An urbane writer is reluctantly recruited into British Intelligence during the First World War.
John Ashenden (Alex Jennings), a successful author living in Geneva in 1916, is approached by Cumming (Joss Ackland), a shrewd operative from British Intelligence. On the authority of the enigmatic spymaster ‘R’ (Ian Bannen), Ashenden is drawn into the clandestine world of espionage. His missions take him across a Europe torn apart by war, from tracking a traitor in Switzerland to collaborating with a flamboyant but deadly assassin known as “the Hairless Mexican” (Alfred Molina). Operating under literary cover, Ashenden discovers that the reality of spying is a sordid business of betrayal, moral compromise, and casual violence, a world far removed from the gentlemanly ideals for which the war is supposedly being fought.
Based on W. Somerset Maugham’s semi-autobiographical stories, this four-part serial is a faithful and intelligent adaptation that preserves the source material’s cynical tone. Maugham’s own experiences as an agent during the First World War informed the fiction, creating one of the earliest and most influential portraits of realistic espionage. The production rejects heroic fantasy for a world of weary disillusionment and grubby moral compromises. Ashenden is not an action hero but a detached observer, a literary man whose wit and intelligence are poor armour against the brutal machinations of statecraft. David Pirie’s scripts and Christopher Morahan’s direction construct a moody, atmospheric vision of wartime Europe, a landscape of neutral-toned hotel rooms and shadowy train compartments where loyalty is a tradable commodity.
Broadcast: BBC One, 4 Episodes, Sundays, 17 November – 8 December 1991
Adapted by: David Pirie
From stories by: W. Somerset Maugham
Director: Christopher Morahan
Executive Producer: Michael Wearing
Producer: Joe Knatchbull
Main Cast: Alex Jennings (John Ashenden), Joss Ackland (Cumming), Ian Bannen (‘R’), Jason Isaacs (Andrew Lehman), Harriet Walter (Miranda Forbes), Alan Bennett (Mr. Harrington), Alfred Molina (The Hairless Mexican), Elizabeth McGovern (Aileen), Rene Auberjonois (Holst), Sarah Bullen (Hertha)
