So Kerewin and I recently watched the third of these BBC movies, Salting The Battlefield, to finish the trilogy started with Page Eight and then Turks and Caicos. These were BBC ‘tv movies’ – we watched them on PBS.org via Masterpiece, for those inclined to check them out.

So these are spy thrillers, in my view the first two are pretty good, the third not quite as. Bill Nighy is the star here but in each movie there are several around him definitely providing interest. Ralph Fiennes knocks another ‘you really want to hate him’ role out of the park, he’s such a good bad guy (not as over the top as Voldemort or Harry from In Bruges, but there are definitely elements of both in his portrayal of the British PM).

And these are a bit lower-key than say, a Bourne movie, and not as complex as Tinker Tailor was (not sure of any movie that fits that bill). Still, they are probably far more realistic as regards plot and setting by contrast.

It was also obvious that the writers are definitely making both a direct and indirect commentary on the increasing British spy state as having grown out of the Bush years and why it just keeps on growing to this day – most notably in the third movie. What ends up happening to Johnny and the others is not as predictable as you might expect – but then again, this isn’t Hollywood either.

Check them out!

candybowl

Tags: '10s, 00's, malevolence, movies, thriller

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