“In
the closing days of the war in 1945,
with Britain on the brink of social and
political upheaval and the Cold War with
Russia looming, a naïve young woman
uses her secret agent training by spying
for the Americans to help track down
a Soviet agent believed to have infiltrated
Government offices in Channel 4’s
intriguing thriller series Traitors...” DURING
HER TOUGH TRAINING as a British secret agent while Europe is in the grip of
World War II, naïve but gutsy upper class 21-year-old Fiona "Feef" Symonds (Emma
Appleton: Clique; Grantchester) has her plans aborted as peace is declared.
Struggling to fit into the bewildering and rapidly-changing world in the days
after the war, she takes work as a civil servant in London. Leaving her parents
— depressed alcoholic Frippy (Phoebe Nicholls) and the disappointed St
John (Owen Teale) — she begins her work at the Housing Office under David
Hennessey (Greg McHugh: Fresh Meat; The A Word).
“Traitors
is a tense and intriguing
thriller where drama
sits happily alongside
historical political events
and social mores...”
Feef's
family have fallen on hard times and their country mansion is crumbling and
leaking. Her brother Freddie (Jamie Blackley) suppresses his homosexuality as
it is illegal, and is compelled to marry a wealthy woman to fund the renovation
of their home.
Britain, America and Russia are all vying for a new world order and a shock
election win by the Labour Party under Clement Attlee in England unsettles the
United States.
With the Cold War in its infancy, America does not trust a Socialist government
to recognise Soviet agents in its midst and seeks to recruit spies to root out
anyone who is working for the Russians.
Feef's lover, American Peter McCormick (Matt Lauria: Kingdom; Parenthood)
is married with children but plays the bachelor away from his home country and
when Feef no longer hears from him she is unable to find out where he is.
Concerned about the Communist threat, America sends anti-Soviet American agent
Rowe (Michael Stuhlbarg: Shape of Water; The Post) to England to recruit
spies. Rowe persuades Feef to spy on her country and to get herself transferred
to the Whitehall Cabinet Office, where she begins working for senior civil servant
Priscilla Garrick (Keeley Hawes: Bodyguard), a fanatical exponent for
women's rights at a time when women had few.
Feef has given the wrong impression to one of her colleagues, Jerry Rouxborough
(Richard Goulding), whom she suspects may be the spy, and he assaults her angrily.
She has met and fallen in love with rising Labour star and former Tory Hugh
Fenton (Luke Treadaway: Ordeal by Innocence; Fortitude) and seems to
be getting on with her life.
It is clear that the Russians have inside information and as the Cold War ramps
up, it is imperative that the Americans discover just who in Britain is a traitor.
Rowe tells Feef that her predecessor was murdered by the Russians and Feef has
come to suspect that one of the secretaries, Rae Savitt (Cara Hogan: West
of Liberty; The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) might also be a spy.
Now working for two factions, the US Intelligence Agency and the Cabinet Office,
double-agent Feef begins to question her loyalties as she is drawn deeper into
a dark and dangerous world where she is cajoled and blackmailed to continue
spying, and she begins to wonder what she has let herself in for.
Mirroring Britain's own current turbulent and uncertain political climate, Traitors
is a tense and intriguing thriller where drama sits happily alongside historical
political events and social mores. Highly watchable and compelling, well acted
and benefiting from a little light relief with a well-chosen peppering of humour
and an enjoyable scene at The Gilbert & Sullivan Society to which Priscilla,
David and Andrew (Mat Fraser) belong.
Traitors also features: Brandon P Bell (Dear White People; Insecure)
as the African American driver for Rowe; Stephen Campbell Moore (The Last
Post; The Child In Time) as Phillip; Edward Bluemel as Barrie; Simon Kunz
as Herbert Quick; Albert Welling as Brigadier Moss; Robert Goodale as Mark Stephens;
Nikhil Parmar as Alex Mulligan; Brendan Patricks as Sullivan; and Rocco Day
as Rae's son Jacob.
Series Music is by Nitin Sawhney; Series Writing Credits: Bathsheba Doran (BoardwalkEmpire), in her first original commission for British television; Emily
Ballou (one episode) and Tracey Scott Wilson (one episode); Producer is Rhonda
Smith; and Series Directed by Dearbhla Walsh (also an Executive Director) and
Alex Winckler.
* A stylish spy drama that delves deep into
a seismic moment in global politics, Traitors is set for its DVD release
in the UK, courtesy of Acorn Media International, on 1 April 2019. The series
is also available digitally to download and keep from iTunes, Amazon Prime Video
and Google Play.
Certificate: 15 | Running Time: 6 x 45-minute episodes | Catalogue No: AV3532
| RRP: £24.99. Contains some female nudity and scenes of a sexual nature.
"Traitors is a tense and intriguing thriller where drama sits happily
alongside historical political events and social mores" — Maggie Woods,
MotorBar
"Compelling… wittily scripted… Recommended" — The Observer
"Intrigues… a fascinating premise" — The Telegraph
"A proper grown-up thriller filled with politics, suspense, good music and…
the odd bit of leavening humour" — DenofGeek
“In
the closing days of the war in 1945,