The Worricker trilogy

A very pleasant bit of holiday viewing: Bill Nighy as the gentlemanly cad MI5 officer Johnny Worricker, dealing less with James Bond situations than the almost inevitable corruption of civil institutions in the clutches of what is often called the free market system, meaning of course it is anything but.

Written and directed by David Hare, who is probably better known for his stage work, the fiction leans towards Le Carré rather than Fleming or Wolstencroft (creator of the Spooks television series), but remains unique enough to obliquely forecast Slow Horses in the genre.

Worricker’s professional past is a little shrouded in secrecy, but we know he’s part of the Cambridge old boy network, and has a conflicted relationship with a daughter, at an ex-wife, his former lover, and every other woman he encounters—perhaps like David Cornwell rather than his characters in the books he wrote as John Le Carré.

There’s a wistfulness about the story of Worricker uncovering and leaking British complicity in secret rendition sites and their product, and then trying to stay alive and out of those same rendition sites while the political storm blows over.

Worricker is smart but phlegmatic, and reluctantly reliant on women who are the real heroes and villains in the piece.

A very interesting cast of supporting characters that includes Christopher Walken and Winona Rider as if that were the most natural thing in Worricker’s world, makes for sumptuous viewing, and the dialogue isn’t bad.

The trilogy of 100-minute television films was produced for BBC Two and is available on DVD.

Carnival Films/Heyday Films/BBC2.  Produced by David Heyman, David Barron, Celia Duval.  Written and directed by David Hare.  Cinematography by Martin Ruhe (Page Eight) Thomas Townend (Turks & Caicos, Salting the Battlefield).  Theme music by Paul Englishby.

Page Eight: Bill Nighy as Johnny Worricker, Michael Gambon as Benedict Baron, Rachel Weisz as Nancy Pierpan, Judy Davis as Jill Tankard, Saskia Reeves as Anthea Catcheside, Ewen Bremner as Rollo Maverley, Ralph Fiennes as Alec Beasley, Marthe Keller as Leona Chew.  Turks & Caicos supporting cast: Helena Bonham Carter as Margot Tyrrell, Winona Ryder as Melanie Fall, Christopher Walken as Curtis Pelissier.  Salting the Battlefield supporting cast: Olivia Williams as Belinda Kay, Leanne Best as Amber Page, Pip Carter as Freddy Lagarde, Daniel Ryan as Bill Catcheside, Kate Burdette as Allegra Betts.