Customer Reviews

Sleepers

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've waited for years to see this thriller again. It's an example of what BBC was once able to do: create the nearly perfect drama. Everything about this classic is right. The casting is perfect; in a just world, Clarke would have been given many awards. There is much humor. And the spy story keeps your interest from beginning to end. How delightful to see this available. Don't miss it.

Like the earlier reviewer, I have waited a long time for this terrific BBC miniseries to come to DVD. It's a very interesting story of two men who were placed by the KGB in Britain as (possible) spies. Their instructions: Melt into the English population as if they were natives. And this they do. They are forgotten. And when they have become entirely British...indeed one of the men is now married with children...they get
an urgent call on their antique Russian radio to "reactivate" as spies.
Panic, panic, panic...as the two men who are friends, try to run from the
Soviet spy machine. They are everything but willing to have anything to do with the Soviets. And one of the persons after them is a beautiful Russian agent. A lot of fun and satire. Don't miss it.

This brilliant satire on the bumbling post-Cold-War intelligence services of the UK, the USSR, and the USA, who spend so much time spying on each other that each service wildly misinterprets what the other is actually doing, is not to be missed. The plot may unfold slowly, but it will soon have you laughing out loud. The two KGB sleeper spies left out in the cold of England are Nigel Havers and Warren Clarke. The former, who has taken the capitalistic financial world of London by storm, is thoroughly delightful, and the latter, who has settled down with a wife, three children and a stuffed toy monkey named Morris in a working-class neighborhood in Manchester, is thoroughly lovable. During the previous twenty-five years of their sleeperhood, both have become typically and irrevocably English.

Many of the laughs come from the fine supporting cast (whose names Acorn Media, characteristically, has not provided on the DVD case): the two terribly proper MI5 agents, especially the cheese-paring "C" character who demands that his junior officer give a scrupulous account for every pound and pence he has spent on dinner at Burger King; the beauteous all work-and-no-play KGB agent, without an ounce of humor and the junior spy who loves her but cannot persuade her to go with him to see the latest West-End musical; the spy-master who originally sent the pair to England and has meanwhile landed in a Soviet looney bin; the head of the Soviet trade commission (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) with an American accent that is far more convincing than those of the two brash CIA officers, to whom the British refer dryly as their "cousins." The antics of all of them as they squabble over territory keep the laughs coming one after the other.

Underlying the humor is the serious issue of communication (or lack of it) between intelligence agencies; and historical hindsight indicates that some of the misreading----getting "the wrong end of the stick"----by one side about what the other side is doing, is not so far off the mark. As one of the spies remarks in the film, when something is so wildly improbable, it is very likely to be true.

In any event, "Sleepers" is a keeper!

It's a pity that "The Long and Winding Road" had to be removed from the penultimate scene for the DVD release, but otherwise this classic show is nearly perfect. Both funny and moving, brilliantly written and beautifully acted, this is one of my all-time favorites, and I'm a huge fan of British TV. Despite being somewhat dated, it still very much holds up, even with repeated viewings. David Calder's performance is particularly memorable: "I'm a Soviet spy workin' the west, honey. Whaddya want I should wear, a big fur hat and a 'I Love Leningrad' T-shirt?" Don't skip the closing credits of the final episode, or you'll miss the last word on many of the characters....

Warren Clarke and Nigel Havers are living well in England's 1980s-1990s, respectively as a respected trade union man with wife and family, and as a rich, dashing investment banker. Little did we know that they are not what they appear to be. Wonderfully acted. All the actors are perfectly cast. If you're tired of blood and gore and unmentionable bad language, you must view this instead. (Warren Clarke is a talented actor, with ordinary looks, but dependable. He also appeared in Reilley, Ace of Spies.)

My wife and I saw the original on TV twice, and the assumed we could soon buy it from PBS or some other vendor. Years went by, and other shows of varying quality came out on VHS and eventually on DVD, but no Sleepers. We queried Google repeatedly, and we got the impression that the BBC had lost the film.
So when Sleepers,the real stuff, not Hollywood, actually arrived, we were overjoyed. We have watched it several times and always enjoy it. Why it took so long for this masterpiece to be published is hard to explain, but as they say, All is well that ends well.

This is a good day. I was hunting for something else, as we all do, at another to be unnamed site selling DVDs, when I saw the listing for British TV Series. Suddenly this show flashed back into my brain. Well sort of. You see I have been struggling to remember the name of this series for years. We have all experienced this phenomenon. Frustrating. Quizzing people. Combing the Interwebs. NOTHING.

Well long story short, one WikiGoo search later, I finally found the name and now the DVD. Hurray!

I saw this when it first came out. It was excellent. The plot. The actors. Havers and Clarke are great foils for each other. The sophisticated Havers and the working man Clarke. It has been on my mental wish list, though I could not remember the name, for years.

I highly recommend this series. If you enjoy good British action/comedy/drama you will enjoy this. And do not worry the accents will not do you in.

I only wish my mental processes would have been better at remembering the name. I also got stymied by the Kevin Bacon movie by the same name.

Please get this one you will not be disappointed.

- Brain empties a section of storage capacity with a sigh

I saw this when it first aired and loved it.
After all these years, I still enjoyed it immensely!

I don't own the dvd (yet), but I have a battered old VHS from when the series aired on American tv. This is such a wonderful program, with a beautiful score by Graeme Revell that can be haunting or funny. The miniseries is also haunting and funny. An old vault is discovered in the depths of KGB headquarters that seems to contain records of a program to plant moles in England. The head of the program is locked in an insane asylum and no one can get him to talk. The idea of rogue agents who have been lost for 20 years understandably provokes panic among the Russian top brass, and Joanna Kanska's character is despatched to reel them in, supported by a hapless assistant and an ambassador who loves football (he means soccer). The sleepers, who have got themselves British lives, think no way am I going back to Moscow, & go on the run, with plenty of funny moments. Anyone who remembers all the budgetary complaints from Deputy Chief Peele in Sandbaggers will laugh hysterically when the SIS chief chastises his subordinate for eating at MacDonald's on company money. (The British & Americans start following the Russians around to find out what they're doing as the Russians follow the sleepers.) All in all, some of the best of British television.

First saw this and recorded it on VHS in the early 90's. Having spent a month in the USSR on a study tour for a month in the late 70's, and got my degree with a minor in Russian language, (4 years worth) history, culture and literature, this cracked me up.

Then going into the Frankfurt PX stereo shop when I was in Deutschland in 1986 when I was in the United States Army and seeing some Russkies in full uniform, with their official military car parked outside, scarfing up stereos and cameras.

Hmmm, I guess they ain't coming thru the Fulda Gap too soon if they're driving to Frankfurt to shop at the PX.