Spymasters: The Great Spy Writers

Spymasters: The Great Spy Writers

Sky Arts Running

1 Season · 4 Episodes · Premiered March 31, 2026

Spymasters: The Great Spy Writers explores the lives, works, and secrets of some of the most brilliant spy authors in literature.They have shaped what has become a hugely popular genre, weaving intricate plots, clandestine operations, and intense suspense into their novels, and sometimes exploring political issues and international relations with unsettling and often cynical insight.Successful film and television franchises have been built around spies, while spy novels sell in great numbers. Lying behind recurring plots based on the successful negotiation of risk and betrayal safely exposed is an altogether bleaker world, based on violence, and incessant surveillance by state actors to benefit state activities.The series explores the interlocking world of public and private, state and individual and combines analysis of the biographies of the writers and their work, together with an examination of the geopolitical settings in which they operate. 

Where to Watch: Sky Arts

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Seasons & Episodes

Season 1

4 episodes
E01
Kipling to Graham Greene
Tue, Mar 31 2026 8:00 PM GMT+0000 60 min
The lives and secrets of spy authors in literature and film, featuring the work of Rudyard Kipling, John Buchan and Graham Greene, as well as clips from Michael Caine movie The Ipcress File - based on a book by Len Deighton.
E02
Alistair MacLean to John le Carré
Tue, Apr 7 2026 8:00 PM GMT+0000 60 min
A look at how Cold War storytelling came alive in books by Fredrick Forsyth, Alistair MacLean and John le Carré, with scenes from films including The Third Man.
E03
Ian Fleming to James Bond
Tue, Apr 14 2026 8:00 PM GMT+0000 60 min
Ian Fleming's remarkable life, James Bond's effect on literature and film and Bond's influence on actual intelligence. Film extracts include No Time to Die.
E04
Len Deighton to Mick Herron
Tue, Apr 21 2026 8:00 PM GMT+0000 60 min
This episode looks at recent intelligence history, from the defection of Oleg Gordievsky to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Film extracts include Bridge of Spies and Zero Dark 30.

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