Backstage with… Damian Lewis and the cast of new ITVX thriller A Spy Among Friends
Which giant of British film and television do you call when you want to launch a brand-new streaming service in the UK?
Why Emmy and Golden Globe winner Damian Lewis, of course, who leads the cast of the new thriller A Spy Among Friends, which has debuted on ITVX this week.
The show, written by former Scots Guard Alex Cary, is based on the book of the same name, and sees Lewis play Nicholas Elliot, an MI5 agent in the 1960s, who learns his friend and colleague Kim Philby (played by Guy Pearce) has defected to the KGB.
It’s a show full of clandestine meetings, deceptions, and actors speaking in received pronunciation.
Telling Backstage, the TV and film podcast from Sky News, about just why he took the role on, he said it all stemmed from the book.
“I loved it,” he said.
“Kim Philby is very well known in this country, a well-known traitor, part of that famous Cambridge spy group of KGB operatives – and Nicholas Elliott was unknown, but his best friend.
“We wanted to sort of get… behind the facade of a very well-known character, Kim Philby, and really examine his friendships and more intimate moments with his great friend Nicholas Elliott and how Elliott facilitated his successful spying for 30 years.
“So it’s really the finer nuances of friendship and betrayal that I was interested in exploring.”
Lewis added that the real life characters are “revered”, telling Backstage: “Here’s a man who just got away with it for so long. So how did he do it? How did they miss it for 30 years?
Damian Lewis filming A Spy Among Friends. Pic: Julian Simmonds/Shutterstock
“Well, that’s the prism through which we’ve tried to tell this story. How did Nicholas Elliott miss it? His best friend and everyone else.
“By the end of the six hours we see a man is drowning in vodka and unhappy with being in Russia, being in Moscow. He never wanted to go and live there… he enjoyed the secrecy, enjoyed the elitism of his job.
“And in the end he was a mass murderer, simply through his treachery.”
Anna Maxwell Martin also stars in the show, as Lily Thomas, another MI5 spy, whose northern accent sets her apart from her colleagues.
“Was that Welsh?” director Nick Murphy teased Maxwell Martin, to which she replied: “I don’t know, it veered all around the country.”
Maxwell Martin, who is best known for her roles in Line Of Duty and Motherland, added: “I just want to do things that are different all the time and not feel I’m doing the same thing. And it really was a complete departure from everything else.”
Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce in A Spy Among Friends. Pic: ITVX
Do the stars and creatives reckon they could be spies after their stint on the show?
“Oh, I’d love it… I’d love the sense of superiority,” Murphy said.
Maxwell Martin’s response, however, was “not for me”.
Writer Cary adds: “As a writer, I suppose that I’m a fantasist of some description, so, yeah, certainly.
“I mean, listen, the cool thing about being a spy is, you know s*** that nobody else knows, and you feel better than them.”
However, it was Lewis who perhaps summed it up best: “Fun – it seems sort of thrilling.”
A Spy Among Friends is now streaming on ITVX – hear our review in this week’s Backstage podcast.
Entertainment
Travis Kelce follows girlfriend Taylor Swift into entertainment to take up role in new horror series Grotesquerie
Travis Kelce is used to drama on the pitch – now he’s set to experience it on the small screen.
Following girlfriend Taylor Swift into the world of entertainment, the NFL star is to take on his first major acting role in a new series by renowned producer Ryan Murphy, the creative powerhouse behind hit shows including Nip/Tuck, Glee, American Horror Story, and Pose.
Kelce will appear alongside Niecy Nash-Betts, Courtney B Vance and British star Lesley Manville in horror drama Grotesquerie, due to be released in the US in the autumn.
Pic: AP/John Locher
“Guys, guess who I am working with on Grotesquerie…” Nash-Betts has announced in a video shared on Instagram.
Kelce then appears in the frame, responding: “Jumping into new territory… with Niecy.” He has also shared the clip with his 6.4 million followers on Instagram.
“This is what happens when winners link up!!?” Nash-Betts captioned the video. “@killatrav Welcome to Grostequerie!”
Murphy has become known for casting high profile stars who are not actors in his shows, with singers Lady Gaga and Stevie Nicks, model Naomi Campbell and reality star Kim Kardashian all taking parts in American Horror Story.
Nash-Betts recently won an Emmy for another Murphy series, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, while Kelce won a third Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs earlier this year – greeted with a kiss by Swift at the end of the game.
Read more:
The hidden meanings in Taylor Swift’s new album
Taylor Swift: How a country girl took over the world
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Kelce has been making waves in Hollywood since his high-profile relationship with the pop megastar began last year.
The sports star hosted the US sketch show Saturday Night Live in March 2023, and was recently announced as the host of the quiz show, Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity?
He previously experimented with reality TV with dating series Catching Kelce in 2016.
Swift made the silver screen herself last year thanks to her sell-out Eras tour pop concert film. She brings the tour to the UK in June.
Police are investigating a shooting at the Toronto mansion of Canadian rapper Drake.
A security guard, who had been standing outside the gates of the property, was taken to hospital after being seriously injured in the attack.
The shooting happened early on Tuesday morning, soon after 2am local time (7am UK time) near Bayview Avenue and Lawrence Avenue in the affluent Bridle Path neighbourhood.
A suspect fled the scene in a vehicle, police said in a post on X.
A representative for the Toronto-born five-time Grammy award winner said Drake was not injured, Sky’s partner network NBC News reported.
Police said they could not confirm if Drake was at home at the time of the incident.
But they were “in contact with his team and they are cooperating”, Inspector Paul Krawczyk said.
Police said they were investigating the incident and had not yet established a motive.
Canadian broadcaster CBC reported a police source as saying the guard appeared to have been shot in a drive-by attack.
Police at the scene of the shooting. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
It added that according to the initial report, the man suffered a gunshot wound to the upper chest and was unconscious when officers arrived.
The victim then underwent surgery in hospital, CBC added.
Read more:
Travis Scott to play at beleaguered Co-op Live venue
Final Friends episode scripts were leaked by insider
Is ‘Drake’s new track’ actually Drake?
Kendrick Lamar. File pic: Reuters
Drake, 37, is currently embroiled in a high-profile feud with US rapper Kendrick Lamar.
They have both released new diss tracks as the feud between them intensifies with brutal verses dragging in their families.
Drake and 36-year-old Lamar – whose fourth album won a Pulitzer Prize – have for years been exchanging thinly veiled barbs.
But the flurry of diss tracks shows how their animosity has become more personal and a lot less subtle.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham, is one of the world’s biggest-selling musicians.
He has had 13 number one tracks in the US, including God’s Plan, Work featuring Rihanna, and One Dance with WizKid and Kyla.
The Hotline Bling performer is Spotify’s most streamed male artist of all time.
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