Codename: Kyril
| Codename: Kyril | |
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| Directed by | Ian Sharp |
| Screenplay by | John Hopkins |
| Based on |
The Man Called Kyril by John Trenhaile |
| Starring |
Edward Woodward Ian Charleson Joss Ackland Richard E. Grant John McEnery Peter Vaughan James Laurenson Denholm Elliott |
| Music by | Alan Lisk |
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Production
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| Distributed by |
ITV Showtime |
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Release date
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Running time
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208 minutes |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
Codename: Kyril is a 208-minute British serial, first broadcast in 1988. It is a Cold War espionage drama, starring Ian Charleson, Edward Woodward, Denholm Elliott, Joss Ackland, and Richard E. Grant. The spy thriller was directed by Ian Sharp, and the screenplay was written by John Hopkins, from a 1981 novel by John Trenhaile. The fairly complex plot concerns a known Russian spy ("Kyril") sent to the UK under falsely reported pretenses in order to hopefully indirectly spark an unknown mole in the KGB to reveal himself; the endeavor eventually has repercussions which none of the initial players could have predicted.
In Moscow, Marshal Stanov (Peter Vaughan), the head of the KGB, realizes that there must be a traitor within the KGB Moscow Center who is leaking high-level information to MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service. He secretly sends his most trusted operative, Colonel Ivan Bucharensky (Ian Charleson), as an agent provocateur to the West in order to force the traitor to reveal himself out of fear of exposure.
On Stanov's instructions, Bucharensky, who is given the codename Kyril, "defects" to the West and heads for Western Europe and then London. As instructed, he leaves behind in Moscow a fabricated diary which supposedly implicates the traitor within the KGB. Stanov keeps the fake diary locked in a safe, but spreads information about its existence and supposed contents in order to see who reacts, and how.
General Michaelov (Espen Skjønberg), an aging hardliner of the KGB, is persuaded by his deputy Povin (Denholm Elliott) to sneak into the safe to confirm the existence of the diary, although Michaelov does not take the time to read the diary's contents. Povin also convinces Michaelov to attempt to have Kyril killed lest he divulge KGB secrets to MI6. Meanwhile, Povin is covertly sympathetic to the West, and sends messages to the head of MI6 via hidden microfilms carried by third parties.
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Wikipedia