Spy Vs. Spy: Cold War Heats Up In Prime Time

Bill Neveney at USA Today offers a piece on the new espionage shows on TV this season.

TV viewers are increasingly seeing vintage Red — as in spy dramas that hark back to the bad old days of Cold War espionage between the Soviet Union and The West.

BBC America's The Game (Wednesday, 10 p.m. ET/PT), FX's The Americans (returning for a third season in late January) and NBC's Allegiance (Feb. 5, Thursdays at 10 ET/PT) each play the classic spy vs. spy game from a different angle, with the first two set during the Cold War and the third dealing with its remnants in the present day.

Russians are the protagonists in The Americans, the enemies in The Game and a mix of both in Allegiance, with long-deactivated KGB agent Katya (Hope Davis) trying to protect her American family when Russia comes calling after many years with a new assignment.

The Cold War era brings the kind of high stakes that can make for great drama: opposing philosophies, as represented by the Soviet Union vs. such Western nations as the USA and Great Britain, playing nuclear-armed chess. The Game's Brian Cox, who plays an MI5 team leader known as Daddy, remembers the tension of the era, citing 1962's Cuban missile crisis.

"We thought the whole thing was going to blow up," he says. "It was Kennedy meeting Khrushchev head on. That is the background out of which spy paranoia grew."

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/11/02/cold-war-russian-spies-on-the-game-the-americans-allegiance/18251633/

Local Connection: Ian Fleming's Character James Bond Was Named After A Bird Scientist Who Worked At Philly's Academy Of Natural Sciences

Jon Caroulis at phillymag.com offers a piece on the man Ian Fleming "stole" his name from for his iconic fictional character, James Bond.

If you watch tonight’s BBC in America production of Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond, here’s one fact the film might omit: Ian Fleming named his master spy after a Philadelphia bird scientist who spent most of his career at Philly’s Academy of Natural Sciences. Here’s what we know about him:

The original “James Bond grew up on the Main Line, was educated in England and eventually lived in Chestnut Hill,” says Academy Senior Fellow Robert Peck, who got to known Bond during the final decades of his life.
     
Bond worked at the Academy from the 1920s up to his death in 1989. He was one of many ornithologists who contributed specimens from the Caribbean to the institution’s extensive bird collection. Bond even wrote a book on the region, Birds of the West Indies (1936), which is what caught Fleming’s attention when he began writing Casino Royale.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.phillymag.com/ticket/2014/01/29/fun-fact-james-bond-named-bird-scientist-worked-phillys-academy-natural-sciences/?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EDIT:%20Ticket%20(Weekender)&utm_content=

You can also read an earlier post on Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/01/tonight-on-bbc-america-fleming-man-who.html

Tonight On BBC America, "Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond

Tonight On BBC America is the first part of a four-part series on the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming.

There’s no questioning the iconic status of the man they call 007, but before his thrilling adventures hit the page or screen, they were experienced first-hand by author-to-be, Ian Fleming. Stylish and explosive – Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond tells the fascinating story of the man whose own life and escapades were the inspiration for one of the most iconic figures in modern literature – James Bond.

The new original four-part drama stars Dominic Cooper (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) as Fleming, a charming and sophisticated maverick, whose pleasure-seeking life was turned around by WWII and led to the creation of the greatest spy the world has ever known. Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond premieres Wednesday, January 29, 10:00pm ET/PT as part of BBC AMERICA’s Dramaville.

You can read the rest of the piece and learn more about the series via the below link:

http://www.bbcamerica.com/fleming/about-the-show/

You can also read my Crime Beat column on Ian Fleming via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/06/casino-royale-revisited-film-that.html

And you can read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on Fleming's war-time experience as a naval intelligence officer via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/11/look-back-at-30-assault-unit-british.html

Note: As a Fleming aficionado since I was a teenager, I'm thankful that the BBC is offering a mini-series on the life of Ian Fleming. Fleming, a journalist, naval intelligence officer, world-traveler and thriller writer, led a fascinating life.

But, from I've read, the TV program spends a bit more time on Fleming's odd sexual practices than I'd care to see, and they fictionalize bits, such as his having fist fights with Nazis.

Also, Dominic Cooper looks nothing like Ian Fleming (Fleming's WWII photo appears above).

Back in the 1980s, Charles Dance, who does resemble Fleming, portrayed the author in a good film bio called Goldeneye. 

Interview With 'Fleming' Actor Dominic Cooper

The James Bond web site MI6 offers a video interview with Dominic Cooper, the actor who is portraying James Bond creator Ian Fleming in an upcoming film bio on Sky TV in the U.K. and BBC America in the USA.

You can watch the video via the below link:

http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/movies_fleming_miniseries_dominic_cooper_interview.php3?t=&s=&id=03606

 

Note: The top photo shows Dominic Cooper as Ian Fleming. The above photo shows Ian Fleming as a British naval intelligence officer in World War II.  

BBC America To Produce Four-Part Miniseries On Life Of James Bond Creator Ian Fleming

 

 

Leslie Kasperowicz at Cinemablend.com reports on the upcoming miniseries on one of my favorite writers, the late great thriller writer Ian Fleming.

 

BBC America is preparing to bring the story of the man behind 007 to the small screen. Fleming will tell the story of Ian Fleming, the man who brought James Bond to life and whose own life seems to have much of the martini-sipping, skirt-chasing charm he infused into the suave spy of his imagination.

Film actor Dominic Cooper, whose roles have been as varied as Captain America: The First Avenger and My Week With Marilyn, is set to play the role of Fleming for the four-part miniseries.

 

...Fleming’s entrance into Naval Intelligence via his family’s connections during the war uncovered in him a gift for brilliant, dangerous, and “outrageous counter-intelligence missions against the Nazis.” This experience wound up being the basis for the character of James Bond, who first appeared in Fleming’s 1953 debut Casino Royale.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Dominic-Cooper-Star-Ian-Fleming-BBC-America-Biopic-51522.html

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on Ian Fleming and his World War II experiences as a British Naval Intelligence officer via the below links:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos3.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/IanFlemingsCommandos4.jpg

Note: The above photo, provided by Pen & Sword publishers, shows Commander Ian Fleming at Naval Intelligence headquarters during World War II.