''Sleepers'' is a 1991 comedy-drama produced by

Cinema Verity Cinema Verity was a British independent television and film production company, founded in 1985 by Verity Lambert, the television producer, who named the company after herself and as a pun on the expression ' cinéma vérité'. The company's firs ...

for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, and that aired on

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

from 10 April to 1 May 1991, set around the period of

Glasnost ''Glasnost'' ( ; , ) is a concept relating to openness and transparency. It has several general and specific meanings, including a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information and the inadmissi ...

in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Plot summary

In post-Glasnost Moscow, the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

stumble across an old disused training facility recreating 1960s

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. They soon discover that the purpose of the facility was to integrate KGB agents into British society. Two of these agents are still missing 25 years later. In fact, the two agents have become integrated into British society so well they themselves have forgotten the reason they were sent there in the first place. They are as British as the British as far as they are concerned. One of them, Jeremy Coward, has become a successful

City A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

financier with a string of girlfriends, a posh car and a studio apartment. The other, Albert Robinson, is a hard-working moderate

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

ist living in Eccles in the north of England, with a wife, children and a council house. One day, Albert's daughter hears a strange noise coming from the attic. Looking for his daughter, Albert also hears the noise and discovers an old radio transmitter. He recognises the

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n radio transmission and suddenly realises that his old bosses are out to find him. Scared for his family, he goes away for a few days and manages to locate his associate. The KGB also begin to take action to retrieve the two rogue agents and send Major Grishina—a darkly attractive female officer—to the United Kingdom in order to bring them back to the

. Her arrival alerts the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

and

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

that something big must be happening for the KGB to send such a high-ranking officer to Britain. Her arrival also shakes up the Soviet representatives in the UK. The chief KGB officer in the UK is more decadent than the locals and is originally discovered watching an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

game on the TV. The action unfolds as the KGB pursue the two errant agents across England—hotly pursued by the CIA and MI5.

Cast

Nigel Havers Nigel Allan Havers (born 6 November 1951) is an English actor and presenter. His film roles include Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film ''Chariots of Fire'', which earned him a BAFTA nomination; as Dr. Rawlins in the 1987 Steven Spielb ...

— Jeremy Coward / Sergei Rublev *

Warren Clarke Warren Clarke (born Alan James Clarke; 26 April 1947 – 12 November 2014) was an English actor. He appeared in many films after a significant role as Dim in Stanley Kubrick's '' A Clockwork Orange''. His television appearances included '' D ...

— Albert Robinson / Vladimir Zelenski *

Michael Gough Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer horror films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthur Holmwoo ...

— Andrei Zorin *

Joanna Kanska Joanna Kanska (born 1 April 1957) is a Polish-British actress who has worked in film, television, theatre and radio. She migrated to the United Kingdom in 1984. Career Born in Nowy Sącz, she attended the National Film School in Łódź from 19 ...

— Nina Grishina (KGB) * David Calder — Victor Chekhov (KGB) * Candida Gubbins — Alison *

Annie Hulley Annie Hulley (born 23 October 1955 in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire) is an English television and stage actress and voice over artist. She is the narrator of The Yorkshire Auction House. Annie featured in Mr Bates vs The Post Office. She ...

— Sandra Robinson * Denica Fairman — Georgina * Richard Huw — Igor Kostov * Christopher Rozycki — Oleg Petrovski * Angus MacInnes — Bill Sullivan (CIA) *

Ricco Ross Ricco Ross is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of private Frost in the 1986 science fiction action film ''Aliens (film), Aliens''. Early life Born at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, he is the fifth of eight chi ...

— Karl Richfield (CIA) * Alan David — "K1" (MI-5) * William Chubb — George Wetherby (MI-5)

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 0101200 BBC television dramas 1991 British television series debuts 1991 British television series endings 1990s British drama television series 1990s British television miniseries 1990s British political television series British English-language television shows Television shows set in London