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Worricker (2011)

2011 · Drama,Mystery,Thriller · spy-contemporary, political-drama

Worricker poster

Worricker (Page Eight) is a cerebral BBC spy drama written and directed by David Hare, starring Bill Nighy as a veteran MI5 officer navigating the moral wreckage of post-9/11 British intelligence complicity. It is deliberately literary in register — jazz on the soundtrack, lamppost-lit London streets, conversations that carry more weight than any action sequence — and feels closer to political theatre than genre thriller. The show's pleasures are intellectual and character-driven: a stellar cast (Gambon, Weisz, Fiennes) delivering Hare's precise, stagey dialogue, and a protagonist who chooses human decency over institutional loyalty. It is dry, wry, and occasionally melancholy, with a slow-burn build that rewards patient viewers.

From the reviewers

The Security Service, and the sense of 'England' that is built around it, are both portrayed in an amusingly artsy, lighting-a-cigarette-under-a-lamppost-to-the-tune-of-modern-jazz manner
An unexpected conclusion left me praising Nighy's character for doing the right thing, in normal person terms, rather than 'the right thing' in the usual On Her Majesty's Secret Service terms that we're usually force-fed by spy drama
The early scene where the spies meet the politicians, in the form of the Home Secretary (Saskia Reeves) and her assistant, is pure Hare theatre. A wonderful script delivered with panache.
Few films have been made that depend on smart dialogue and intense acting instead of explosions, car chases, and other improbable acts of danger to make their point.
this is a good film with a fantastic cast. It's content seems to upset a lot of reviewers including at least one member of the IDF who says the murder of a protester would never happen. Well, it could and it has.

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