The Americans

At the same time (the end of 2017) that our satellite TV supplier denied us the 'BBC Entertainment' channel, it also gave us access to a new channel, 'Yes Edge'. Most of the programmes broadcast on this channel do not interest me, but one ('The Americans') very much does. I think that I read about this programme several years ago, so when it began being broadcast here, I knew that it was something that I would want to watch.

For those too lazy to check the Wiki reference, 'The Americans' is about a seemingly normal American family, normal except for the facts that the parents are in fact Russian spies and apparently for some time their marriage was one of convenience, or should I say 'cover'. These spies are known as 'illegals' as they operate outside the safety net of the Russian embassy. The worst than can happen to a 'legal' spy is that he gets expelled from the country (PNGed, or persona non grata, as it is known in diplomatic circles). An illegal is literally illegal, and if caught would probably face life imprisonment - if not swapped for a similar person on the other side. Gordon Lonsdale is probably the most famous Russian illegal spy, who worked in Britain during the 1960s. George Blake and Kim Philby probably did more damage, but they were moles.

Being a Le Carré groupie (or a fan of 'stale beer' spy fiction), I can say quite conclusively that in real life, there are much fewer deaths than as portrayed in this series. I suspect that the number of blackmails and 'honey traps' is probably underestimated. Of course, the best agent is one who is unwittingly supplying information, or allows access to secrets.

But 'The Americans' is much more than a spy drama, complete with tradecraft and loose ends; it's a true drama about the protagonists (Philip and Elizabeth Jennings; is it mere coincidence that their names are the same as a more famous couple, Queen Elisabeth II and Prince Philip?), their unwitting family and their friends (not coincidentally, their neighbour is an FBI agent engaged in counter-espionage; I don't think much of his department). Originally fairly conscience free, the protagonists grow a conscience, especially during season five.

A much better take than mine on the series can be found here. I don't wholly agree with it, and anyway it was written before the fifth series, which as I note above, changed the protagonists' attitude somewhat. Literate episode synopses can be found here.

The TV channel began by showing episodes daily, five a week. By a neat coincidence, five series were broadcast in this manner, and so these terminated in the 13th week of the year, which was a few weeks ago. The sixth - and final - series began a few weeks ago, at the same time as its broadcast in America, on a weekly schedule. There is no way that we could find the time to watch an episode a day; we usually manage three episodes on a Saturday afternoon/evening. As a result, episodes were piling up, waiting to be watched (as I have mentioned before, we have a machine which records the programmes until we watch them; this is not the DVD recorder). At one stage we were over a season and a half behind the current programs. On Saturday, though, we watched the final episodes of season 5, so now we have only a few episodes of season 6 to watch. Possibly in two weeks we will have exhausted the backlog, only for the series to end....

On the other hand, "Madam Secretary" had a long break; originally a few episodes from episode 4 were screened, then the channel started broadcasting all the episodes again from the first series, again on a daily basis. Only lately have new episodes been broadcast, but these are on an irregular schedule.