Anna Maxwell-Martin is back at the center of A Spy Among Friends, and all six episodes are available on ITVX now. She plays Lily Thomas, the agent who interrogates Nicholas Elliott after suspicion falls on his relationship with Kim Philby. That setup keeps the series moving as a straight espionage drama, not a nostalgia piece.
The 2022 six-part thriller is based on Ben Macintyre’s A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. Its core story is Nicholas Elliott discovering that his best friend and colleague Kim Philby has been a double agent for the KGB for years, which gives the series its long fuse and its tight, distrust-heavy shape.
Lily Thomas and Elliott
Anna Maxwell-Martin’s Lily Thomas is not written as background noise. She interrogates Elliott while suspecting he is in cahoots with Philby, so her scenes carry the pressure of a formal inquiry rather than a simple character exchange. That framing gives the series a practical edge: each conversation is part accusation, part test of loyalty.
Yahoo! News called her performance “superb,” while The Times described her as a “dazzling antidote.” One viewer also said the pacing was “perfect,” a useful shorthand for how the series keeps moving even as the betrayal story widens around Elliott and Philby. For viewers deciding whether to start now, that combination points to a show built on conversation, not spectacle.
Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce
Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce anchor the series opposite Maxwell-Martin, and the cast extends the spy framework through Adrian Edmonson, Stephen Kunken, Nicholas Rowe, Thomas Arnold, and Daniel Lapaine. Adrian Edmonson plays Sir Roger Hollis, the director general of MI5, while Stephen Kunken plays James Jesus Angleton, an American CIA officer.
Nicholas Rowe appears as Sir Anthony Blunt, Thomas Arnold as Guy Burgess, and Daniel Lapaine as Donald Maclean. Those roles keep the story tied to the machinery of British Intelligence and the wider intelligence world around Philby, rather than leaving it as a two-character betrayal tale.
ITVX now
All six episodes being available on ITVX now changes the value of the series for viewers who missed its 2022 run. There is no staggered catch-up here; the full six-part story is ready in one place, so anyone starting it can move straight through Elliott’s discovery and the fallout around Philby without waiting for new drops.
Why all six episodes are being highlighted now is not explained. For anyone looking for a clean entry point, though, this is the moment to watch: the whole series is up, the cast is strong, and Anna Maxwell-Martin’s Lily Thomas gives the betrayal story its sharpest pressure point.
