Cambridge Spies Details

...says one Communist agent to another in this TV dramatisation. Pity the same tact was not employed when considering the desirability of assailing the viewer with multiple scenes of revolting pornography. As for the politics, although the four protagonists are labelled 'traitors' in the opening titles, the facts on display seem firmly edited in their favour. Thus, for example, while the viewer is presented with the German bombing of Guernica, no mention is made of other atrocities such as those committed at the Stalinist Santa Ursula (illegal) prison, known as the Dachau of Republican Spain. The Fab Four are presented as having but two moral choices in this world: Communism or Fascism. No room for the 'Countenance Divine' of the hymn with which this mini-series opens and closes.

Rather dry and two dimensional drama.

The story of the Cambridge Spies has to be one of the greatest revelations of the latter years of the cold war. Our top spies all turned out to be long term Russian Agents, how much more of a revelation could there be than that? Surely then the dramatisation of their activities would have to be exciting and riveting viewing? Apparently not. The acting is very good, the recreation of the period settings of Cambridge and so forth are also very good but the dialogue and the screenplay are both lacklustre. This BBC Production is like a dry and dusty history lesson, without an appreciation of the damage caused by the main protagonists. It should have been a drama about the most devious traitors of the 20th Century. We are not shown the incredibly selfish and arrogant reasons for the traitors life-long obsession with Communism, their utter and resolute ignorance of the resoundingly corrupt and crumbling Communist State in Russia and the weight of damage they caused to Britain and the USA. Instead we are consistently shown the idiocy of the 'old school tie' British Spying Establishment, which although relevant is not the whole story. The Cambridge Spies here come off looking like schoolboys instituting a prank against the 'jolly unfair' establishment because they want world peace, instead of the most selfish, ignorant and pathetic, as well as utterly devestating, group of traitors ever to be unmasked publicly. Their actions caused countless deaths and protracted and sharpened the effects of the Cold War immeasurably, Anthony Blunt gave the secrets of making Nuclear Bombs to the Russians after all! All in all, a pretty pale drama that fails to get to grips with its subject matter or really to entertain. There are some brief moments of interest but for the most part it is an opportunity wasted. Worth a look but do not expect more than a very simplistic and shallow account of a subject that deserved a writer and a screenplay worthy of the true facts.