Liverpool will feature in one of the BBC’s most anticipated new dramas after filming for Cold War espionage thriller Legacy of Spies took place in the city earlier this year.
The BBC and MGM+ have now released a first glimpse of the eight-part series to mark the end of filming, with Liverpool among the UK locations used during production.
Parts of Liverpool city centre were transformed into a 1960s setting during filming in August, with vintage vehicles and period dressing appearing around locations including Old Hall Street and St George’s Hall. Stars Charlie Hunnam and Agnes O’Casey were also spotted filming in the city.
The production was filmed principally in the Czech Republic, alongside further location filming in Liverpool and elsewhere in the UK and Germany.
Adapted from John le Carré’s global bestseller The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and drawing on additional material from his 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies, the new series will see the long-awaited return of legendary spymaster George Smiley to television.
Two-time Emmy and BAFTA Award winner Matthew Macfadyen, best known for roles including Succession, will play Smiley, while Charlie Hunnam stars as experienced field operative Alec Leamas.
The series also features a major ensemble cast including Daniel Brühl as Josef Fiedler, Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu as Doris Quinz, Agnes O’Casey as Liz Gold, Felix Kammerer as Hans-Dieter Mundt and Dan Stevens as Bill Haydon.
Jake Dunn plays Peter Guillam, Anjana Vasan stars as Connie Sachs, Charlotte Ritchie plays Ann Smiley and Joe Alwyn appears as Jim Prideaux, with Hugh Laurie taking on the role of Control.
Legacy of Spies follows Alec Leamas, a highly experienced operative working for British intelligence organisation the Circus, as he recruits young East German woman Doris Quinz to smuggle valuable Stasi documents into the West.
The operation sparks a chain of events in Cold War Berlin, with Stasi operatives Josef Fiedler and Hans-Dieter Mundt determined to shut down the intelligence leak while battling their own fierce rivalry.
Liz Gold, an idealistic young woman whose courage and convictions draw her into Leamas’ dangerous world, also becomes caught in the increasingly complex operation.
Behind the scenes, George Smiley orchestrates events while Soviet intelligence mastermind Karla remains in the shadows, as personal relationships and loyalties become increasingly entangled in the intelligence war.
The Liverpool filming followed several months of production in Prague, where streets and buildings were transformed to recreate Cold War-era locations behind the Iron Curtain. Production then moved to Liverpool, where parts of the city centre were given their own 1960s makeover.
The production adds Legacy of Spies to the growing list of major television and film projects to have used Liverpool as a filming location.
Legacy of Spies will launch exclusively on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK, as well as MGM+ in the United States, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Brazil and Spanish-speaking Latin America.
A UK broadcast date has yet to be confirmed.
