Mask of Janus, The

1 9 6 5 (UK)
11 x 50 minute episodes

This BBC thriller series was set in the fictional European country of Amalia and dealt with the rival political interests of Britain, America and the Communist nations and their espionage communities in the small unstable country.

Department DI6 of the British Foreign Office was the central focus of the series, with the core characters including Sir Robert Crispin (Donald Eccles), the British Ambassador to Amalia; Naval Attache and legal adviser Commander Charles Hastings (Peter Dyneley);  Richard Cadell (Dinsdale Landen) the Vice-Consul at the border city of Mansa; Arthur Letby, the Amalian Consul (Hamilton Dyce); American agent Bob Miller (Lawrence Dane); and Anthony Kelly (Simon Oates), Cadell’s chief in Whitehall.

Consulate officials and spies alike engaged in covert operations from the Amalian capital of Taira to secure the intellectual property of individuals or to acquire political secrets for the benefit of a specific nation.

Episodes dealt primarily with the intricacies of espionage as opposed to Danger Man-style action and storylines involved defection to the West, the exchange of captured agents and the leaking of official secrets.

A spin-off series, The Spies, premiered two weeks after the conclusion of The Mask of Janus.

Commander Charles Hastings
Peter Dyneley
Richard Cadell
Dinsdale Landen
Anthony Kelly
Simon Oates
Bob Miller
Lawrence Dane
Arthur Letby
Hamilton Dyce
Anthony Kelly
Simon Oates
Sir Robert Crispin
Donald Eccles

Episodes

Them Is Anyone That Isn’t Us | And The Fish Are Biting | The Sleeper | Rendezvous | The Public Interest | The Devil You Know | The Rack | The Cold Equation | The Arranger | Why Not Call Me Kruschev | Arms And The Men