Episode 1

Professor David Sokarev, an Israeli nuclear scientist, is due in London for a lecture visit, and a Palestinian faction has put a contract on his life. The opening scene wastes no time showing what that means: two of his own security men, Elkin and Mackiewicz, beat information out of a suspect in a basement, an early signal that this is no cosy spy caper. Sokarev, alarmed at the threat, wants to cancel the trip, but his handlers tell him he cannot — backing out would hand the terrorists a victory, and that is a signal Israel cannot afford to send. He sees the logic, though Rod Steiger plays him as a man quietly haunted by what his work has made of him.

The assassination team is already falling into place. Three terrorists set out for Britain; the other two never make it past France, leaving one survivor: Famy, the youngest and least experienced of the three, played by Gary Brown with a fanatical glow. Famy expects to die for his cause and regards martyrdom as an honour. To get the job done he recruits Ciaran McCoy, a Provisional IRA man played by Aaron Harris with grim, weary pragmatism — a killer with no intention of dying for anyone. The believer and the professional circle each other like unimpressed colleagues, and the distance between them will power everything that follows.

On the British side, SIS chief Jones runs a shabby, pre-computer service out of gloomy offices where the furniture has seen better days. He owes a debt that goes back to Malaya in the 1950s, when Jimmy saved his life, and that debt is why the washed-up agent now gets the protection detail. Anthony Perkins' Jimmy is an alcoholic, chain-smoking operative whose gun skills are razor sharp but whose discipline has long gone — reckless, insubordinate, yesterday's man. His private life is tangled with the job: Helen, Joanna Lumley's SIS secretary, is both Jones's trusted aide and Jimmy's girlfriend, her loyalties pulled in both directions.

Sokarev travels with his own people around him, Mackiewicz and Elkin, but Jones means to have his man at the scientist's shoulder for the whole visit. Jimmy, for his part, seems less interested in guarding Sokarev than in scenting the men coming after him. Elsewhere, McCoy keeps a secret life: Norah, a girlfriend played by Sallyanne Law, an innocent teenager who has no idea what her boyfriend does for a living.

By the close of the opening chapter the mismatched assassins are loose in London, the machinery of pursuit is grinding into gear, and Jimmy is already off the leash. The pieces could hardly be placed with more care: a guarded scientist who cannot be allowed to cancel, a fanatic who believes he is already dead, a professional who intends to survive, and a burnt-out agent who wants the fight more than the protection detail — the collision course is set before the credits of the second night.