WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE

The intimate espionage drama unravels a very public Cold War betrayal

- Kate Hahn

If you learned your closest friend was a spy, would you help him evade justice? That's the looming question in this slow-burn adaptation of Ben Macintyre's nonfiction bestseller about an infamous U.K. traitor. The limited series opens in 1963 with reserved British intelligence man Nicholas Elliott (Damian Lewis) being questioned by no-nonsense Lily Thomas (Anna Maxwell Martin) of the U.K.'s domestic intelligence agency M15. The topic: Elliott's role in the defection of his chum since the '40s, charming Kim Philby (Guy Pearce), who has been outed as a double agent.