London Spy recruits BBC America

BBC America has joined as a coproduction partner on an upcoming five-part thriller created by novelist Tom Rob Smith.

London Spy (5×60′) is being coproduced by Working Title Television along with BBC2 in the UK and stars Ben Whishaw (The Hour, Skyfall, Bright Star) as an innocent young romantic drawn into a dangerous world of espionage.

It is being directed by Jakob Verbruggen, whose credits include The Fall and the US version of The Bridge.

Filming started in London last week and is the second of Smith’s novel to be turned into a show, with his Child 44 trilogy being reworked as a movie to be released in April.

London Spy is being produced by Guy Heeley, and executive producers are Smith, Juliette Howell, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner for Working Title Television, and Polly Hill, BBC head of independent drama commissioning.

The miniseries will be distributed by NBCUniversal and BBC Worldwide (BBCWW), the UK pubcaster’s commercial arm that operates BBC America.

Tim Davie, BBCWW CEO, recently admitted that the company was talking to “lots of people” about the future of the network following reports in July that AMC could be set to take a stake.