I would like to say that my campaign of Damien Lewis for Lord Peter Wimsey wasn't solely on the basis of his impressive array of horrible little posh half-smiles! It was also on the strength of his horribly posh deflecting piffle over internal agony and/or schemes, and I stand by it.

Another thing that really impressed me about this show (so many things impressed me about this show! I had a great time) was how they didn't do any graphic torture or beating, and the (several) deaths were only barely onscreen, usually with just an offscreen gunshot and perhaps a tiny splash of blood to make it clear what had happened. But it did make it clear, and was unusually concerned with showing the human cost of all these spy games, alongside the interpersonal dynamics of the people playing them.

Also, Elliott's wife. Anna Maxwell Martin's Lily Thomas was a joy and a delight, but I was thrilled that she wasn't the only woman onscreen, nor the only woman getting to do things, nor the only woman who gets to occasionally call Elliott on his BS; Elizabeth Elliott (show version) was a great and nuanced character for her screentime, and in a lesser show she wouldn't have gotten to be.