PRESS SCREENING OPEN TO PUBLIC
SECRET SERVICE – International Competition – Drama
Italian Premiere, UK, 2026, All3Media, ep.1, 48’
Read more informations
Director James Marsh
Written by Tom Bradby, Jemma Kennedy
Cast Gemma Arterton, Rafe Spall, Mark Stanley, Alex Kingston, Roger Allam, Amaka Okafor, Khalid Abdalla
Production Potboiler Productions for ITVX, UK in association with All3Media International
Distribution All3Media International
Directed by Academy Award winner James Marsh (Man on Wire, The Theory of Everything), starring Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace, The Boat That Rocked) and Rafe Spall (The Big Short, Black Mirror), and based on Tom Bradby’s trilogy of novels, Secret Service is an elegant and exotic spy thriller, true to the traditions of the genre, yet also deeply political, drawing viewers into a web of moral ambiguity and power struggles.
Kate Henderson is a senior member of MI6 running a secret intelligence operation out of Valletta, Malta. Lena, working for Kate, is staying at a villa belonging to a senior member of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, masquerading as his son’s nanny. When Lena places a bug in a strategic location, Kate and her team listen in. They overhear snatches of a conversation saying that the UK’s Prime Minister is due to resign and that the Russians have a candidate in ‘pole position’ to replace him. Shocked, Kate returns to the UK. Her superiors are reluctant to investigate until they have more concrete information, but Kate and her teammate Rav are convinced they need to move quickly. When the Prime Minister calls a surprise press conference and announces he’s standing down, proving the worth of her intelligence, Kate and MI6 go into overdrive. How did the Russians know in advance? And could there really be a mole at the heart of the British government? They begin digging into the key candidates who could be in line for the PM’s replacement, including Ryan Walker, the Foreign Secretary, and Imogen Conrad, the Chancellor. This puts Kate in a difficult position; Imogen is one of Kate’s closest friends and her husband’s boss. With tensions mounting, Kate uncovers more secrets, some closer to home than others, and wonders who she can trust. She also needs to get Lena out of Malta – and fast. As the political contest between Ryan and Imogen hots up, the race is on for Kate and MI6 to work out the extent of Russia’s links and the identity of the mole.