LEGACY OF SPIES: MATTHEW MACFADYEN LEADS CAST OF NEW BBC SPY DRAMA BASED ON HIT NOVEL

The BBC and MGM+ have announced landmark John le Carré series Legacy of Spies by award-winning The Ink Factory (The Pigeon Tunnel, The Night Manager) in co-production with Amusement Park Film (All Quiet on the Western Front) and in association with 127 Wall Productions and Paramount Television Studios.

Written by Stephen Cornwell (Message from the King, A Most Wanted Man, Unknown) with Clarissa Ingram, the series adapts le Carré’s best-selling novel, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and will also draw on additional material from A Legacy of Spies.

The 8 x 60’ drama for BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK and MGM+ in the US, is anchored by two-time Emmy and Bafta award winning Matthew Macfadyen (Death by Lighting, Succession, Deadpool) as master-spy George Smiley, Charlie Hunnam (Monster, Sons of Anarchy, The Gentlemen) as the British intelligence officer Alec Leamas, Daniel Brühl (All Quiet on the Western Front, Rush) as East German spy Jens Fielder and Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu (The Empress) as Doris Quinz aka Agent Tulip.

Graham Yost (Justified, Silo, Slow Horses) and Malte Grunert (All Quiet on the Western Front) will executive produce the series which will chart George Smiley’s overarching quest for his nemesis, Russian master-spy Karla , through the defining era of our modern age, the Cold War. Legacy of Spies will be set across the UK, and what was, in the time period of the story, East and West Germany and Czechoslovakia.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold dominated the world’s best-seller lists when it was first published in 1963 and remains one of le Carré’s best-selling novels today. Le Carré’s 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies was also a global number one bestseller.

The series begins in the shadow of the newly-erected Berlin Wall, as Alec Leamas watches his last agent shot dead by East German sentries. For Leamas, a senior British intelligence officer in Berlin, the Cold War is over.

As he faces the prospect of retirement or worse - a desk job - Control offers him a unique opportunity for revenge. Assuming the guise of an embittered and dissolute ex-agent, Leamas is set up to trap Mundt, the deputy director of the East German Intelligence Service, with himself as the bait. In the background is George Smiley, ready to make the game play out just as Control wants.

Simon Cornwell and Stephen Cornwell, Founders and co-CEOs at The Ink Factory, say: “This project is in many ways the most ambitious and all-encompassing adaptation of le Carré’s work to date, taking our father’s best-known and most-loved most character – the complex and brilliant spymaster George Smiley – and using this medium as a canvas to chart his story as he moves through a world which culturally and politically shapes the one we live in today...

"To have Matthew embody this operational mastermind, a man both vulnerable and dangerous, alongside the brilliant talent of Charlie and Devrim, is a great coup. We are thrilled the series has found its home with the BBC and MGM+ and to be collaborating alongside Malte and the Amusement Park team, while having Graham’s wisdom, vision and deft touch helping us guide this project – bringing his own mastery of the genre alongside that of le Carré’s.”

Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, says: "Legacy of Spies is a dream le Carré project adapted by the brilliant Stephen Cornwell and Clarissa Ingram. We are thrilled to have The Ink Factory – who are the ultimate experts in this genre - making this series which stars some of our best actors; Matthew, Charlie, Devrim and Daniel. BBC viewers are in for a very special treat!"

Michael Wright, global head of MGM+, says: "The opportunity to partner with The Ink Factory, the BBC, and this remarkable creative team to tell the story of John le Carré's legendary George Smiley is truly a dream project. MGM+ is building its brand around classic storytelling for a modern audience, and 'Legacy of Spies' is the embodiment of that, with a brilliant cast led by Matthew Macfadyen and Charlie Hunnam. We're thrilled to bring it to the MGM+ audience."

More details will be announced in due course.