At war with the establishment, putting themselves in reckless danger and succumbing to terrible habits, these unreliable figures are dependably entertaining
February 2019
Richard Gere conquered theatre and cinema … can he now score a TV hit?
Writer Tom Rob Smith tells of ‘wooing’ actor for state-of-the-nation BBC series MotherFatherSon
January 2019
2019 arts preview
Partridge, politics and period pomp: the must-see TV shows of 2019
Drama catches on to Brexit, Shane Meadows goes to Ireland, Helen Mirren plays Catherine the Great, and winter comes to Westeros
December 2015
Best TV of 2015
Tom Rob Smith on London Spy: 'I was surprised that sex scene shocked anyone'
BBC2 drama London Spy, starring Ben Whishaw and Edward Holcroft, was one of the most stylish and divisive series of the year. Writer Tom Rob Smith talks about sex, homophobia and Danny’s future
November 2015
Drama feeds off real-life crime, but has London Spy gone too far?
Boris Starling
TV review
London Spy review: compelling new thriller with a love story at its handsome heart
September 2015
Spy fall: why secret agents are everywhere this autumn
From Conrad’s Secret Agent to Homeland, TV is in the grip of spymania: Ben Whishaw stars in London Spy, while two Bond writers have adapted Len Deighton’s SS-GB
April 2015
Child 44 review – where did the thrills go?
Tom Hardy heads an international cast (all speaking with hyeavy Ryussian accyents) in a dull and stodgy adaptation of Tom Rob Smith’s KGB page-turner
Child 44 - video review
The film team get to grips with the mangled Russian accents of a bevy of RADA-trained stars as Tom Hardy chases a serial killer across the 1950s Soviet Union
Child 44: let's put an end to British actors adopting horrible fake foreign accents
Soviet thriller Child 44 continues the trend of actors putting on funny voices to play foreigners. Why can’t they keep their mouths shut?
December 2014
Observer books of the year 2014
The best thrillers of 2014
A murder mystery in a girls’ boarding school, the welcome return of Hercule Poirot and Philip Marlowe, and Lauren Beukes’s truly disturbing crime chiller. By Alison Flood
March 2014
The Guardian Books podcast
Crime fiction: Tom Rob Smith and Marc Pastor – books podcast
Tom Rob Smith heads for Sweden with his latest crime novel, while Marc Pastor investigates a killer in early 20th century Barcelona
February 2014
The Farm by Tom Rob Smith – review
A gripping psychological thriller sees a couple's attempt to create a rural idyll in Sweden go very wrong, writes Anita Sethi
August 2011
The awkward years
Bow ties and blue dreadlocks, padded bras and bullying: who'd be a teenager? Ten grown-ups, all doing just fine now, remember the agonies of adolescence
June 2011
Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith – review
Helen Dunmore on the conclusion to Tom Rob Smith's trilogy of Soviet thrillers
April 2009
When a wronged man seeks revenge
A shock to the system
February 2009
Child 44
Child 44
September 2008
Sue Arnold's audiobook choice
Child 44
Review: Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith Rob Smith has written a cracking story about the powerlessness of the individual under Stalin's purges
