London Spy: Ben Whishaw, dreamy lover/genius Ed Holcroft and sage Jim Broadbent

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

http://illilis.tumblr.com/post/134121520476/being-a-l-o-n-e-has-a-rhythm-like-running-its

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

London Spy
Episode 1
"Lullaby"

DANNY: So Joe, are you--are you--I've run out of questions--

"JOE" (ALEX): Ask me. Please.

DANNY: Are you out?

"JOE" (ALEX): No. If you want to go, I can understand that reaction.

DANNY: I don't want to go.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

London Spy
Episode 1
"Lullaby"

"JOE" (ALEX): I work for an investment bank. It's their apartment. Security is a concern.

There's a terrace... If you want to smoke, I mean. I'm going to take a shower.

DANNY: (innocently snooping)







DANNY: I'll let you get dressed.









"JOE" (ALEX):(Now at the restaurant: kindly, gentle humor)

Did you look through my clothes?

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

London Spy
Episode 1
"Lullaby"

"JOE" (ALEX):(Now at the restaurant, Alex realizes Hixter, Southbank, is a bit pricey for Danny)

I can pay.


DANNY: No, it's fine, I'm... I must be easy to read.







"JOE" (ALEX): You are.


DANNY: Is that bad?


"JOE" (ALEX): Makes a change. The people I work with... are inscrutable.


DANNY: I can be inscrutable.







"JOE" (ALEX):(Kindly, gentle humor)

Did you look through my clothes?








DANNY: (laughs)

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

London Spy
Episode 1
"Lullaby"

http://anavolena.tumblr.com/post/137800677650/sometimes-you-have-to-take-a-chance-right-ben

(After a week of silence, Alex shows up very early, without any warning, at Danny's flat. They drive East, through Kent, and end up walking along the water in the slightly unearthly, spare, sparse, quiet, empty landscape of the Isle of Grain, which is all gravel and pebbles. Alex is stylishly equipped with thermos and carefully numbered and organized ordnance maps in his rucksack--he is a serious walker.)








DANNY: So you turn up, on my doorstep--which is wonderful! Except I never told you where I live--and I was wondering--and I should say in advance that I don't mind--but--did you carry out some kind of background check on me?


"JOE" (ALEX): The way we met was--unusual.









DANNY: Right. So--you thought--stranger! Seduction! Not that, uhm, I'm presuming you were seduced by me. That's--a process ongoing--what was I saying? Yeah, so you thought, our meeting was part of--a set-up? It's fine. It's fun. I just--I thought you said I was easy to read?








"JOE" (ALEX): (Lightly, with some humor)
That would have been the reason you were selected. The appearance of innocence.


DANNY: I'm not innocent.


"JOE" (ALEX): (Still lightly, but directly, seriously)
You might be the only innocent person I know.


DANNY: (A beat)
Can you tell me what your real name is now?


ALEX: (A beat)
My name is Alex.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

London Spy
Episode 1
"Lullaby"

DANNY: So grown-up. You drink tea out of a thermos, and you go for country walks.
I must seem young compared to the people you work with.


ALEX: You do.


DANNY: You're not joking, are you?


ALEX: I started university when I was 15.


DANNY: So you never... messed around?


ALEX: In what sense?


DANNY: Any sense.


ALEX: I've been serious for a very long time.





DANNY: What made you change your mind? About me?


ALEX: I wondered what it would be like to do these walks with someone.


DANNY: I was worried that you were going to say it was cos' I made you laugh.


ALEX: I don't think you've ever made me laugh. It's not that you won't--


DANNY: I understand.


ALEX: I'm sure you will--


(Alex is beginning to learn to smile and then laugh easily--and is falling in love.)

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

London Spy
Episode 1
"Lullaby"

(Back in London, outside Danny's flat in Vauxhall,
same evening after their wonderful day in Kent.)







DANNY: I'd like you to come up--if you want, obviously.
And if you don't want, that's cool--


(Suddenly they are speaking at the same time with crossed signals,
talking over each other; Alex is nervous and hesitant, Danny is frustrated.)


DANNY: I didn't mean to say cool--
ALEX: I want to--


(They pause--there is a gulf.)


DANNY: You want to--


(Alex is smiling, but nervously shaking his head--he is losing his nerve. There is a pause.)


DANNY: But--


(Awkward beat.)


ALEX: It's a little fast.


