The first episode of new BBC2 drama London Spy pulled in 2.5 million viewers on Monday night, up almost 50% on the first episode of Autumn Watch which was in the same slot last week.
The five-part series was the second most watched programme on at 9pm, only eclipsed by BBC1’s Hugh’s War on Waste, a documentary on food waste fronted by chef Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, which attracted more than 4.6 million viewers.
London Spy stars Ben Wishaw as a young Londoner who falls in love with a man claiming to be an investment banker, played by Edward Holcroft, who then disappears in mysterious circumstances. Jim Broadbent, Adrian Lester and Harriet Walter also appear in the series, which has been described by Guardian reviewer Lucy Mangan as “an unutterably delicious, satisfying dish”.
It is directed by Jakob Verbruggen, who has also worked on BBC2 series the Fall, which starred Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan.
It is the first television series by author Tom Rob Smith, who also wrote Child 44 about a KGB agent in Soviet Russia, which was recently made into a film starring Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman.
Smith has told the Guardian that much of the series was written with Wishaw in mind.
Smith has acknowledged the story was influenced by the case of MI6 officer Gareth Williams, who was found dead in 2013, but has said the story is “entirely a work of fiction” and is not “intended as a commentary on the police investigation or the security services”.
