# London Spy

London Spy (2015) is a BBC Two drama series in five parts in which a chance romance between two men from very different worlds, one from the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, the other from a world of clubbing and youthful excess, leads into mystery after one of them is found murdered.

## Lullaby [1.1]

    Danny:I just had a hunch. Sometimes you have to take a chance, right? Otherwise, how do you know?
    Scottie:You love falling in love. The moment when it's all possibilities and dreams.
    Danny:You think he's out of my league?
    Scottie:The thought never crossed my mind.
    Danny:Where are we going to drink tonight?
    Scottie:Somewhere dimly lit and terribly old-fashioned.
    Danny:So we're on the doorstep, saying goodbye. And I'm trying to give him Pavel's number, because I don't have a phone except he doesn't write it down. And I'm like... "If you don't want to... if you don't want see me again..." And then he says, "Numbers, Danny, I have no problem with." Like he could remember every phone number in the world. And then... we shook hands! If you'd have told me a week ago I'd be this happy with a handshake at the end of a date... I'm sorry. I'll stop talking about him.
    Scottie:It's all right, I understand.
    Danny:It's just the feeling, you know? Not being able to think about anyone else.
    Scottie:Yeah. I know the feeling.
    Danny:So you turn up, on my doorstep... Which is wonderful! Except I never told you where I live. And I was wondering, and I should say in advance that I don't mind, but... did you carry out some kind of background check on me?
    Alex:The way we met was unusual.
    Danny:Right. So... you thought "Stranger! Seduction!" Not that, erm, I'm presuming you're seduced by me. That's, erm... process ongoing. Erm, what was I saying? Erm, yeah, so you thought, our meeting was part of... a set-up? It's fine. It's fun. I just... I thought you said I was easy to read?
    Alex:That would've been the reason you were selected. The appearance of innocence.
    Danny:I'm not innocent.
    Alex:You might be the only innocent person I know.
    Danny:Can you tell me what your real name is now?
    Alex:My name is Alex.
    Danny:Did you imagine you'd spend the rest of your life alone?
    Alex:Yes.
    Danny:I can't begin to understand what that must feel like.
    Alex:You always knew you'd find someone?
    Danny:Always.
    Alex:I can't imagine what that must feel like.
    Danny:You saw me.What I mean is, you saw me. And you asked if I was OK. And not like most people ask it. Like they've asked it a hundred times that day already, you asked it as if nothing else mattered to you. And I thought, how is it that this person, who I've never seen before... How are they the only person in the whole world who knows? That I'm not OK. And I was sure if I could just find out your name, if I could just find out who you were... then everything would be OK.
    Alex:What if everything isn't OK?
    Danny:Then we tell each other. And we deal with it. Whatever it is, we deal with it. Together. Is there something you want to tell me?
    Alex:No.

## Strangers [1.2]

    Journalist:You don't use his name. Is it true you didn't even know it? Did he ever tell you he was in danger?
    Danny:No.
    Journalist:OK, I get it. He's a spy, he needed to be careful. You met by chance. First day, he lied. But eight months later you want to spend the rest of your lives together and you're still using the wrong name to say how much you love him?
    Danny:He told me his name was Alex.
    Journalist:People lie, Danny. And they lie well.
    Danny:This is his room.
    Frances:How did you know?
    Danny:Because it's the loneliest room I've ever been in.
    Frances:Amongst all the lies you've heard here this weekend, recognise one truth: "no fuss" is the best piece of advice you will ever be given.
    [Flashback]
    Alex:I want to tell you a story about a man. While everyone was laughing and drinking, he would just walk until he reached the exact same spot, where he'd sit with his back to all those people. And while he did everything he possibly could to signal to the world that he wanted to be left alone more than anything, he hoped that someone passing would understand that what he really wanted was the exact opposite. And that this someone would sit next to him and strike up a conversation. I was that man... and you were that someone.
    Scottie:One way or another, I've been afraid for much of my life, and it's a privilege to spend time with a man who's never afraid of anything. And that's not because you were born in a different time — you're fearless. I've always wondered how that must feel. But, Danny, occasionally, it's right to be afraid. Leave this alone. Promise me.