DANNY: Well, maybe next time.
(Frustrated and a bit annoyed, Danny starts to hug Alex goodbye,
but Alex awkwardly reaches out to formally shake hands.
Now really annoyed, Danny says--)
You've gotta stop shakin' my hand.


ALEX: I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
(Alex feels utterly mortified and out of his depth.
Suddenly everything has gone completely wrong.)


DANNY: Ok.

(Danny leaves Alex on the street and goes upstairs.
His flatmate is boredly stirring something on the stove.
Danny's wonderful day and evening has crashed.)




DANNY: Fuck!



(Danny clatters down the stairs and runs towards the downstairs door--
through the glass he sees Alex still there,
turned away, head bowed.)









DANNY: It's normally tidier than this...
(Then truthfully, he says)
No, it's never tidier than this.










(Sometime later, Alex is in the filled bathtub, seemingly exhausted and sad.
Danny is still fully dressed, shoes off, sitting on the floor of the bathroom next to the tub.
Alex slowly slips under the still water, eyes open, and Danny gently touches his chest.)















ALEX: Had you guessed?


DANNY: I'd guessed you hadn't slept with guys before.
I thought maybe you'd slept with a couple of women. Can I ask you a question?


ALEX: (Near silent grunt of assent.)


DANNY: What's stopped you? You don't have to answer.


ALEX: How do you admit to someone you've never been in a relationship?
Who wants to hear?
And when they do, who wants to stay?









DANNY: I do.


ALEX: (Wearily)  At school I was old. At university I was young.
I've always been--like a step from people around me.
In the end, I left it so late--I gave up. I told myself I was all about the mind.
And people found me odd. It grated on them. I could see it in their eyes.
Rather than change, I started playing the role, more and more. I didn't need anyone.
That's what I told myself: "I didn't want anyone."












DANNY: Did you imagine you'd spend the rest of your life alone?


ALEX: Yes.











DANNY: I can't begin to understand what that must feel like.


ALEX: You always knew you would find someone?


DANNY: Always.











ALEX: I can't imagine what that must feel like.











(Alex starts to make a small, rueful smile--and then a larger smile as Danny smiles broadly.)


ALEX: I'd like to try again.


DANNY: We don't have to.


ALEX: You don't want...?











DANNY: We can wait.


ALEX: I've waited long enough.












ALEX: Drugs?


DANNY: I've been using them to make me believe the sex was special.
That the person I was with was special. But--I'd like to know what it feels like for real.
Because I bet it's the best feeling in the world.




* * * * * * * * * * * * *




ALEX: Will you stop worrying about me?











DANNY: Will you stop worrying about ME?

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

A tragic love story masquerading as a spy thriller, this five-part drama is a terrific tour de force for Ben Whishaw.




http://www.tvinsider.com/article/67437/roush-review-london-spy-dcs-legends-of-tomorrow-baskets/

Roush Review
London Spy
Dazzles
By Matt Roush
January 21, 2016 9:45 am


London Spy: Quantum of Solace

It's a safe bet you've never seen a sex-pionage yarn quite like BBC America's wildly original and deeply moving London Spy, from novelist Tom Rob Smith (Child 44). A tragic love story masquerading as a spy thriller, this five-part drama is a terrific tour de force for Ben Whishaw (Spectre, Broadway's upcoming The Crucible revival) as Danny, a romantically wishful, wistful and emotionally fragile drifter who falls for the strong and silent investment banker Alex (Edward Holcroft)—which may not be his real name, and almost surely isn't his true profession.

Their eight-month courtship is captured in passionate and moody detail, although Alex's guarded nature makes him an unending enigma to Danny, a puzzle that only deepens when Alex suddenly disappears. Spy quickly becomes a brooding, haunting and surreal mystery of identity as well as a poignant study of lives lived in the shadows: those of spies as well as homosexuals.

"Romantics make unreliable spies," says Danny's protector/mentor Scotty (a moving Jim Broadbent), a former agent who knows only too well the toll of blackmail and self-denial. But Danny is resolute in pursuing the truth surrounding Alex, despite one contact's warning that "You have the very particular stink of a man out of his depth." The further Danny descends into a rabbit hole of secret conspiracy and paranoia, the more he realizes almost no one is who they seem and that his enemies will go to extraordinary lengths to protect their lies. (The tremendous supporting cast includes, in episodes to come, Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling and Adrian Lester as pivotal figures from Alex's cloudy, troubled past.)

