A Spy among Friends- Brilliant acting

We stopped watching it after the first episode as we found it a bit boring. However, I do think it was well produced and acted but it didn't inspire me to watch any further.

Found it unwatchable due to being filmed a bit too much in the dark and not making out what every character was saying.
Also found it boring.Strange when I like British spy dramas and normally enjoy them all.

Foxygloves

Glorianny

Well Jane Archer (married name Sissimore) worked for both MI5 and MI6. She was married in 1939, dismissed by MI5 in 1940 for insubordination went on to work for MI6 went back to MI5 and was involved in the Burgess investigations
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Sissmore
So perhaps the character in the series is meant to reflect her contribution.

Well researched Glorianny !👏👏
Jane Sissmore (married name Archer) joined the Secret service (SIS as it was) originally as a clerk and rose through the service. She married on the eve of WWII and I am fully prepared to accept that different rules applied in wartime to those of the post-war Civil Service and Foreign Office.. There is no denying the crucial role she played and the respect in which she was held, but it is questionable whether she could have held the role she did under the “normal” conditions of peacetime and the employment rules of the FO who provided “cover” positions for their operatives abroad.
Good point about the character in the tv drama probably being based on her.

She worked for MI5 well into the 1950s and was involved with both Burgess and Philby
Archer and Arthur Martin were asked to compile a résumé of Philby's past – the coincidence with the "young English journalist" was noticed and Archer uncovered a slim MI5 file on him dating back to 1939.[47] Presented with MI5's evidence and under pressure from Washington, the head of SIS still did not doubt Philby's loyalty but asked him to retire with a golden handshake.[48][49][50][note 8]

In 1952, while examining the papers left in Burgess's flat, Archer found documents describing secret meetings that were then discovered to have been written by John Cairncross.[46]

Glorianny

Well Jane Archer (married name Sissimore) worked for both MI5 and MI6. She was married in 1939, dismissed by MI5 in 1940 for insubordination went on to work for MI6 went back to MI5 and was involved in the Burgess investigations
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Sissmore
So perhaps the character in the series is meant to reflect her contribution.

Well researched Glorianny !👏👏
Jane Sissmore (married name Archer) joined the Secret service (SIS as it was) originally as a clerk and rose through the service. She married on the eve of WWII and I am fully prepared to accept that different rules applied in wartime to those of the post-war Civil Service and Foreign Office.. There is no denying the crucial role she played and the respect in which she was held, but it is questionable whether she could have held the role she did under the “normal” conditions of peacetime and the employment rules of the FO who provided “cover” positions for their operatives abroad.
Good point about the character in the tv drama probably being based on her.

Grantanow

Gertrude Bell?

At the request of family friend Lord Hardinge, Viceroy of India, Gertrude Bell joined the British administration in Ottoman Mesopotamia in 1917, where she served as a political officer and as the Oriental Secretary to three High Commissioners: the only woman in such high-ranking civil roles in the British Empire. Bell also supported the cause of the largely urban Sunni population in their attempts to modernise Iraq.
The Secret Service Bureau was created in 1909 and predated MI5 and MI6 which did not exist in those days as we know them

Incidentally Bell never married .

Saw this months ago - i think it was on ITVx.

I had to leave my local authority job on my marriage - this was in the 70s in Scotland so i dont know when that changed. The only women who were employed there were spinsters.

I saw it a while back, I remember enjoying it, I thought Guy Pearce was excellent, can hardly believe he cut his teeth on Neighbours all those years ago, he's such a good actor, as is Damian Lewis.

I'm finding it a little slow and the time shifts irritating but the acting is spot on. The book on which this is based was a great read.

I gave up with it as well.
Obviously saving on the Lighting budget.

We loved this series especially the brilliant acting. It is a fictionalised account and none the worse for that.

Of course women the bottom end of every government dept. were made to abide by the rules, but it is very wrong to suppose that that rule was always applied in every area. A few women were there, not many, but, as always happens their contribution and efforts have been forgotten. It isn't called history for nothing.

My first job in the 60s was in the civil service. I was small fry but told if I married I would have to leave.

Gertrude Bell?

Well Jane Archer (married name Sissimore) worked for both MI5 and MI6. She was married in 1939, dismissed by MI5 in 1940 for insubordination went on to work for MI6 went back to MI5 and was involved in the Burgess investigations
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Sissmore
So perhaps the character in the series is meant to reflect her contribution.

@Glorianny
The marriage bar prohibited married women from joining the civil service, and required women civil servants to resign when they became married (unless granted a waiver). It was not abolished until October 1946 for the Home Civil Service and 1973 for the Foreign Service

Women worked at the Clerical and Executive Officer grades but if married could not hold Administrative grade posts in the Civil Service or Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
As far as “the service” ie MI5 and MI6 are concerned there may well have been female operatives in the field and of course during wartime, but senior MI5 or MI6 positions had to be relinquished on marriage until the Marriage Bar was repealed as above.
Many of the “famous” women in the service such as (Baroness) Daphne Park, a senior controller of MI6, remained unmarried.

Foxygloves

Yes but….. why the invention of the Anna Maxwell Martin character? Token woman? And with a black husband - token actor of colour?
Nicholas Elliott was my sister in law’s godfather and it is after all, a true story, not fiction. The book by Ben MacIntyre sticks much more closely to the facts.
(A married woman would in any case not have been working for the Foreign Office/MI5 or 6 at anything above humble secretarial level in those days - actually right up to the 70’s)

It says at the beginning that it is a fictionalised account.
There must be so much that no-one except the people directly involved know the details of.
As for no women working for MI5 or 6. I wouldn't be so sure. Women worked in intelligence throughout WW2 and proved their worth. It would have been difficult but not impossible. A good read is "A Woman of No Importance" the story of Virginia Hall who worked in France during the war and afterwards for the CIA. She was married, and she only had 1 leg.

Started to watch but gave up after 2 episodes as everything was so dark - irrespective of time of day or whether they were inside or out

I suppose we don't really know the whole truth though

Some do, but I might have to kill you 🤣

Yes but….. why the invention of the Anna Maxwell Martin character? Token woman? And with a black husband - token actor of colour?
Nicholas Elliott was my sister in law’s godfather and it is after all, a true story, not fiction. The book by Ben MacIntyre sticks much more closely to the facts.
(A married woman would in any case not have been working for the Foreign Office/MI5 or 6 at anything above humble secretarial level in those days - actually right up to the 70’s)

I watched it a little while ago on ITVX and found it compelling. I'd never really appreciated Damien Lewis as an actor before.

I agree, it's excellent, Damian and Anna are amazing actors. I remember her perfect portrayal of Esther Summerson in a relatively recent adaptation of Bleak House...
My only problem is that I have to hit the subtitle button because their speech can be incomprehensible at times. But this is not unusual, owing to loud, annoying background music, as on The Repair Shop, for instance.

Yes, I watched it. I find the whole Cambridge spy business really interesting. All the lead parts were brilliantly played. I suppose we don't really know the whole truth though.