Search - Sleepers on DVD

Superb

C.A. Arthur | Tacoma, Washington | 04/06/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've waited for years to see this thriller again. It's an example of what BBC was once able to do: create the nearly perfect drama. Everything about this classic is right. The casting is perfect; in a just world, Clarke would have been given many awards. There is much humor. And the spy story keeps your interest from beginning to end. How delightful to see this available. Don't miss it."

To be or Not to be...a Secret Agent Man.

Gerard D. Launay | Berkeley, California | 05/29/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Like the earlier reviewer, I have waited a long time for this terrific BBC miniseries to come to DVD. It's a very interesting story of two men who were placed by the KGB in Britain as (possible) spies. Their instructions: Melt into the English population as if they were natives. And this they do. They are forgotten. And when they have become entirely British...indeed one of the men is now married with children...they get
an urgent call on their antique Russian radio to "reactivate" as spies.
Panic, panic, panic...as the two men who are friends, try to run from the
Soviet spy machine. They are everything but willing to have anything to do with the Soviets. And one of the persons after them is a beautiful Russian agent. A lot of fun and satire. Don't miss it."

The Wrong End of the Stick!

F. S. L'hoir | Irvine, CA | 12/18/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This brilliant satire on the bumbling post-Cold-War intelligence services of the UK, the USSR, and the USA, who spend so much time spying on each other that each service wildly misinterprets what the other is actually doing, is not to be missed. The plot may unfold slowly, but it will soon have you laughing out loud. The two KGB sleeper spies left out in the cold of England are Nigel Havers and Warren Clarke. The former, who has taken the capitalistic financial world of London by storm, is thoroughly delightful, and the latter, who has settled down with a wife, three children and a stuffed toy monkey named Morris in a working-class neighborhood in Manchester, is thoroughly lovable. During the previous twenty-five years of their sleeperhood, both have become typically and irrevocably English.

Many of the laughs come from the fine supporting cast (whose names Acorn Media, characteristically, has not provided on the DVD case): the two terribly proper MI5 agents, especially the cheese-paring "C" character who demands that his junior officer give a scrupulous account for every pound and pence he has spent on dinner at Burger King; the beauteous all work-and-no-play KGB agent, without an ounce of humor and the junior spy who loves her but cannot persuade her to go with him to see the latest West-End musical; the spy-master who originally sent the pair to England and has meanwhile landed in a Soviet looney bin; the head of the Soviet trade commission (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) with an American accent that is far more convincing than those of the two brash CIA officers, to whom the British refer dryly as their "cousins." The antics of all of them as they squabble over territory keep the laughs coming one after the other.

Underlying the humor is the serious issue of communication (or lack of it) between intelligence agencies; and historical hindsight indicates that some of the misreading----getting "the wrong end of the stick"----by one side about what the other side is doing, is not so far off the mark. As one of the spies remarks in the film, when something is so wildly improbable, it is very likely to be true.

In any event, "Sleepers" is a keeper!"

Excellent!

lucky lam | USA | 05/29/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Warren Clarke and Nigel Havers are living well in England's 1980s-1990s, respectively as a respected trade union man with wife and family, and as a rich, dashing investment banker. Little did we know that they are not what they appear to be. Wonderfully acted. All the actors are perfectly cast. If you're tired of blood and gore and unmentionable bad language, you must view this instead. (Warren Clarke is a talented actor, with ordinary looks, but dependable. He also appeared in Reilley, Ace of Spies.)"