Betrayal review – this espionage thriller is so drab and downbeat it’s like a different genre

2026-02-08 - 22:15

Half spy caper, half relationship drama, big chunks of this four-parter feel like they belong to another show entirely. It barely has enough energy for the MI5-based parts John Hughes (Shaun Evans) has been a spy for 20 years, but a life of enviable glamour still eludes him. Within minutes of him being introduced to us, he is on his back outside a motorway service station, shock and blood on his face. Two corpses – an informant, and a hitman who killed the informant and then lost a grim fight to the death with John – are lying beside him under a dull grey sky. Back at MI5 HQ, a reprimand awaits. John’s meeting with his doomed contact – on a promise of intel involving a possible foreign threat to national security – was yet another op conducted without following the proper protocols. Part of his punishment is to be given a new partner, Mehreen (Zahra Ahmadi), parachuted in from MI6 over John’s head: once she has taken over the case, his bosses want John out. John keeps investigating regardless. Continue reading...