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Hardly gets any better casting or production than this. Neill was solid. In his element.

His control:

the real-life Mansfield Smith-Cumming


originator of the British Secret Service

Irish actor Norman Rodway

Episode Guide!

Sam Neill as the former Shlomo Rosenblum--now Sidney Reilly--an ex-professor hired as an informant for the British Secret Service.

The first episode, “An Affair with a Married Woman�, quickly establishes Reilly as a cunning man who will stop at nothing in pursuit of his goals. In 1901, the young Reilly’s primary goal is money. Thus, the following sequence is appealing to him:

~ Reilly meets a young woman who is married to a rich older man
~ Reilly sleeps with the young woman, who falls in love with him
~ The rich older man dies, leaving the young woman with a lot of money

In the series, Reilly meets the woman, namely Margaret Callaghan, while she is traveling with her elderly husband, Rev. Hugh Thomas, through Baku in the late months of 1900. Reilly is on a mission and is suspected to have compromising documents. He uses his affair with Margaret to escape. Six months later, all parties are back in London. After a tempestuous reuniting, Margaret falls for Reilly. She begins ignoring her increasingly sick husband. Come May, the man is dead. Reilly arrives at the house and sees a casket. Margaret raises a bottle of champagne, two glasses, and smiles: “He’s dead!� We next see the happy couple on ship, tying the knot.

Here’s what really happened:

Suspected of murder, young Rosenblum (named either Georgi, Shlomo, Solomon, or Sigmund!) arrived in London from Paris. While in London, he established the Ozone Preparations Company, using his chemistry background to sell “miracle cures�. In late 1897, the elderly Reverend Thomas came to him in need with a kidney inflammation. Thomas had two things Reilly wanted: an attractive young wife and a substantial amount of money. Reilly made the steps to obtain both, first by engaging in a torrid six-month affair with Margaret. Next, Reverend Thomas altered his will, naming Margaret as its executor in 1898.

A week later, Thomas and his nurse showed up at the London and Paris Hotel, where Thomas died overnight. He was examined by Dr. T.W. Andrew, who quickly determined the cause of death as generic influenza and left, signing papers stating there was no need for an inquest. After the passing of 36 hours, Reverend Thomas was buried at the insistence of his grieving young wife Margaret, who inherited £800,000 six weeks later. Although not considered “appropriate� grieving time in late Victorian London, Margaret married Sigmund Rosenblum/Sidney Reilly while still in 1898.

Reilly eventually moved on past Margaret, with at least two or three additional marriages and countless affairs, but he now had money, a bed companion, and the means to a new identity, that of Special Branch operative Sidney George Reilly.

One hell of a good series, with some pretty tense episodes

I didn't know he was an ex-professor; that was not brought out in the series at all

Thanks for the nonfiction version of SR's courtship. I've been a fan of Reilly, Ace of Spies for 15 years or so (athough I only came across the prequel, set in Baku last winter). I like to think I'm not too gullible, and never mistook the series for nonfiction. But the difference between R,AoS and the story you recount is a good bit greater than I would have imagined.

I see on Wlkipedia that the series is based on the book by the son of "Robbie" Lockhart. I remember reading in the senior Lockhart's autobiographical British Agent that he didn't have a very high opinion of SR.

I like all aspects of R,AoS, but I have to single out the theme music for special praise. It served as my introduction to Shostakovich.

Keen eye there! I myself didn't make this connection. But of course! The son of Bruce Lockhart, who else?



Good job, Dave!

Naturally the elder Lockhart might not have been expected to hold a good opinion of the sneaking Rosenblum. He didn't exactly look like Sam Neill.

Lockhart was played by Ian Charleson in the series. I don't recall him that well. Hugh Fraser plays George Hill.

I'd really like to get a much better idea of who was on the scene (as far as, British adventurers). Been pondering this for a long time. For instance, W. Somerset Maugham gives one story (including an American salesman and a Tsarist noblewoman); all the accounts of Reilly/Rosenblum give another. There's still other narratives in which some of these facts are omitted and others are added not mentioned by Maugham. It's a mystery.

