Spies of Warsaw drama a hit with critics

David Tennant in Spies of Warsaw: TVP press materials

With a glittering cast of British and Polish stars, Spies of Warsaw evokes the murky world of espionage in the Polish capital in the years leading up to the Second World War.

David Tennant, best known in the UK for playing a 'time lord' in cult television drama Dr Who, takes the lead role of Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, an aristocratic attaché and spymaster at the French Embassy in Warsaw.

Britain's The Guardian declared that screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais had made “a ripping job” of adapting author Alan Furst's original novel.

“The orbiting characters were carefully drawn, dressed and drilled,” the paper reflected.

The Daily Telegraph agreed, describing the drama as a “thrilling yarn" rich in period detail.

“With a cliffhanger of David Tennant stuffed into the boot of a German car (let’s hope it’s bigger inside than it looks on the outside), I look forward to seeing how things are resolved in the second half,” reviewer Christopher Howse concluded.

Meanwhile, Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza enthused that “the whole world is watching Warsaw” and that the drama could mark the beginning of an international career for Marcin Dorocinski (Rosa, The Reverse), who plays a pre-war Polish officer, complete with obligatory moustache.

Spies of Warsaw (Szpiedzy w Warszawie) is the first co-production realised by the BBC with Poland's national broadcaster TVP.

Viewers can catch up with the action on BBC4 and TVP1. (nh)