The
lowdown: 'The Waiting Game' was originally made as a two-part
miniseries, and broadcast on ITV1 on 28
October and 4 November 1999.
Based on the novel by Gerald Seymour, it is a post-Cold War spy thriller
starring
the late John Thaw as Joshua
Mantle, a solicitor's clerk who is asked to look into the case of an intelligence
officer,
Tracy Barnes (Zara Turner),
who was arrested by the military police after a seemingly unprovoked assault
on Dieter
Krause, an East German politician.
Mantle learns that Krauss had killed Barnes' East German lover, Hans Becker,
eleven years ago, when she
was stationed in Germany. Barnes had helped the intelligence service to
recruit Becker
as a double agent, but he
was murdered by a Stasi agent who turns out to have been Krause.
Barnes was one of five people
who witnessed the event and can bring Krauss to justice. The action soon
goes from
London to Germany and Russia
as Mantle and Barnes work together to track down these witnesses, while
pursued
by allies of Kraus who do
not want to see the truth come out. It is clear from early on that Mantle
is more than just an
ordinary solicitor's clerk,
and Mantle eventually reveals that he is a former British intelligence
agent. Colin Baker has
a relatively brief role
as Giles Fleming, Mantle's superior officer in the intelligence service,
who sends two agents to
Germany to keep an eye on
Mantle and Barnes, and report on their activities. As with most spy thrillers,
there is
also a fair amount of political
intrigue, involving Krause's friendship with a Russian politician who is
set to become
the next Russian president.
Olive Harris, an intelligent agent who works on the Russian Desk, has her
own plan to
bring down the Russian politician.
The
verdict: 'The Waiting Game' is a tense, well-crafted spy thriller
that features strong performanes from the two
main actors, although Struan
Rodger is the stand-out actor as Fleming's agent Albert Perkins. The story
takes some
time to get going, and the
slow build-up requires patience, but at nearly two and half hours it is
entitled to have some
flat bits. It also takes
some time to reveal exactly what is going on, but the action really picks
up in the second half.
However, fans of the original
novel should note that some major changes have been made to the plot.
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