Spies of Warsaw is a clumsily transparent 40's style spy thriller. This is yet another throw back mini series that tries in a very transparent and bumbling manner to recapture a 40's essence, found in films like Casa Blanca. Of course the obvious problem with copying better films, is all sense of originality and creativity is lost. The outcome is a wooden mini series that feels self consciously clichéd and clumsy. The performances of the quality cast are regrettably constrained by the caricatures they are forced to adopt like a poorly fitting set of clothes. Quality actors like David Tennant don't stand a chance to really shine, which is in no way any reflection on their talent. Sad to say, whilst I like the idea behind this series its slavish adherence to a tired formula does it a real disservice. Five out of ten from me.

Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais are the writing team that wrote the sublime Porridge as well as The Likely Lads. I want to remind people of this just in case someone watched this and thought they were two substandard writers who deserved to be taken to a forest late at night and shot.Spies of Warsaw takes place in the run up to the second world war as various spies from major countries converge in Poland hoping to gain influence in the future of the country. David Tennant plays a French military attaché Colonel Jean-François Mercier who runs a small network of agents and Janet Montgomery as his love interest Anna Skarbek.What should be an interesting tale of espionage, intrigue and love turns out to be dull, flat and uninspired. Its mind numbingly tedious.David Tennant plays his character with a mockney accent. The same accent the Scot used for his Doctor Who. You never at once feel drawn in by any of the characters, care about them or even feel involved with the plot. It even ends on a damp note. Not once did I think we were in Poland or France or Germany. I actually reckoned the drama was shot somewhere in Belfast where they dress buildings up to look unconvincingly like Nazi Germany.Director Coky Giedroyc has to take the blame for bringing such a poor script to screen. Its interesting that he was responsible for shooting the original unaired pilot of 'Sherlock' before it was reworked and an experienced film director became involved and re-shot an expanded story with great success.

BBC's television mini series about spy drama of pre world war II tension. Seen lots of lots of world war movies, but this one commence before the beginning of the war where spies from different region of Europe collide each other. So it is a cat-mouse game with many dangerous path ahead. It was a beautifully shot movie with sufficient art structure to construct curiosity in both the episodes. Definitely not like James Bond movie with lots of strong action sequences. I don't know about this book so I can't remark any differences between two. It had all the ingredients like romance, friends, betrayal, family and threats that a man as a spy who can go through in reality.It was based on the book which set in October 1937 in the capital of Poland, Warsaw. A French spy Jean Francois Mercier is assigned to look the situation on the German border. As his first report confirms something big is getting ready by the Hitler, which creates diplomatic tension between the neighboring countries especially Poland. So he hires some people to do inside jobs and that put many in danger. So constantly the locations change when characters start to explore in the cities between Warsaw, Paris and Berlin. Between all this he meets a young French woman and instantly fall in love with her. When the country near to be at war, what are their plans and how it can be executed is the rest which unfolds in an exceptional manner.It is a television series and does justice for what it has to be so if you are expecting like a Hollywood movie you will be let down. David Tennant was Amazing, one of his best performances I have seen. It was a bit slow in pace, but if you give a day gap between two episodes, it won't affect you much with the speed. You must remember it was not like todays spy movies where there is lots of equipment available to get in touch with the main office. But then it was left to that one man and he must take all the tough decision himself in the tight situations. So in my opinion, this mini series about serious issue was way better than the commercial movie which deal with the same subject. I believe it is a fine adaptation so you may try if you are interested.

I will and do watch anything with David Tennant in it as IMO he is an exceptionally gifted performer but, from the off, this telemovie bored me witless. I didn't buy most of the tension and, with few exceptions, the performances were largely uninspiring. The writing rarely grabbed me and, visually, the timing of suspenseful scenes was often poorly judged. But my main gripe was that the direction, cinematography and editing were all IMO so remorselessly pedestrian. In addition, the lead actress - who we are meant to accept as the 'romantic interest' - appeared to be not just uninvolved with her lover but I personally doubted she was even a serious actress within the meaning of the Act! I gather she has won deserved success in other projects that I haven't seen, but in 'Spies'? Not for this viewer. Tennant looks, sounds and is lovely and could not act badly if he tried conscientiously for a year but, really, even his illustrious talent and legendary energy could not save his character for me in this movie. Especially not when he's obliged to wear some of the silliest military uniforms you could find outside of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. Possibly the window of opportunity to create incisive TV drama about mid 20thC spy stories has slammed shut for the time being. I bought the DVD and have watched it just once and won't do so again. Probably.