Talking about A Spy Among Friends, the Daily Mail said: “No one writes about deceit and subterfuge so dramatically, authoritatively or perceptively. Writer Alexander Cary said: “Macintyre’s books about spies from recent history are relevant and exciting because they examine the larger universal themes of human behavior that drive individuals among us, and like us, to excel in the murky world of espionage and, for better or worse, leave a lasting impact on the world.” He is also the writer of SAS Rogue Heroes – the inspiration for the hit drama series currently showing on BBC One and iPlayer. He is the author of nine books including Agent Zigzag, the number 1 bestseller Operation Mincemeat and, most recently, Double Cross. The six-part series is inspired by the popular Ben Macintyre book of the same name.īen Macintyre is a columnist and Associate Editor on The Times. Which is a sort of sad and slightly pointless fight because he never really spied again. 'And then, throughout the rest of the story, we follow Philby in Moscow trying to prove to the Russians that he's still got his game. We track Philby once he gets to Moscow, and as you’ll see, rather than the hero's welcome he may have been expecting, he’s interrogated by a rather sceptical KGB officer, who then takes him to Moscow in episode two 'And I also deal with the emotional fallout for Philby once he gets to Russia. 'So, I took the story of Elliott in 1963, and how he deals with the immediate aftermath of Philby’s defection in London, considering he was probably under investigation.

And that gave me permission to have dramatic license.

'I took that as a license to tell a greater truth or at least propose a thesis. Talking about how closely he kept the TV series to the facts and real events, writer Alex Carey said: 'There are a lot of blurry truths… which is the nature of 'true' espionage stories - you never quite know what the truth is.

What is a spy agent