An enormously enjoyable comedy spun from a real-life story told to Alan Bennett by the actress Coral Browne, who had met the traitor Guy Burgess in Moscow on a cultural exchange visit in 1958. Out of this story, Bennett fashioned a screenplay which reflected on patriotism and treachery, drawing many parallels between Hamlet, which the Old Vic was performing on the trip, and Burgess's actions. Alan Bates's Burgess is ferociously charming and engaging; but underlying his jaunty championing of life in the Soviet Union there is despair and a deep longing for England.
