The Spy Who Came in From the Cold is one of John Le Carré’s more well-known titles in his world of spy fiction, and having been adapted into a highly rated 1965 film with Richard Burton, it is perhaps surprising that it took until 2024 for this stage adaptation to appear, adapted by David Eldridge, and now at Milton Keynes Theatre. In many ways, it feels like a ripe story for a stage play, with locations and theatre folk often liking the cerebral storytelling it offers, so this should be perfect for the stage? The Spy Who Came in From the Cold depicts Alec Leamas, a British intelligence officer, being sent to East Germany as a faux defector to sow disinformation about Hans-Dieter Mundt, a powerful East German intelligence officer. However, as expected in the spy world, all is not as it seems, and with the lurking figure of the supposedly retired spy George Smiley in the background, Leamas finds things moving far from his control. It has to be said that Eldridge’s adaptation struggles...
Operation Mincemeat , in this musical incarnation, is the latest in the line of tellings of a true story that began back in 1943. During the Second World War, a secret operation took place, which was later revealed in print by Ewan Montagu, one of its initial instigators. Titled The Man Who Never Was , this true story then became a film of the same name. Fast forward to 2021, and a film titled Operation Mincemeat appeared. Then, taking the same title as the original operation, this musical was born and developed on either side of the film's release before hitting London in 2023, and now at the Royal & Derngate as part of an extensive tour. Operation Mincemeat's plan was to disguise the Allied invasion of Sicily. It saw two members of the British intelligence obtain a body, that of Glyndwr Michael, a homeless man who had died from eating rat poison, dress him as an officer of the Royal Marines and place personal items on him, identifying him as the fictitious Captain (Actin...