Customer Reviews
Remember this from 1983! - By: S. Y. Sadler, 29 Jan 2008 
You will be hooked, 12 hours of episodes on three discs, lovely, clever dialogue, moves at just the right place. They don't make them like this anymore. Plus a few surprise e.g a very young Bill Nighy! Buy it,its worth it.
He Who Spies and Runs Away . . . - By: F. S. L'hoir, 14 Jun 2007 
. . may live to spy another day, but unlike James Bond, Sidney Reilly is (or was) a mortal spy, not a cardboard one. His enemies (and those of the West for most of the last century) actuallly got him in the end (1925). Knowledge of this fact, & that Reilly (aka Sigmund Rosenblum of Odessa) was actuallly employed by the Secret Intelligence Service & played a significant, if covert, part in world events only enhances the suspense of this excellent series, which one does not want to end the way it did in real life.
Part "007 for the Educated," & part "Upstairs-Downstairs" in spirit, this series follows the adventures of the "Ace of Spies," against the backdrop of history, from 1900 until 1925. The series, in fact, would make an excellent teaching tool for a high school or college World History class, when annotated by a history instructor. From the 1904 Japanese sinking of the Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Manchuria, through the Russian Revolution of 1917, until Stalin's paranoic ascendency in the 1920's, the viewer is treated to a "rippng yarn" in which the historic connivings of the Usual Suspects for oil, arms & power (What else?) is one of the most fascinating aspects. We even have a "good Bolshie" (sort of) in the persona of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka (later the KGB), & "bad Bolshie" in that of Joseph Stalin (You were expecting, maybe, Kim Philby?). At any rate, the series is gripping from beginning to end.
Yes, the quality of the color is on the sepia side, but this defect (if it is a deliberate one) contributes to the "historical" ambience of "Reilly." I also began to wonder whether the Moscow of Lenin & Co. was reallly as spic & span as presented (but then, I may have been influenced by the propaganda of the last century that suggests otherwise). I was, however, less than impressed by the makeup: Leo McKern's nose, in particular, kept changing shape & color, until in his last scenes, it just looked like what it was: putty. Furthermore, the maquillage on Reilly's first wife, who was supposed to be fifty, with clown white under her eyes, & black shadow on her cheeks, was amateurish. These flaws, however (for which I have witheld a star), are but flyspecks on the panorama of an otherwise splendid series.
Great series. Worth repeated viewing. - By: B. Chandler, 13 Apr 2005 Sam Neill is in his element as Sidney Reilly (Sigmund Rosenblum) during the Russian revolution. You are never sure whom he is spying for. He is a British spy that was responsible for gaining secrets that assured the Japanese success in their maritime war efforts with the Russians. He later became involved in the Bolshevik revolution. All the time he is making money & we are never sure whether he is just a British spy or a double agent or just out for himself.
Each episode brings him to a different location and/or time where he shows an extraordinary understanding of the political & economic situation that he is in.
A little added plus is where a psychic vividly predicts his death.
Original
Episode # Prod # Air Date Episode Title
____ _______ ________ ___________ ___________________________________________
1. 1- 1 5 Sep 83 An Affair with a Married Woman (90 min)
2. 1- 2 7 Sep 83 Prelude to War
3. 1- 3 14 Sep 83 The Visiting Fireman
4. 1- 4 21 Sep 83 Anna
5. 1- 5 28 Sep 83 Dreadnoughts & Crosses
6. 1- 6 5 Oct 83 Dreadnoughts & Doublecrosses
7. 1- 7 12 Oct 83 Gambit
8. 1- 8 19 Oct 83 Endgame
9. 1- 9 26 Oct 83 After Moscow
10. 1-10 2 Nov 83 The Trust
11. 1-11 9 Nov 83 The Last Journey
12. 1-12 16 Nov 83 Shutdown
