ITV’s new drama Secret Service, based mostly on a novel by newsreader Tom Bradby, offers viewers a glimpse of ‘actual life spying’ and ‘actual life politics’ – ITV News Entertainment Reporter Rishi Davda has extra
Whether you’re 5, 15 or 50, being a spy is extensively thought of as a dream job.
Admittedly, movie and TV exhibits have glamourised and romanticised the occupation for many years.
I don’t think about it’s all jet-setting, supercar-driving and unhealthy guy-battling. That being stated, at the same time as an grownup, I nonetheless permit myself to ponder the risk of the luxurious life of espionage.
ITV’s new drama Secret Service blends a profession in intelligence with the realities of human existence.
It stars Gemma Arterton – who already boasts the James Bond franchise on her CV – as Kate Henderson, a senior MI6 operative.
I sat down with the actress on set in Malta, again when the collection was filming in April 2025.
Perched on the pews of a church (it’ll make sense once you watch the first episode), Arterton says she was ‘quite amazed that they thought I was capable of playing someone’ like Kate.
“There has been lots of talk about a female Bond and it’s not like that. What sets this apart from a lot of others is that it looks at the domestic as well.
“She is a mom of two youngsters, she has a busy life, how do you reside a life with a lot secrecy? It’s onerous sufficient being a guardian, with out all this different stuff on prime. I actually linked with that truly.”
Every year, TV channels and streamers back projects within the espionage genre. There is a bankability about them which stems from an initiate intrigue from viewers.
“I believe it’s that we don’t get to see it in actual life’, Gemma says. “The world of it, when you fictionalise it, is so enticing. People enjoy watching anything that is clandestine or forbidden. It’s an endlessly fruitful genre.”
Attempting to disclose as few spoilers as doable, I’ll let you know that Secret Service is centred round Kate Henderson studying {that a} senior British politician may very well be a possible Russian asset.
The storyline relies on a e-book by the similar identify, written by ITV News presenter Tom Bradby.
“We’re here in Malta, it’s very exotic,” Bradby notes. “They are watching quite an exotic spy thriller, but we really wanted the audience to feel like this is a peek behind the curtain for how real life could be. Real life spying, real life politics.
“I grew up on the books of the previous Cold War and I’d prefer to suppose that is the first correct drama of the new Cold War.”
The show has something of a heavy-hitting cast. In addition to Gemma Arterton, you’ve got the likes of Rafe Spall, Mark Stanley, Alex Kingston, Roger Allam and Khalid Abdalla.
There’s a big name behind the camera too. Oscar-winning film director James Marsh is overseeing the first 3 of 5 total episodes.
In recent years, the entertainment industry’s once hard lines between film and TV have massively blurred.
Marsh believes that “you are attempting to carry a way of cinema to tv and I believe you may”.
“People now principally have fairly good televisions, so the work you do is definitely fairly translatable from cinema to TV and there isn’t a snobbery for me. They are each nice mediums for storytelling.
“This story can now unfold in five episodes in a way it couldn’t in a film, you’d compress it too much. You don’t have the space to nuance scenes and characters. I’m glad we got the bigger compass of time.”
I is perhaps talking solely for myself, however I believe most individuals deep down reckon they’d be a fairly good spy. I believe in follow, we’d all be exceptionally terrible.
Having seen the first two episodes of Secret Service, I can let you know that Gemma Arterton is past convincing in the function of MI6 operative.
However, she doesn’t give herself any likelihood of doing the job properly in actual life.
“I would be an atrocious spy,” she laughs. “I think the first thing that would give me away is that I blush. It’s such an involuntary reaction, you cannot blush as a spy or asset.
“I don’t suppose I’m superb at maintaining issues to myself. I’m personal however I’m not secretive. I’m clumsy as properly, I’m not good at being covert.”
Reporting History sees journalists be part of News At Ten anchor Tom Bradby to revisit their exceptional on-the-day reviews of the defining occasions of the fashionable age. Listen to the episodes beneath…
