Who is the Russian mole inside the Cabinet? Has our agent's cover been blown? If you're asking these questions while watching Tom Bradby's thriller Secret Service on ITV1, you might be missing the point. The real puzzle is how, among dozens of le Carre-copycat spy novels published each year, ITV chose to adapt one written by their very own News at Ten presenter. That is the true mystery.
Secret Service cannot have been selected for its originality. The plot is as uninspired as the title suggests. The pacing, twists, moments of tension, and the juxtaposition of international crises with domestic squabbles all follow a predictable template. It is entirely serviceable, but unlike the far superior Day of the Jackal or the recent The Night Manager, there is nothing here to make us gasp.
Gemma Arterton plays Kate Henderson, an MI6 agent who keeps a handgun and multiple passports in her bedroom wardrobe. Without informing her boss, she has spent eight months planning an operation to eavesdrop on the chief of Russian intelligence during his family holiday in Malta. Naturally, this involves many shots of the Mediterranean coastline, churches, and winding stone streets—Maltese beauty on full display. Kate's team operates from an apartment with stunning views and a sun terrace, suggesting the security services have a top-notch discount deal with Airbnb.
Their listening device, concealed in a cigar box that the Kremlin official conveniently keeps nearby, picks up top-secret information that stuns MI6: the Prime Minister is about to resign. You might scratch your head and think, 'That is not exactly a secret.' But in this fiction, the PM (Steven Elder) is not quitting because he is a two-faced, vacillating bumbler caught in a lie. No, this PM is at death's door. He has told only his Home Secretary (Amaka Okafor) and Foreign Secretary (Mark Stanley)—and one of them appears to have alerted President Putin's office.
Kate's husband, Stuart (Rafe Spall), happens to be the Home Secretary's advisor. Surely he hasn't... but he wouldn't... it can't be... well, let us not speculate. None of this is too taxing for the viewer. The script, written by Bradby himself, explains each development after it occurs, even reminding characters of their names and jobs. A favourite visual hint is a close-up of the Downing Street road sign with a caption confirming this is Westminster, London.
Since Bradby clearly has limitless influence at ITV, he not only appears himself but also engineers cameos from Robert Peston, Susannah Reid, and Ed Balls. What, no Ant and Dec?
