Restless (2012 miniseries)
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''Restless'' is a 2012
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
TV adaptation of William Boyd's
espionage novel Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligen ...
'' Restless'' (2006). Directed by
Edward Hall Edward Hall ( – ) was an English lawyer and historian, best known for his ''The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke''—commonly known as ''Hall's Chronicle''—first published in 1548. He was also sever ...
, the film features
Hayley Atwell Hayley Elizabeth Atwell (born 5 April 1982) is a British and American actress. Born and raised in London, Atwell studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and made her stage debut in a 2005 production of James Kerr's translation ...
,
Rufus Sewell Rufus Frederik Sewell (; born 29 October 1967) is a British film and stage actor. In film, he has appeared in '' Carrington'' (1995), '' ''Hamlet' (1996), ''Dangerous Beauty'' (1998), '' Dark City'' (1998), '' A Knight's Tale ''(2001), '' Th ...
,
Michelle Dockery Michelle Suzanne Dockery (born 15 December 1981) is an English television and film actress. She is best known for her leading performance as Lady Mary Crawley in the ITV television period drama series ''Downton Abbey'' (2010–2015), for which ...
, Michael Gambon and
Charlotte Rampling Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model. She was cast in the role ...
. The two parts first aired on 27 and 28 December 2012 on
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
.


Plot


Part One

The first episode opens in the 1970s with Ruth Gilmartin, a PhD student at St John's College, Cambridge, driving with her young son to visit her mother in her country cottage. When she arrives, her mother, Sally Gilmartin, is nervous and believes that men are watching her from the nearby woods. Ruth mocks her mother's fears. Sally then hands her a notebook with the name "Eva Delectorskaya" on the front, and informs her daughter that Eva Delectorskaya is Sally's real name. The action then moves to Paris in 1939. Eva, as a young woman, is shown with her brother. The family, which also includes their father, has recently arrived in Paris from Russia. After leaving Eva, her brother is kicked to death in the street by a gang of men. After the funeral, Eva is approached by an man whom she had earlier seen talking to her brother. He introduces himself as Lucas Romer and gives Eva a business card for the company "AAS Ltd". Later Eva returns to the flat she shares with her father and finds Lucas there. Lucas tells her that he works for the British security services, and her brother was working for him. He tells Eva that war is imminent and that he wants her to become a spy like her brother. Eva is initially reluctant but then agrees after Lucas says that her father can be given free treatment in Britain. She is taken to Scotland for training at a country house, where she proves herself extremely capable at memory tests and a survival exercise. During this period war breaks out. After her training Lucas tells her that they will be working in
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
. In Ostend Eva is part of a team fabricating fake news stories to be picked up by the Germans. During this period Eva and Lucas become lovers. She is then selected to observe an operation in the fictitious Dutch border town of Preslo, but the operation goes wrong and results in the death of a Dutch intelligence officer and the capture of SIS officers by the German
Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...
(SD-Security Service). This was based on the true events of the
Venlo Incident The Venlo incident was a covert German ''Sicherheitsdienst'' operation on 9 November 1939, in the course of which two British Secret Intelligence Service agents were captured from the German border, on the outskirts of the Dutch city of Venlo. ...
.


Part Two

Eva is sent to the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
as part of a team which uses misinformation and news stories to encourage the U.S. government to support the British war effort. She is ordered by Lucas to seduce the married Mason Harding, an adviser to the president, ostensibly to find out if the Americans intend on joining the war, but actually to
blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...
him. A second assignment is to supply a map to American agents supposedly outlining a planned German invasion of the United States via
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. Eva spots errors in the map, informing Lucas Romer and other colleagues of this, but chooses to continue the mission. After Eva survives an attempt to kill her in the desert, through serendipitous circumstances the map makes its way to and fools the U.S. president,
Roosevelt Roosevelt may refer to: *Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president * Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president Businesses and organisations * Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation) * Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank * Rooseve ...
, as to German intentions. However, as her fellow agents in Romer's group die one by one, she knows that they have been betrayed, and she escapes into Canada. After the U.S. enters the war, Eva returns to London. She meets Alfie, the last remaining member of her group, but then kills him, fearing that he is the traitor. During a German bombing raid she and Romer attempt to kill each other after he follows her, but he gets away, and she disappears. In the present, Ruth and Eva have managed, via Ruth's Ph.D supervisor, to identify Romer under his current assumed identity. Eva gets Ruth, posing as a journalist interested in wartime espionage, to contact Romer, which allows 'Sally' to follow and locate Romer's home address. The two women pay him a visit and his identity as the real traitor is revealed after more than thirty years. Romer, a
double-agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organ ...
for the
USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, commits suicide.


