''The Piglet Files'' is a British sitcom produced by

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00&nbs ...

(LWT). The show consists of three series, totalling 21 episodes, that were broadcast between 7 September 1990 and 10 May 1992. The programme follows the life of reluctant

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 ...

agent Peter "Piglet" Chapman as he tries to instruct his fellow agents on the finer points of spy gadgetry while keeping his wife Sarah in the dark about his new career.

Plot

In the early 1990s, during the intervening period between the

fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (, ) on 9 November in German history, 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain, as East Berlin transit restrictions we ...

and the

collapse of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

combats the Soviet spies within the United Kingdom while facing their own agents' ineptitude, and the ridicule of the sheer fact that 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 ...

is no longer a threat; but MI5 knows better, and indeed the Soviets are intent on making trouble. In an effort to alleviate their agents' incompetence, MI5 hires local university teacher Peter Chapman, convincing him by getting him sacked from the university, which leaves him no choice. His new bosses, Maurice Drummond and Andrew Maxwell, assign him to the technology division, and he insists on having a codename, to further his identity in the world of spying. The first codenames listed were Panda, then Panther, but those are already in use, they then incorrectly stated that Puma was the next available name before correcting themselves and assigning Peter the next name..."Piglet". Piglet routinely joins the other field agents on missions—mainly to ensure that MI5 gets its equipment back. Peter "Piglet" Chapman must now face down Soviet

assassin Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

s and

double agents 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 ...

while keeping his identity as an MI5 technician secret from everyone else, including his wife Sarah.

Characters

Nicholas Lyndhurst Nicholas Simon Lyndhurst (born 20 April 1961) is an English actor. He began his career as a child actor and is best known for his role as Rodney Trotter in the BBC sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses'' (1981–2003). He was cast as Professor Alan C ...

as Peter "Piglet" Chapman *

Clive Francis Clive Francis (born 26 June 1946) is a British actor and illustrator, known for his extensive work in television, film, and theatre. He has appeared in a wide range of British television dramas and comedies, including ''Poldark'', ''Yes, Prime ...

as Major Maurice Drummond *

John Ringham John Henry Ringham (10 February 1928 – 20 October 2008) was an English actor who appeared on both television and stage. Among his roles was that of Norman Warrender in the 1980s sitcom '' Just Good Friends''. Early life Ringham was born in C ...

as Major Andrew Maxwell * Michael Percival as Dexter * Serena Evans as Sarah Chapman * Louise Catt as Flint * Steven Law as Lewis * Paul Cooper as Trueman

Series overview

Episodes

Series 1 (1990)

Series 2 (1991)

Series 3 (1992)

DVD release

All three series of ''The Piglet Files'' are available on DVD, through Network.

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Piglet Files, The 1990s British sitcoms 1990 British television series debuts 1992 British television series endings British English-language television shows ITV sitcoms London Weekend Television shows MI5 in fiction Television series by ITV Studios