I have been listening to a lot of Romanian on TV this week.
“The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retreat of the President of the United States in Maryland.” (Wikipedia)
HBO Max is a streaming service (like Netflix, etc.) owned by Warner Bros. They made Spy/Master a six part spy thriller shown by the BBC last year but available on BBC catch-up. It takes place in the week leading up to the signing of the Camp David Accords, set in Bucharest, Bonn and Camp David. The script is in Romanian, Arabic, German and American English – there are subtitles for the English speaking market. The plot is gripping but what lifts it above average for the genre are the locations, it was mostly filmed in Hungary and Romania, cars, architecture and clothes. It is convincing and has all the plot twists and cliffhangers requisite in the genre. Do not imagine it is an exaggeration of real life events. This happened in December 1977.
“On what proved to be the last day of his life, the Sunday Times chief foreign correspondent David Holden boarded a flight from Jordan to Egypt. A few hours later his body was found dumped at the side of a road near Cairo airport, stripped of all means of identification. He had been shot once, at close range, to the heart.” (The Times, Obituary, 10th May 2024)
The portrayal of Nicolae and Elena Ceausecu is a class act in its own right. He is paranoid, ranting and raving to his subordinates with his wife not so subtly manipulating him. These scenes are particularly pleasurable as Elena looks remarkably like Cherie Blair leading one to draw some probably incorrect conclusions. In case one misses her similarity to Lady Macbeth as well she urges her husband to kill a child, something even he is balking at, and makes hand washing motions in the last episode.
A Perfect Spy by John Le Carré was published in 1986. The following year the BBC broadcast a seven part adaptation. Like Spy/Master the period and locations are pitch perfect and the acting rather better. It’s what the BBC used to be good at. It’s not a thriller, like The Night Manager in 2016. It is a Le Carré examination of what makes a spy as it charts the childhood and career in espionage of Magnus Pym. The relationship between Magnus and his father was inspired by Le Carré’s relationship with his own father. Peggy Ashcroft’s cameo role is a delicious grace note. I watched the first two episodes back-to-back last night. The series is available on BBC catch-up.