Why you can't miss The Little Drummer Girl on BBC - watch the video trailer

The Little Drummer Girl, from Sunday, BBC One, 9pm
The Little Drummer Girl on BBC One.The Little Drummer Girl on BBC One.
The Little Drummer Girl on BBC One.

From the people that kept us gripped with The Night Manager comes this adaptation of a John le Carré novel.

With a star-studded cast, and even a cameo from le Carré himself, this is set to be THE drama of the autumn.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Germany, 1979. When a bomb goes off in the diplomatic quarter of Bonn, senior Israeli intelligence agent Martin Kurtz (Michael Shannon) flies in to investigate.

A series of similarly deadly attacks targeting prominent Jewish figures across Europe have been carried out in recent weeks, and Kurtz now believes there is a Palestinian revolutionary at the heart of this pattern. Kurtz sets in motion a brilliant and elaborate plan to catch the kingpin, Khalil (Charif Ghattas)…

Meanwhile in London, a passionate young actress, Charlie (Florence Pugh), is treading the boards of pub theatres and struggling to land a breakthrough part.

She drifts from one bad relationship to another, unable to find her purpose in life. When an anonymous benefactor sends Charlie and her theatre troupe on a rehearsal jaunt to Greece, she feels a renewed vigour.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But a working holiday soon becomes a journey of discovery when she encounters a mysterious stranger on the beach. She names him Joseph (Alexander Skarsgard) for his “coat of many colours”.

Despite her better judgement, Charlie cannot help but be drawn to his aloof demeanor and she is unable to shake the feeling that she’s seen him somewhere before. They embark on a whirlwind romance, but all is not what it seems.

Whilst Kurtz makes inroads into the network responsible for the bombing in Germany, the tangled threads of the stories weave their way together until Charlie finds herself at the centre of Kurtz’s international espionage operation.

- Share your thoughts on The Little Drummer Girl in our Screen Babble Facebook group.