Real-life spy gadgets and photographs from Stasi archives helped inspire Honey, but the story at the heart of BBC One's new Cold War thriller is entirely fictional. Writer Emma Moran has explained how she combined espionage with a love triangle and why historical accuracy was not her only priority.
A Fictional Cold War Love Triangle
Starting tonight, November 14, the series stars Ann Skelly as Martha Schmitt, a 24-year-old deep-cover MI6 operative whose mission is complicated by the threat of discovery and unexpected desire. Martha must evade Friedrich Baumann (Jannis Niewöhner), the new Stasi Head of Counterespionage against British Targets, Berlin Office. She also finds herself drawn into a love triangle involving CIA operative Aaron Neeland (Nate Mann).
The BBC teased: "Finding herself caught between Friedrich and the reckless, arrogant CIA operative Aaron Neeland (Nate Mann), she is blindsided by desire in this Cold War ménage à trois. The risk of being garrotted or incarcerated is nothing compared to the horrifying ordeal of falling in love. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable and bearing your heart and soul? She'd rather have her fingernails pulled out."
Blending Comedy and Espionage
Moran explained that she initially wanted to write a rom-com with a "Bridget Jones style love triangle", but adding a spy thriller element "weirdly felt quite natural". Although Honey is set during the Cold War, its story is not based on true events.
Moran told the BBC: "I found it easy to combine a brutal Cold War setting with comedy. When you read a lot of the history around that time, so much of it feels just completely absurd. When you're trying to squeeze people's really messy lives into a political framework that requires quite defined edges, it naturally becomes inherently silly."
Real Spy Details and Historical Inspiration
Discussing historical and political accuracy, she said she had carried out "baseline research" to ensure they were not going "down the completely wrong road". She explained: "But we're not holding ourselves to completely specific historical accuracy in every way as this is a love story, it's not a documentary."
She added: "There are some incredible real spy details that have made it into the show, which make it better. When Martha opens Kurt's spy kit, there's a pair of fake testicles in there, which was fully ripped from the CIA's own handbook - you put them over the natural ones, and then you can keep stuff in a little pocket. The truth is stranger than fiction sometimes."
Moran also drew inspiration from the film An Officer and a Gentleman and a book of photographs from Stasi archives. She added: "There was also a book of photographs from Stasi archives that I kept going back to because it was photographs that weren't massively important or categorised."
"There's this fantastic photo of a Stasi officer who had been surveilling someone, and then there's this photo of his cat on his bed. You just see a little bit of humanity in that moment. They are just people. It was those photos I kept coming back to remind me of the tone."
Exploring Oppression and Resilience
Skelly described Honey as a series that places familiar romcom tropes and characters into recent history. She said it explored "very oppressive governments with very oppressive political ideology that try to control and infiltrate people's relationships and lives".
She added: "But the nature of people and human nature is that we can't help but push through and Honey reflects the resilience of that effort. The show also explores the importance of love, sexuality and eroticism and the stakes of what it means to be alive."
Honey airs tonight, 14 November, on BBC One at 9pm.
