Most of us are familiar with the likes of Homeland, 24, Jack Ryan and Killing Eve, but there’s a slew of secret service sensations that may have gone deep undercover and under your radar...
As the multi-award winning, internationally-acclaimed French spy series, The Bureau, arrives for its season five UK premiere (September 17th on Sundance Now), the chances are you’ve probably never heard of it, but that’s about to change.
Seasons 1 – 4 is available now, so it’s the perfect time to discover your brand new binge watch obsession and once you’ve finished, uncover more brilliant spy dramas.
The Bureau
This suspense-filled series takes us into the undercover world of French agents at the DGSE (Directorate General of External Security), France’s leading intelligence centre, within which operates the "Office of Legends": secret agents.
Spending prolonged amounts of time immersed in hostile countries, these operatives are tasked with identifying potential sources of intelligence among the people they come into contact with. Operating under a fabricated identity, they live for years in a permanent state of double identity, between an apparently normal life and their covert intelligence activity.
The thrilling first series begins with one of the top agents Malotru (Mathieu Kassovitz), recalled from a lengthy undercover mission in Damascus. Although lauded as a hero by the Bureau, can he settle back into his old life after six years as someone else? And what about the Syrian girlfriend he left behind… is she who she says she is, or could she be his downfall?
The Bureau Seasons 1-5 are available to stream now on Sundance Now UK (Amazon Prime add-on).
Deutschland 83’ & ‘86
This epic coming-of-age story is set against real events, culture wars and the political realities of Germany in the early 1980s and sees Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay) as a spy at the centre of this suspenseful Cold War thriller. The series also features an era-defining 1980s pop soundtrack that hits all the right nostalgic buttons, including tunes like 99 Red Balloons.
Maria Schrader stars as the formidable Aunt Lenora who pushes Martin into becoming a reluctant spy, with international implications. Get ready for the third instalment Deutschland ‘89 to hit screens next year.
The Americans
Set during the Cold War, this series follows Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), two Soviet KGB intelligence officers posing as an American married couple living in Washington, D.C. with their children. Beginning in the aftermath of Reagan’s inauguration, this gripping drama explores tensions between the FBI and KGB as both nations race towards nuclear capabilities, alongside the domestic and professional lives of these two spies living undercover in enemy territory.
Spies of Warsaw
David Tennant stars as Jean-François Mercier, a French Deuxième Bureau intelligence agent in 1937 who poses as military attaché at the French embassy in Warsaw, and finds himself drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw. As major nations compete for influence over Poland, the stakes couldn’t be higher, as World War II looms on the horizon.
Little Drummer Girl
Based on the John le Carré novel and directed by Korean maestro Park Chan-wook, this miniseries stars Florence Pugh as Charlie Ross, an English actress drawn into a shadowy world of the Mossad in 1979. Michael Shannon plays Israeli intelligence operative Martin Kurtz, who pulls the strings in a tangled web of deception to hunt down a Palestinian terror cell.
London Spy
Ben Whishaw plays carefree civilian Danny whose life is turned upside down when his boyfriend Alex (Edward Holcroft) disappears. Determined to find out the truth, Danny learns Alex was an MI6 agent, and ventures into an unknown and terrifying world of espionage in search of justice.