There's no question that the mini-series is a must see--if only because it used as its theme the sole lyrical piece Shostakovich ever wrote. And also because the book borders on unreadable.

But there was (for me) a huge flaw in the plotting. Episodes 1-6 are brilliant, with 5 and 6 (they should be watched together) particularly excellent. Episode 7 is fine. But by this time, Reilly is in Russia, assisting the Whites, but mostly drunkenly shooting the eyes out of paintings in homes of the former aristocracy. The series tips down from there, perhaps because we all know Sidney backed a losing horse. But worse yet, he appears to do so mostly without lining his own pockets. It's just not as fun.

The first 6 episodes are as good as any cinematic spy story going. But you're on your own after that.

His focus and his goals seem more muddled at the end, agreed. But I didn't find that it hobbled the series all that much. Yes, Reilly grows cynical and bitter; somewhat obsessed and vengeful...but also, seems to really enjoy his last bride, rather than just using her. He seems to appreciate that he went a lot further than he ever imagined he would; he exceeded most of his original goals --and even had a chance at ruling his former homeland. Blind chance kept that fortune out of his hands. His resignation and fatalism to all this seems realistic and (I think) better than what we would have seen had he remained 'simply an adventurer'.

There's something in what you say, of course: compare his wife in episode 1 with his "last bride." (Though I do think Reilly and his Russian mistress from episodes 5/6 truly enjoyed each other, despite the high-wire act.)

But I think you've validated some of my points. No one rushed to the cinema to see Sean Connery marry Honor Blackmam--they wanted to see James Bond attract Pussy Galore! We agree Reilly became "bitter; somewhat obsessed and vengeful"--but these are not the entertaining qualities of the first seven episodes.

Further, you ascribe his failure (and thus these qualities) to "blind chance." With respect, I disagree. It was impossible that a half-Jewish English spy, who left Odessa in his late teens, and took an Irish name, ever could have maneuvered to rule all Russia. It was a fantasy from the start--no wonder Reilly became an ugly drunk.

The cynical Reilly was great--and fully deployed throughout the first half of the series (he probably could have gone further but for the Leo McKern character--impossible to beat). But he wasn't bitter--he was cheerful as he undermined England's enemies, England's corporate competitors, plus screwed whichever woman he fancied--it was a plus when he could accomplish all three at once. (What was that interlude about the sister? The issue isn't "did he" but "how did it possibly affect the plot of any episode?")

Anyway, before I watched the series (when it first ran) I knew the Reds crushed the Whites. I didn't know the history behind episodes 1-6 (especially episode 1). That, alone, is enough to prefer the first half, and never re-watch the second.

Nooilforpacifists wrote: "There's something in what you say--..."

I love that you used this phrase. It's one of my favorites. Bravo to you. A real pleasure to see that line.

Nooilforpacifists wrote: "But I think you've validated some of my points. ..."

Yes, may be!

Nooilforpacifists wrote: "...they wanted to see James Bond attract Pussy Galore...but these are not the entertaining qualities of the first seven episodes...."

I think for myself, I prefer the episodes of the cynical, washed up Reilly. Its more true to LeCarre than to Fleming. I found them more powerful and more moving. More resonant.

Nooilforpacifists wrote: "...you ascribe his failure to "blind chance." With respect, I disagree...."

I won't take offense if you disagree with me on this matter.

Nooilforpacifists wrote: "It was impossible that a half-Jewish English spy, who left Odessa in his late teens, and took an Irish name, ever could have maneuvered to rule..."

Yet, he got incredibly close. Extraordinarily close. Near enough to touch; near enough as makes no difference. It could've gone any number of ways. If the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional govt could have been led to obliterate each other...or if they could have been ground down in a stalemate...the whole tableau was in an uproar.

He wouldn't have been allowed to stay in power (I agree) but he probably would have been able to pull the strings of whoever else 'more suitable' wound up the figurehead. If the people had looked to him --at just the right moment--he could've made the right move to clinch that, at least.

Anyway what I still want to know is why Somerset Maugham never mentions Reilly.

Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart was active in Revolutionary Russia on behalf of the UK. His memoirs, British Agent, (available for online reading at ) addresses that period Part 4. I thought it was fascinating reading. He addresses Reilly and many other characters in the mini-series. In a particularly interesting passage he describes accompanying Dzerzhinsky (the other Feliks) on a raid against a group of Anarchists.

sounds like quite a rouser

One more comment. At least one other member has noted Shostakovich's enchanting theme music. It is the Romance from The Gadfly Suite. The following lines from Wikipedia's Gadfly article suggests how it happened to be chosen by the mini-series' producers:

"According to historian Robin Bruce Lockhart, Sidney Reilly � a Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by the British Secret Intelligence Service � met Ethel Voynich in London in 1895. Ethel Voynich was a significant figure not only on the late Victorian literary scene but also in Russian émigré circles. Lockhart claims that Reilly and Voynich had a sexual liaison and voyaged to Italy together. During this scenic tarriance, Reilly apparently "bared his soul to his mistress," and revealed to her the story of his strange youth in Russia. After their brief affair had concluded, Voynich published in 1897 her critically acclaimed novel, The Gadfly, the central character of which, Arthur Burton, was allegedly based on Sidney Reilly's own early life.[2] However, Andrew Cook, a noted biographer of Reilly, calls Lockhart's romanticised version of such events doubtful, and counters instead that Reilly was perhaps informing on Voynich's radical, pro-émigré activities to William Melville of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch.[3]"

Everything about SR is a mystery.

OK, Dave; you've rocked my world. I knew the theme music was Shostakovich's Romance from the Gadfly--I even have the suite. But it never occurred to me that Reilly himself could have inspired it.

It's one of those tales that just *should* be true.

its one of the best opening credits/montage/theme to anything ever

Ethel Voynich - full link

Daughter of George Boole?! Husband connected with the Voynich Manuscript???

It migrates the entire episode into the realm of the absurd. Its the kind of thing only Thomas Pynchon could write.

Well done Dave. Top man.

Nooilforpacifists, I believe the theme music goes some way toward resolving concerns regarding the differences between the personal quality of the fictional Sydney Reilly as he appears in the 1st, 2nd and final third of Ace of Spies. At first he's out to make a fortune. Then, with the Bolsheviks grasping at power, he senses that an empire may be his to win. Finally, he senses that he is beaten, can't avoid the inevitable.

Shostakovich's sweet/sad music stresses the fleeting nature of happiness. We hear its beautiful melancholy when he successfully facilitates the Japanese attack on Port Arthur, when he plots with Savinkov to overthrow the Bolsheviks, and when he faces the Trust head on. There's always the beauty and the sadness; the successes and the foreshadowing of the ultimate failure.

I've read, also on Wikipedia, that Shostakovich's inspiration for the Romance was the Meditation from Massenet's Thais. I'm not sure about that, but they are remarkably similar. That is significant to readers of Anatole France's Thais. In that novel, a very holy, very ascetic hermit living in the Egyptian desert goes to the metropolis to convert a famously beautiful and worldly courtesan to the ascetic life. Of course he's successful, but he falls into a very lustful sort of love with the courtesan, Thais who is now too holy to have him. His very success condemned him to failure

Like the monk, Sydney Reilly can't foresee what will happen, but he can't help but make efforts, ones that are destined to fail. (Or maybe he's Don Quixote jousting with windmills, I hadn't thought before.) As Feliks suggests there was never a chance in hell that a Jew with an Irish name would ever be Czar.

So much for the fictional character, heaven alone knows what was going on with the real Sydney Reilly, or whatever his name was.

that Anatole France was a 'gay dog', as they used to say...what a febrile imagination that man had. No stranger to controversy either, of course. Literary brouhaha which rocked his country for a good long while.

Quite an iconoclast. The Gore Vidal of fin de siecle Paris.

great-great-grand-uncle of Knight-Ridder publications' Steve Canyon

Feliks is right that Reilly: Ace Of Spies took a lifetime achievement in its theme music. I can't but hear the "Romance" than to visualize that opening montage of old photos and maps, always landing on a place and date.

As for the Anatole France parallels and dialogue, I'll let you and Dave handle the back-and-forth.