Conclusion

This conclusion surveys the history and evolution of the spy and conspiracy dramas over the preceding decades, summing up the arguments from the main chapters of the book. This is framed by discussion of some of the most recent programmes in these traditions, most notably the BBC’s return to John Le Carre with their adaptation of The Night Manager (BBC 1, 2016). It explores how these are increasingly made through complex co-production arrangements, with both the independent production sector and transatlantic co-production partners playing more dominant roles. This is linked to shift in trends back towards a ‘novelistic’ serial form, and new moral ambiguity whereby it seems increasingly difficult to distinguish the spy and conspiracy genres. It argues that this this responds to the critical agenda set American ‘quality’ television, with discourses of ‘quality’ emanating from pay-per-view threatening to supplant those associated with public service broadcasting.

The precinct is political: espionage as a public service in Spooks (BBC 1, 2002–11)

This chapter examines Spooks (BBC 1, 2002-11), procedural spy series focused on MI5. Widely understood as British television’s primary dramatic response to the ‘war on terror’, this chapter conversely traces the series’ substantial development prior to 9/11. Spooks is characterised as epitomising trends in the deregulated era of British television, commissioned as part of an investment in cutting-edge new drama to assert BBC 1’s competitiveness in the multi-channel landscape, and developed by the independent production company Kudos Film and Television. Responding to ‘openness’ drives by the real MI5, this reworked the spy series according to the tradition of the precinct drama, situating national security activities within the familiarised culture of the workplace family. This chapter argues that, through self-consciously challenging attitudes to headline issues the series demonstrated continuity with earlier radical BBC traditions, but this was tamed by its procedural format and stylised aesthetics.

Introduction

This Introduction begins by exploring how key production personnel on both Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (BBC 2, 1979) and Spooks (BBC 1, 2002-11) drew inspiration from the BBC itself when developing a fictionalised version of an intelligence service for the screen,. This is used to frame a brief overview of the histories of British intelligence, broadcasting and spy fiction through the early and mid-20th century, noting numerous intersections and parallels. In particular, it describes the expansion in all three areas in the post-war years, resulting from a complex blend of Cold War paranoia and the growth of an affluent, consumer society. Surveying the book’s methodology, it discusses how this account blends case study analyses with broader examinations of television institutions and British cultural history, in particular considering problems of 'realism' in relation to both the spy genre and British television drama. An overview of the main chapters is provided.

Death of a master narrative: the battle for consensus in A Very British Coup (Channel 4, 1988)

This chapter examines the serial A Very British Coup (Channel 4, 1988), which depicts the election of a socialist Labour Prime Minister and the mobilisation of an Establishment conspiracy to engineer his downfall. It argues that the decentralised model of Channel 4 enabled a more radical incarnation of the conspiracy genre than could be found on the BBC, with a more wide-ranging paranoid analysis of society that gives a new focus to the role of the media. This is mirrored in the serial;’ innovative paranoid aesthetic, which presented a highly fragmented visual style with an emphasis on screens and surveillance. The chapter also explores how the source novel’s ending was reworked to explicitly meditate on possibilities for restoring consensus through the democratising ideals of the television medium. However, this is contrasted with the reality of the 1990 Broadcasting Act which, a few years later, ushered in the fragmented multi-channel age.

‘A professional’s contest’: procedure and bureaucracy in Special Branch (ITV, 1969–74) and The Sandbaggers (ITV, 1978–80)

This chapter analyses two series which aimed to present a more authentic portrayal of intelligence activity, embracing a new ‘realism’ grounded in documentary detail and procedure. Special Branch (ITV, 1969-74) focused on the Metropolitan Police unit of the name whose remit centred on issues of national security, the series incorporating the thematic interests of the spy genre into the less heightened generic trains of the police procedural. This chapter explores how this focus converged with a concurrent trend in single plays towards increased location filming on ‘gritty’ 16mm film, with Special Branch’s adoption of this style from its 1973 revamp by Euston Films enhancing to a new narrative interest in international terrorism. This is contrasted with The Sandbaggers (ITV, 1978-80), a series focused on the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) which made an alternative claim to ‘realism’ through mounting an unprecedented examination of the bureaucracies underpinning intelligence activity.

‘A balance of terror’: Callan (ITV, 1967–72) as an existential thriller for television

This chapter examines Callan (ITV, 1967-72), an early television reworking of the ‘existential’ strand of spy thriller associated with John Le Carré and Len Deighton. It characterises the series as converging of two areas in which ITV had previously played an innovative role, specifically plays which placed a new focus on the realities of working-class life and glamorous, escapist adventure series, using the former to partially subvert the latter and develop a much more pessimistic incarnation of the spy genre. Through close analysis, it examines how Callan was able to utilise its predominately studio-based style to create a psychologically intense drama rooted in continuous performance. Finally, it describes the circumstances in which the series became an unexpected break-out hit in 1969, attributing this to its innovative use of serial narrative techniques. Though this it illustrates the power of the shared culture of broadcasting in a period of limited channels.

Conspiracy as a crisis of procedure in Bird of Prey (BBC 1, 1982) and Edge of Darkness (BBC 2, 1985)

This chapter examines a strand of topical BBC conspiracy dramas from the 1980s which utilised the serial form’s increasing popularity for original drama. Drawing upon 1970s Hollywood films, these presented a paranoid narrative showing the collapse of the procedural certainties that had characterised earlier spy series. Firstly, the chapter closely examines Ron Hutchinson’ Bird of Prey (BBC 1, 1982), which dramatised the rise of a gangster capitalism emerging from continental Europe and a growing surveillance state. It then analyses Troy Kennedy Martin’s Edge of Darkness (BBC 2, 1985), a more prestigious serial which provided a closer response to the ascendance of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government and its pursuit of free market economics. The resultant abandonment of the social-democratic consensus fundamentally challenged the very basis of the BBC’s ‘rejection of politics’, and these serials are read as allegorical expressions of a new collapse of certainty in the Corporation’s constitutional position.

‘Who killed Great Britain?’: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (BBC 2, 1979) as a modern classic serial

This chapter examines the 1979 BBC 2 serialised adaptation of John Le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, positioning this as the first instance of the BBC seizing the initiative over ITV in the spy genre. It explores how this was produced within the BBC classic serial tradition, most traditionally reserved for adapting canonical 19th century novels, whilst the casting of acclaimed actor Alec Guinness in central role of George Smiley imparted further prestige from film and theatre. It argues that the serial achieved its popular impact through embracing the complex narrative pleasures of the long-form serial, whilst countering this with the simple through line of a whodunit (or mole-hunt) storyline, offering multiple possibilities for audience engagement. Finally, it argues that through extensive location filming the serial was able it to effectively visualise some of the elegiac themes of the novel through landscape and architecture.