KGB agents Sergei Rublev and Vladimir Zelenski were sent undercover to England in 1966 and forgotten about until a cellar was discovered in the bowels of the Kremlin containing a mock-up of Carnaby Street-era London. Now the Russians want to find them.
In Eccles (Manchester), a dusty radio in the attic of Albert Robinson (Warren Clarke) crackles into life. Albert leaves his wife and children behind, contacts a London banker named Jeremy Coward (Nigel Havers) and travels south, unexpectedly accompanied by Morris, his daughter’s toy monkey.
Having merged seamlessly into British life, Albert (formerly Vladimir) has become a happily married brewery worker and shop steward, while Jeremy (formerly Sergei) is a well-to-do City whiz-kid with a £300k salary who plays silly paintball-soldier games at weekends.
Over the following days, Albert and Jeremy find themselves pursued not only by the KGB – including the ideologically pure and icily beautiful Major Nina Grishina (Joanna Kanska) – who are anxious to recover their ‘sleeping’ spies but also by the clueless agents of MI5 and the ultra-paranoid CIA.
There were plenty of laughs in this BBC series – like the covert KGB film of the 1966 World Cup Final, which finally settled the question of Geoff Hurst’s controversial goal, the KGB controller who trained the pair (Michael Gough) and now spoke only in English catchphrases and recited the Peter Sellers’ version of A Hard Day’s Night, and the “secret room” beneath the Kremlin in which the agents were trained and which was now a cobwebby diorama of Swinging London, complete with Minis, miniskirts, bobbies and The Beatles.
Jeremy Coward (Sergei Rublev)
Nigel Havers Albert Robinson (Vladimir Zelenski)
Warren Clarke Victor Chekhov
David Calder Andrei Zorin
Michael Gough Major Nina Grishina
Joanna Kanska Oleg Petrovsk
Christopher Rozycki Igor Kostov
Richard Huw K14
Alan David George Wetherby
William Chubb Bill Sullivan
Angus MacInnes Karl Richfield
Ricco Ross Sandra Robinson
Annie Hulley Alison
Candida Gubbins Serena
Jane Nash Sharon Robinson
Tara Moohan Elsie
Barbara Young Doctor
Andrzej Borkowski Gary Robinson
Ian Taylor Wayne Robinson
Spencer Ridgway Barrington Cabot
Paul Maxwell Roger Stanley
James Smith Bob Riley
John Flanagan Donald
Andrew McCulloch Rev. David Bancroft
Richard Durden
Episodes
The Awakening | The Net Tightens | On the Run | Welcome Home
