s3276169 Spies of Warsaw is a clumsily transparent 40's style spy thriller. This is yet another throw back mini series that tries in a very transparent and bumbling manner to recapture a 40's essence, found in films like Casa Blanca. Of course the obvious problem with copying better films, is all sense of originality and creativity is lost. The outcome is a wooden mini series that feels self consciously clichéd and clumsy. The performances of the quality cast are regrettably constrained by the caricatures they are forced to adopt like a poorly fitting set of clothes. Quality actors like David Tennant don't stand a chance to really shine, which is in no way any reflection on their talent. Sad to say, whilst I like the idea behind this series its slavish adherence to a tired formula does it a real disservice. Five out of ten from me.

camarill I enjoyed that TV-movie. The story was no blockbuster/Bond style (though I like that too) but concerned an interesting moment of History. The acting was good (David Tennant of course!) and the characters plausible. It was also a pleasure to watch again Burn Gorman. Most of them when speaking French had an acceptable accent. Another reviewer complained about costumes, but as said in "La Rumba", if they were dressing our (French) soldiers that bad, it was so they would have less regret dying... I don't know Warsaw so I can't judge on the location views; and I'm not a specialist of History and then don't know if there were any goofs. Yet I noted at least two mistakes: (here be small spoilers) when Mercier is phoning from Paris, the phone booth is in rue Moulin, XXIth arrondissement! Must be the Tardis in disguise, and way in the future, as to now, there's never been more than twenty arrondissements... And when the Rozen leave, the plane wears a French flag but RAF cockades (red inside, blue outside).

Remittance Man I gave it 1 because I couldn't give it 0.Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement may be good writers of comedy series, but the BBC utterly failed when it appointed them to make what turned out to be a very bad adaptation of a very good book.They completely failed to develop the story as it unfolded in the original work by Alan Furst. They failed to develop the original sub-plots that made this story work and added all sorts of unnecessary ones that were not even in the book. Presumably this was done to Make the programme more "exciting". I know adapting books to the screen (big or small) requires changes but I was left wondering whether these two had even read the book before they set to work.Oh, and as for the uniforms. Good in the most, but Tennant's dress uniform in Episode 1 was completely wrong and looked about three sizes too big for him. He ended up looking like an extra from an Italian comic opera. Mercier, the aristocratic cavalry officer, would not have been seen dead in it.All in all wasted opportunity to turn a good book into a good TV series brought down by an obviously small budget, poor direction and poor choice of writers. Gods help us if they ever get turned loose on other works by Furst.

Michael Dixon Sorry, but it is the leading man who mainly disappoints. David Tennant is totally miscast and is not helped by a poor script, awash with clichés.I have been to Warsaw three times and there was more tension in the air during my visits than here with spies all over the place.It may have worked with a different lead, as Tennant sleepwalks his way through the scenes and physically has an uncanny resemblance to John Laurie when playing the crofter in the original version of the 39 Steps.When he twitches those eyebrows he also looks like a mad scientist rather than the smooth Frenchman tempting every woman from Paris to Warsaw to jump into bed with him. Add to that a non-existent personality and you are left with a problem.There is absolutely no chemistry between Tennant and Janet Montgomery who is very unenthusiastic throughout. Some decent efforts by a few of the supporting cast, but poor old Julian Glover was given a bad hand with some awful lines.And the continual movement from Paris to Warsaw and back again several times over was very confusingSadly quite ridiculous.