There’s a scene in the French espionage series The Bureau — about the DGSE, France’s equivalent of the CIA or MI6 —where one of the characters loses a limb while on active service. ‘Excellent,’ jokes the station boss on his return. ‘This will greatly improve our diversity quota for disabled employees.’ This is why I prefer foreign language dramas to homegrown ones. You can’t imagine a joke like that making it into a BBC drama, can you?
When, in 2015, the first season of The Bureau was shown to members of the real DGSE (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure) they gave it a standing ovation. It certainly feels accurate: the poky, windowless offices; the long hours and absence of social life; the incestuousness (the only people they shag are one another, unless of course it’s business); the tradecraft; the obsessive secrecy and routine suspicion and mendacity. Not since Smiley’s People (from the days when the BBC was good; that long ago) has a spy drama better captured that hall of mirrors world where it’s almost impossible to be sure who is good or bad, real or unreal, themselves or merely yet another alter ego.
The French have remained defiantly, proudly, unapologetically themselves
In this realm of deceit, where letting slip the truth can be fatal, the most accomplished liar rules.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in