NO PLACE TO HIDE? THE TRUTH BEHIND "PAGE EIGHT"

Love and deceit: Rachel Weisz and Bill Nighy star in the acclaimed drama PAGE EIGHT. Image: BBC.

When acclaimed English screenwriter/director playwright David Hare comes out of the shell of his self imposed limbo and says he has a new project to make, you can bet that the film and TV industry will stop dead in its tracks and do everything it can to help him realise his ambitions, bringing out the best behind the scenes talent and attracting the finest of casts from the big and small screens along the way. The results of this latest conflagration is tonight BBC 2's showing of spy drama PAGE EIGHT, a dark and twistingly complex intelligence thriller story of subtlety and dread, created within today's troubled international times-of war, deceit and power broking, and the life within that universe of a rising through the ranks MI5 intelligence analyst (the likable Bill Nighy, who has that strangely shifty look in the eyes-almost like a modern day Charles Dickens character- and possessing a hybrid lizard/grizzled meerkat-like body language that makes him such a compelling and enjoyable actor) who unwittingly has his life turned around when he discovers the truth behind an Iraq war dossier left to him by his deceased boss, and the consequences of its frightening revelations within the murky in between grey universe world where spies and politicians meet, of which the repercussions are both shocking and tragic.

Trailer: Festival 2011: PAGE EIGHT Trailer - YouTube

Ralph Fiennes brings subtle menace and ambition as the British Prime Minister.

Previously shown to great plaudits at the Toronto International Film Festival, With an all-star cast that includes the likes of modern talent like Rachel Weisz (that's Mrs. Daniel Craig to you and me!), Michael Gambon, Alice Krige, and Ralph Fiennes as a seedy Prime Minister (another one of those Tony Blair inspired performances-so be very scared indeed!), PAGE EIGHT shows us a world far removed from the action and world travelling excitement showed by JAMES BOND and BOURNE, but, with its intelligence, well-crafted characterisations and dark atmosphere, laced with a strong heartfelt moral message (which, we hope, sends a shiver down the spines of the likes of real life "Unjust War" initiators like Blair and his vile Spin Doctor, linked to the infamous "dodgy dossier", Alistair Campbell), proves something just as stylish and eerily compelling.