Upcoming BBC-ZDF series ‘Honey,’ which had its world premiere Monday evening at Mipcom, isn’t your usual Cold War thriller.
In the show, sold by Fifth Season, a young MI6 agent Martha (Ann Skelly) becomes entangled in a dangerous love triangle in East Berlin in 1982, where she navigates a shadowy world of counterespionage.
“Romance and spy thriller feel like two genres that don’t necessarily go together, but they sharpen each other in writing. If the violence is really gory and the spy elements are really dangerous, then the sexy elements have to be really, really sexy,” said Emma Moran, lead writer and executive producer.
Before Monday’s screening, Moran admitted that she embraced the silliness, which is actually rooted in real life.
“I didn’t have to reach that far for a lot of the set pieces because real-life CIA or MI6 spycraft is ridiculous. They literally have prosthetic testicles in which they hide notes. Notes that would bring down civilization are stuffed in a plastic ball sack! When you start from that benchmark, it’s not that hard to get the comedy in,” she laughed.
“We went to this spy museum in Berlin that had room after room of these elaborate cigarette cases that were cameras, and they even strapped cameras to pigeons. I love the Q moments in Bond [movies].”
She added: “There’s an innate comedy and absurdity to spying. You’re putting on a silly little costume and saying: ‘I’m someone else’,” she said. Skelly deadpanned: “It’s the story of my life.”
Skelly, known for “House of Guinness” and “The Nevers,” stars alongside Nate Mann, Jannis Niewöhner and Rory Kinnear.
“When I first read it, I just thought it was so funny. Like, genuinely funny. Sometimes, when you get through auditions as an actor, you go: ‘Crap, I’m going to have to learn all this.’ But now, I was really excited to do it,” she said.
“We’re both Irish [with Moran], so I think we connected with some sort of rhythm.”
She appreciated Martha’s boldness and brazenness.
“I didn’t really grow up with many female characters like that. She’s just incredibly ambitious and full of confidence, but not quite the experience. It’s so much fun to watch a character like that.”
The role was challenging, also because of the cold weather in Lithuania where they filmed, but in the best possible way.
“If I’m not in fishnets again, I can go back to the snow. I think it was the coldest winter they’d had in a really long time. Since the ’70s!”
“It was challenging in the same way when you order a really big steak,” she joked. “It was so satiating.”
Moran found a lot of vulnerability in her characters, who often have a hard time not following their emotions.
“We’re in a semi-totalitarian society where you have to watch yourself and desires have to be restrained. With the love triangle dominating the show, it was so satisfying to play with these two poles of ‘I can’t say who I am, I can’t do this, I have to do something that way.’ Then, desires crashing into that felt just so rich for romance,” she said.
Executive producer Sally Woodward Gentle (Sid Gentle Films, known for “Killing Eve”) agreed: They never wanted to make a “brown, turgid period show.”
“We wanted to do something very different. Emma was really keen to bring up romance. You’ve got these extraordinary young people living on the edge, who are also very lustful,” she said.
“I think it makes it something that’s not just about history; it’s about human beings.”
Jennifer Ebell, EVP of television distribution at Fifth Season, noted: “We’ve had the pleasure of working with Sally before, but it’s not like you bring in the same recipe. What Sally and the team have done is bring in a very distinct voice. We have trust and a partnership, and we’re relying on repeat business as an indie studio.”
“It’s very hard to find commercially viable content with a distinct voice. But Sally’s nailed it. You’re going to get home, it’s going to be winter, and you’re not going to want to do anything other than take off your shoes and watch ‘Honey’.”
They definitely want to return.
“It’s only 1982 [in the show] so we’ve got seven years left to do a lot of stuff,” said Moran.
The fall of the Berlin Wall happened in 1989, ending 28 years of division between East and West Berlin.
Skelly added: “I am still pitching for maybe Hawaii? Somewhere warm – with a touch of spring.”