Traitor

11/17/2024

Acclaimed playwright Dennis Potter's own thinly veiled political opinions are never far from the centre of this potently portrayed depiction of a former spy giving an interview to some journalists from the relative safety of his new Moscow home many years after his defection. "Harris" (John Le Mesurier) is a sorry state of a man, drinking heavily and living the life of a recluse embittered by his memories of childhood. His was a privileged upbringing in the upper echelons of a British society that saw him steadily come to resent the class that reared and nurtured him. He was ripe for conversion to the Soviet cause and with his career of public school, military, Foreign Office all mapped out neatly before him, his value was predictable and guaranteed. His three inquisitors are scathing in t