What it's about: Let's not allow the Yanks to have all the fun, though. They've cornered the market in brilliant TV during the current renaissance, but we manage pretty well too. The pick of the upcoming British-born crop is The Game, a six-part Cold War drama due to air on BBC One and BBC America later this year. Brian Cox (old acting one, not handsome science one) plays the head of MI5, codenamed Daddy - bit weird who puts together a secret team to investigate the existence of a Soviet plot called to reactivate a bunch of sleeper agents, whose existence was revealed by a retired KGB officer. Why it looks good: A classy BBC drama, tackling a historical subject, with a brilliant cast not only Cox, but also Tom Hughes (who shone in the miniseries Dancing on the Edge) and Paul Ritter from Friday Night Dinner is a pretty good starting point. As is the tantalising premise, a sort of period Spooks where part of the draw is the unfolding mystery, and part of it is the constant tension that one of the spies in question might turn out to be a Russian double agent themselves. Plus writer Toby Whithouse is also responsible for creating Being Human and penning some of our favourite Doctor Who episodes, so the script is in safe hands. Sounds like a home run to us! Or whatever the cricket equivalent is. A century? Lots of runs? If there was a British Eastbound & Down we'd know...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