Cast

*
Hayley Atwell Hayley Elizabeth Atwell (born 5 April 1982) is a British and American actress. Born and raised in London, Atwell studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and made her stage debut in a 2005 production of James Kerr's translation ...
as Sally Gilmartin aka Eva Delectorskaya (younger) *
Kevin Guthrie Kevin Guthrie (born 21 March 1988) was a Scottish actor. His best known roles are Ally in '' Sunshine on Leith'' (2013), Ewan Tavendale in Terence Davies's '' Sunset Song'' (2015), and Abernathy in the first 2 Fantastic Beast films - ''Fanta ...
as Alfie Blytheswood *
Rufus Sewell Rufus Frederik Sewell (; born 29 October 1967) is a British film and stage actor. In film, he has appeared in '' Carrington'' (1995), '' ''Hamlet' (1996), ''Dangerous Beauty'' (1998), '' Dark City'' (1998), '' A Knight's Tale ''(2001), '' Th ...
as Lucas Romer *
Michelle Dockery Michelle Suzanne Dockery (born 15 December 1981) is an English television and film actress. She is best known for her leading performance as Lady Mary Crawley in the ITV television period drama series ''Downton Abbey'' (2010–2015), for which ...
as Ruth Gilmartin *
Charlotte Rampling Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model. She was cast in the role ...
as Sally Gilmartin aka Eva Delectorskaya (older) *
Gwilym Lee Gwilym Lee (born 24 November 1983) is a Welsh actor. He is best known for his roles in '' Jamestown'', ''Midsomer Murders'', ''Top End Wedding'', ''The Great'', and for playing guitarist Brian May in the Queen biopic ''Bohemian Rhapsody''. Ear ...
as Sean Gilmartin * Michael Gambon as Lord Mansfield * Michael Peter Willis as Jochen *
Tom Brooke Thomas Brooke (born 1978) is an English actor. He is best known for playing the roles of Thick Kevin in '' The Boat That Rocked'' (2009), Bill Wiggins and Andy Apsted in the BBC One television series ''Sherlock'' and ''Bodyguard'' respectivel ...
as Angus Woolf *
Adrian Scarborough Adrian Philip Scarborough (born 10 May 1968) is an English actor. He has appeared in films including ''The Madness of King George'' (1994), ''Gosford Park'' (2001), ''Vera Drake'' (2004), ''The History Boys'' (2006), ''The King's Speech'' (2010 ...
as Morris Devereux *
Bertie Carvel Robert Hugh Carvel (born 6 September 1977) is a British actor. He has twice won a Laurence Olivier Award: for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his role as Miss Trunchbull in '' Matilda the Musical'', and for Best Actor in a Suppo ...
as Mason Harding * David Butler as Keegan-Vale *
Julian Firth Julian Firth (born 8 January 1961) is an English actor, best known for his roles as troubled inmate Davis in the cinematic version of the film '' Scum'' and as Brother Jerome in the long-running television series '' Cadfael''. Firth has enjoye ...
as Servant * Catherine Harvey as Mrs. Dangerfield * James Norton as Kolia *
Thekla Reuten Thekla Simona Gelsomina Reuten (born 16 September 1975) is a Dutch actress. Life and career Reuten was born in Bussum, Netherlands, the daughter of a Dutch father, Joost Reuten, and an Italian mother, who was born in Benabbio near Bagni di Lucc ...
as Sylvia Rhys Meyers *
Rob Ostlere Robert Ostlere is a British actor, best known for his portrayal of Arthur Digby in the medical drama '' Holby City''. He made his first appearance on 2 January 2013 and departed on 7 June 2016. Early life Ostlere graduated from the Royal Acad ...
as a shop assistant


Production

The drama was produced by Endor Productions in association with
Sundance Channel Sundance Channel can refer to: * Sundance TV, formerly known as Sundance Channel (United States). * Sundance Channel (Canada) * Sundance Channel (Netherlands) * Sundance Channel (Europe) Sundance Channel can refer to: * Sundance TV, formerly kno ...
. It was directed by Edward Hall, and produced by Hilary Bevan Jones and Paul Frift. The exterior of the club, "Brydges", frequented by Lord Romer, was filmed at Bearwood House, Sindlesham in Berkshire.


Reception

Adrian Michaels, writing for ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'', praised the first part of the adaptation as "terrific", saying: "There was enough plot development to keep everything ticking along, but at an easy pace that was a welcome change from Scandinavian psychopaths starting a bloodbath every 15 minutes." The first part was also received well by John Crace in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''; he commented on the high production values and compared it to another series featuring Dockery, saying it "was everything 'Downton_Abbey''.html" ;"title="Downton_Abbey.html" ;"title="'Downton Abbey">'Downton Abbey''">Downton_Abbey.html" ;"title="'Downton Abbey">'Downton Abbey''isn't: well-acted, well-written, well-paced and well-filmed".


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Restless (2012 miniseries) 2012 British television series debuts 2012 British television series endings 2010s British drama television series BBC television dramas 2010s British television miniseries Television shows based on British novels Television series set in the 1970s World War II television series English-language television shows Films with screenplays by William Boyd (writer)