02-12-2015, 01:45 PM
David Guyatt Wrote:It's interesting that the writer of the show, Tom Rob Smith says it is NOT modelled on Gareth Williams. But it very obviously is and I don't believe him. I suspect he is just avoiding any legal problems or harm to the family in saying this.
Funnily enough it was the author who put me off watching this, as I have serious doubts about his personal agenda. Smith's Leo Demidov trilogy (Child 44 etc) is utter drivel, not only do they fail on a basic level as crime/political thrillers but their main function seems to be to perpetuate the same anti-Russian propaganda that appears in so much contemporary popular culture. I'm not in any way naive as to the excesses of the Stalinist-era, but this goes much further; the protagonist's journey (by way of a guided tour around the USSR's worst aspects) from gullible party member and supporter of the revolution, to pragmatist and anti-communist is very calculated. As is the way that the state is shown to have created a monster it is unwilling to confront or even acknowledge.
Given the novels' unprecedented success, I've often wondered if their author was being given some sort of 'push'.