Cambridge Spies (TV Mini-Series 2003)

Being a student in Cambridge, I am naturally curious about the show. Not that I had much expectation when I watched this TV series, but I was very disappointed with what I saw. The script is inadequate. Dialogue is corny. Abrupt cutting in between scenes. It felt as if the story was cut in such a way just to fit into a one or two hour TV time slot. It seemed that a lot of things happened between the characters, but we the audience were not told. So we don't know why some of the characters behave in such and such a way etc.

Almost all the characters in the show were portrayed as gay men, and they were either fascist or communist. Not that I doubt that there were indeed gay people, fascist people and communist people back in the old days in Cambridge, but I think the portrayal of the characters are just too one-sided and incomplete. There are no emotional depth in the portrayals.

Toby Stephens has managed to top his corny performance in Die Another Day with yet another cornier portrayal of Kim Philby.

If anyone wants to know more about the true facts of the spies or the real history of Cambridge, please go read a book on the subject, and stay away from this show.