed as bombastic in its arsenal, the show offers a uniquely compelling, engaging, and illuminating mesh of memories and flashbacks. A Spy Among Friends does something similar and catapults itself into becoming one of the best spy stories told in the last few years. Its exciting potency for storytelling was established by rebutting all the above genre misgivings and creating a new narrative language. The Old Man, which came out last year, made a defiant attempt to reshuffle the jargon. The on-the-run-almost-gets-caught-but-eventually-escapes trope is the baseline for such dramas. There is an instant need to serve up spy protagonists as heroes who participate in high-stakes political scenarios, cool-looking bomb explosions, and edge-of-the-seat car chases. The genre has become woefully saturated with not a lot of refreshing takes on offer. Very few shows about espionage today are worth watching.

A spy among friends book