"You're looking for answers, but are you ready for them?" a voice on the phone taunts Danny. A warning viewers might heed as well, because the audacious revelations in the final chapters are shattering and disturbing reminders of the cost of truth in a world built on deception.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

"JOE"/ALEX/ALISTAIR/ALEX


The First Interview with the Police:

Danny (Ben Whishaw):
His name's Alex.
He's my partner.
It's his apartment.
He disappeared two weeks ago.

Do you think it might not be him? (Danny hoping against hope.)









Detective Taylor (Samantha Spiro):
Tell me what you know about... Alex.


Danny:
He's a genius. He went to university at the age of 15.
He's got no family. His parents are dead. Uhm...
He works for an investment bank. What else do you need to know?


Detective Taylor:
Do you know... this man?








Danny:
That's... This is Alex.


Detective Taylor:
Your partner?


Danny:
Yeah.


Detective Taylor:
What kind of relationship did you have with him?
Did it involve sadism? Drugs?


Danny:
(Incredulous, shocked, disgusted)
No!


Detective Taylor:
You see? It's hard for me to believe you were in a serious relationship... when you don't even know his name.

This man is called Alistair. His parents are alive.
He did not work for a bank.
Is it possible... you enjoyed extreme sexual encounters with someone who didn't want you to know their name? Is it possible?









* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *




After a disastrous meeting with journalists in the 'Blue Fin Building' in Southwark:


Ben Whishaw and Michaela Coel filming London Spy in Southwark
19 October 2014



Journalist 2 (Michaela Coel):
You don't use his name.
Is it true you didn't even know it?
Did he ever tell you he was in danger?


Danny:
No.


Journalist 2:
OK, I get it. He's a spy, he needed to be careful.
You met by chance. First day, he lied.
But eight months later you want to spend the rest of your lives together and you're still using the wrong name to say how much you love him?


Danny:
He told me his name was Alex.


Journalist 2:
People lie, Danny. And they lie well.










* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *





The second, more threatening interview with the Police:













Detective Taylor:
What happened that night, Danny?







Detective Taylor:
He asked you to lock him inside the trunk. You obliged. You sat on the bed waiting for his high.
Only yours came first. It came stronger.
You pass out. Nothing could wake you. Not his cries for help, the movement of the trunk.
You sat up. You saw the trunk. On its side. Halfway across the attic.
Now you're panicking. You open the locks. You touch his cheeks. He's still warm.
You consider calling an ambulance... of course you do.
But it's too late. You look around at the remnants of your night.
The drugs. The kink. A jury's going to hate you.
You close the trunk and you leave.
After all, the guy slept around. You didn't even know his name. There were others.
Maybe we'd think it was one of them.



Danny:
Why would I have told you that? There WERE no other people!







Detective Taylor:
There are always other people. Exclusive. Discreet. A specialist escort agency, for the very rich.


Danny:
Alex didn't use escorts.


Detective Taylor:
Could we at least use his real name?


Danny:
Alistair didn't use escorts.


Detective Taylor:
You both enjoyed the company of strangers, it would seem.

(She shows a card for escort service that Alex/Alistair supposedly used, as well as evidence that Danny,
before his relationship with Alex/Alistair, had had a promiscuous past.)










* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *





In a handwritten letter, Danny is sent return fare rail tickets to meet Alex's "parents" in Oxfordshire.









Waiting on the platform for the "parents", Danny is working on a crossword puzzle;
he is filling in all the squares with the names 'Alex' or 'Alistair'.





* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *





After meeting Alex's second 'real' set of parents in the second 'real' house, and waking in Alex's second 'real' bedroom
(grand yet forlorn and desolate), Danny ignores the place setting in the otherwise empty upstairs Dining Room and goes
down to the kitchen to see Nanny (the 'fake' mother in the first house the previous night); she is cooking his breakfast,
and he sits down at the kitchen table.





Danny:
I prefer it down here.


"Mrs Turner"/Nanny (Lorraine Ashbourne):
She won't like it.









Danny:
No. I don't think she will.

You cared about him. You cared for him. If he had a problem, he came to you, didn't he? Not her. You loved him.


Nanny:
(still facing the hobb/range, she sobs)
Alex!


Danny:
Alex.
(Danny receives confirmation at last what he had already felt to be the truth--that Alex was his lover's true name--and that Alex had not lied to him.)


Nanny:
(She turns to Danny, crying and laughs, slightly hysterical)
He hates the name Alistair!










Danny:
What happened here?


Nanny:
Get as far away from these people as you can!