A SPY AMONG FRIENDS

ITVX

Replacing the maligned ITV Hub, ITVX launches today offering a free streaming and catch-up TV service (essentially, ITV’s iPlayer, with a paid-for ad-free version available). Its opening salvo is a statement of intent as Homeland producer Alexander Cary adapts Ben Macintyre’s bestseller on Kim Philby’s 1963 defection to the Soviet Union. The opener of the six-part series pivots on three psychological, philosophical and semantic duels: one between Philby (Guy Pearce) and fellow spy and friend Nicholas Elliott (Damian Lewis), as the latter tries to persuade the former to spill his secrets in Beirut; the second