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A Perfect Spy: Complete BBC Series (3 Disc Box Set)
RRP: £15.99
Our Price: £6.00 (subject to change)
A slow starter, but ultimately rewarding
Review date: 2007-03-07 Rating: 8 out of 10
Peter Egan, the nominal star of this serial, makes his first appearance in episode 3. In the first two episodes we see his childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. The pacing is very slow at the beginning. Flashback sequences would have alleviated this, but the programme can be seen as an excellent antidote to the frantic cutting of modern television productions.
This role is Egan's best performance I have seen to date. In one scene he sits in a restaurant with his father and you see his attitude melt from bitterness to unwilling humour by facial expressions alone. Egan also impressively portrays the ambiguousness of the enigmatic Magnus Pym, an ambivalence that inhabits every part of his life - personal or professional.
By episode 5 the story is in full flow, and the building sense of unease compels you to watch. Magnus's life looks set to unravel. His spy bosses, his wife, even his young son begin to perceive what kind of man he is. Only Magnus's father accepted him for himself, for there is a subtle but clear similarity between them. Again, Peter Egan is convincing enough for you to lose yourself in the drama.
One of the most fascinatingly mysterious characters is Axel, who crops up throughout Pym's life and, it seems, will be a major force in his destiny.
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Reviews
neal beard
Review date: 2006-11-20 Rating: 10 out of 10
This is an extremely long movie, which means you may become very bored before it becomes interesting, but its length provides opportunity for its characters to find permanent attachment in your sympathies.
If you are moved by the guilt of the loathsome you will find it particularly heart-wrenching, because it is a story that finds its heroes among the evil and the weak. If you can love a monster you'll cry for Magnus Pym, the spy who betrays everyone - notably his country, his friends and family - a man who has also been manipulated and moulded since childhood by those same people.
There isn't one truly likeable character in the entire story, not one loyal, 'moral' personality to sympathise with. But watching the whole thing without the help of a tissue would be quite remarkable.
I really enjoyed it in the end. Well worth it for people who like inciteful movies about baser human character.
A Perfect Spy
Review date: 2006-03-16 Rating: 6 out of 10
The 3-disk set is of 7 episodes of a John Le Carre novel of the same name serialized for television in the late 1980s. Casting was good, especially Ray Macanally in the role of Rickie Pym in a masterly a performance as the con-man and father of our hero, played by Peter Egan. Only Peter Egan, a competent actor, was mis-cast. He never succeeded in projecting a young man's version of his father's charm, so seemed implausible both as a spy with conmanship in his bloodstream, and as someone capable of firing guns and engaging in unarmed combat (though this was never depicted directly). The play was faithful to the book, but its unremitting tone of gloom, reflecting the Cold-War 1950s, the lost world of upper-middle-class values which even those with first-hand experience might prefer to forget, plus Egan's inability to engage my sympathies meant that in the end I persisted only out of curiosity for what form the denouement might take. Of course! Suicide! Woodenly directed, the appetite and need for betrayal depicted seemed in the end little more than a study in individual morbid psychology.
Betrayal as a way of life
Review date: 2005-12-07 Rating: 10 out of 10
What makes a perfect spy? Meet Magnus Pym. He's a nice little kid. His dad's a bit of shyster and his mum has Magnus carefully tutored to support and not to upset the old man. And why wouldn't he do everything to please his dad? He loves him. His dad's good to him. He's fun. Rick (Magnus's dad) manipulates everybody around him into impossible positions - but little kids don't notice things like that. That's the sort of thing you learn as you grow up and Magnus soaks it up like a sponge as he gets older. He's a natural: business and friendship with a smile and a stab. A chap like that can go far.
I watched this when it was first broadcast in the 1980s and it had me hooked for its seven episodes (about 50 minutes each). I wondered if it would be as good as I remembered and guess what, it's better. The story is completely gripping and the acting is just superb. The casting is a piece of genius, especially Peter Egan as Magnus, Ray McAnally as Rick and Alan Howard as Brotherhood - but really, every actor - even the smallest parts are acted to perfection. La Carre writes such a clever and convincing story. The characters are complex and colourful - no black and white/good and bad simplicity here. Rick and Magnus are absolute rotters but so likeable with it. The people who should despise them love them. How many other writers could create such paradoxical characters and make them convincing - almost ordinary? La Carre is in a class of his own. Brilliant.
Highly recommended.
Well pitched and absorbing
Review date: 2005-09-16 Rating: 10 out of 10
The previous Le Carre adaptations lit up by Alec Guiness's near legendary performance as George Smiley make anything seem poor by comparison, which is a shame because this is a beautifully crafted series. It is by 2005 standards built rather slowly, but the way Pym unfolds towards his downfall is superbly managed. I think this TV series is actually about as close to the effect and quality of reading an absorbing book as you can get. There are no real fireworks in it - but it is very, very good.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Ray McAnally
Peter Egan
Alan Howard
Rudiger Weigang
Peggy Ashcroft
Creators:
Peter Egan (Primary Contributor)
Ray McAnally (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: 2 Entertain Video
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
EAN: 5014503167721
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 3
Format: Colour, Dolby, PAL, Subtitled,
Release date: 2005-06-06
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 374 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1987
Language: English (Original Language)