## Blue [1.3]

    Rich [To Danny]:You're not a man who usually says no.
    Rich [To Danny]: I'm gonna die in this tub. Heart attack or a stroke. They'll find me here, tounge hanging out. My little dick bobbing about in the bubble bath. Four strong men will lead me out. My flesh, slosh and slob on the marble floor.
    Scottie:I believe you. I knew you were a young man who'd make a lot of mistakes. But never the same one twice.
    Scottie[Speaking about an old friend of his who died from AIDS]:I told him that he'd given up. He must fight. He refused. He said that I'd never faced the inevitability of defeat. He was going to die. He was going to suffer, suffer terribly. There was nothing he could do. There was nothing anyone could do. He was right. On both counts. He did suffer terribly. And I have never faced the inevitability of defeat. It is impossible. We will lose. But we will fight.
    Scottie:There's no art in trusting nobody. The craft of a spy has always been to choose the right people to trust.
    Danny[In a gentlemen's club]:There are more women in a gay club.

## I know [1.4]

    Scottie:I can't count how many men I've comforted when their partners were dying and the family wouldn't allow them into the hospital, or the church where they're buried. I'm tired of it... tired of hearing about it. He wasn't close to his parents, he was close to you. Hold your own funeral, say your own goodbye.
    [Flashback]
    Danny:Do you believe in soul mates?
    Alex:No. Not only do I not believe in them... it's not even a nice idea.
    Danny:Not a nice idea?
    Alex:That there's only just one other person out there for you. What are the odds this person would be in the same country? Or the same city? That their paths would even cross? It would mean almost everyone in the world is with the wrong person. If it's a way of saying, "we're good together", why not just say "we're good together"? But if you mean it literally...
    Danny:You think there are better people out there for you?
    Alex:There might be. For both of us. But since we don't know them, it's just a theoretical.
    Danny:Yes. It's... a sentimental idea. The maths doesn't add up. But... we're by the fire, we're under a night sky. Couldn't you just have said "yes"?
    Alex:Is that what your soul mate would've done?
    Scottie: But those systems of oppression, as ruthless as they appear, as unbeatable as they seem, never hold, never last, never survive, for we will not live in fear. I would like to finish this particular adventure with you, Daniel Edward Holt. If you'll have me.
    Scottie:I've always taken comfort from the idea that people don't care. That they have better things to think about, that there are more important matters to worry about. I like it when people walk past me and couldn't care less what I'm wearing, or whose hand I'm holding. The place where no-one cares. When I was young, I spent a lot of time searching for it, and I promised myself, if I ever found it, if it ever existed, that's where I'd make my home.
    Marcus [Speaking about Alex]:You didn't know, did you? How smart he was?
    Danny:I knew.
    Marcus:But not really.
    Danny:Not in the way you did, no.
    Marcus:His partner... without any appreciation of his intellect. Beyond some generalised idea that he was good with numbers. Love without knowledge. Popular culture might depict that as a romantic notion, I suppose.
    Danny:He never spoke about his work.
    Marcus:What did you talk about?
    Danny:Everything else.
    Marcus:I see. No, I don't. I don't see at all.
    Danny:Well, what did you two talk about? Outside of work?
    Marcus:We didn't. Look, try to understand, I was sure, absolutely certain that he was going to change the world in some way. Not my world. The world. Can you imagine the enormity of that feeling? Being in the company of someone like that?

## If This Is a Lie [1.5]

    [At Scotty's burial]
    Danny:I have a question. How do we live without the people that we love? I can hear his reply. "We must figure this question out for ourselves." He's right. He was always right. Except, my friend... I don't want to know. I don't want to know how to live without you. I don't want to figure out how to stop feeling this sad.
    Guy at the HIV support group:What are you going to do now?
    Danny:I'm going to do nothing.
    Frances:A question. I'll permit a question. But just one. [Silence. They sit]That will be all. We both loved him.
    Danny:Yes.
    Frances:Can't we pretend, for a while, that's all we need to say? [Silence] There was always something of the mystic about you. Fortune teller-soothsayer, a person who knows nothing, yet sees everything.
    Danny:Alex was the last person to hold your hand.
    Frances:Question?
    Danny:Statement.
    Frances:Yes. Yes, he was.
    Danny:You blame me for his death.
    Frances:Question?
    Danny:Statement.
    Frances:Yes. Yes, I do.
    Danny: How can you blame me... unless you know why he was killed?
    Frances:It is a good question.
    [Flashback]
    Frances:You must be clearer.
    Alex:I'll go to America.
    Frances:You will destroy your research?
    Alex:I'll destroy it.
    Frances:You'll never work on it again?
    Alex:I'll never work on it again.
    Frances:You'll leave it all behind? [Silence] Alistair, you must never make contact with anyone from this life again. [Silence] Alistair?
    Alex:His name is Danny.

## Cast

* Ben Whishaw - Danny Holt
* Edward Holcroft - Alex Turner
* Jim Broadbent - Scottie
* Charlotte Rampling - Frances

## External links

* London Spy quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* London Spy at TV.com
* Page on the BBC website