The SBS programming team have spent months in deep research mode, having conducted multiple and honed their spycraft in order to curate this collection of espionage-themed TV shows and movies for your viewing entertainment.
A weekend spent watching this and you won't know who to trust anymore. Will you become a rogue operative? An enemy of the state? This many Spies and Lies will take you to some wild places. So, press play and trust no one (except SBS On Demand, of course).
Counterpart
This new espionage series explores a mysterious world hidden beneath the surface of our everyday existence... Howard Silk (J.K. Simmons), a lowly cog in a Berlin-based UN spy agency, discovers that his organisation safeguards the secret of a crossing into a parallel dimension, where the only man he can trust is his near-identical counterpart from this parallel world.
Berlin Station
Berlin Station is a contemporary spy series that follows Daniel Miller (Richard Armitage), an undercover agent who has just arrived at the CIA foreign station in Berlin, Germany. Miller has a clandestine mission: to determine the identity of a now-famous whistle-blower named Thomas Shaw. Guided by veteran Hector DeJean (Rhys Ifans), Daniel learns to contend with the rough-and-tumble world of the field agent: agent-running, deception, and the dangers and moral compromises.
The Bureau
Based on real accounts from French spies, this gritty series reveals what life is like for the deep cover agents that put their lives on the line in the so-called 'Bureau of Legends' - a clandestine branch of the French secret service.
Deep State (Coming soon)
Set in Britain, The U.S., Iran, Lebanon and France; the spy drama shows the merciless reality of the world of espionage, in which an increasingly rare conscience can get you, and the ones you love, killed.
Mark Strong stars as Max Easton, an ex-spy whose past comes back to haunt him as he returns to the field to avenge the death of his son Harry. Max soon discovers there is much more at stake, as he finds himself at the heart of a covert intelligence war and immersed in a widespread conspiracy to profit from the spread of chaos in the Middle East. Max enters into a very dangerous game, as powerful corporations show that they are willing to do anything to preserve their reputation and bury their secrets.
Australian director Robert Connelly (Balibo, The Slap) directs the first four episodes of this great eight-part drama. New episodes will be available to stream weekly at SBS On Demand from 22 August.
Banshee Chapter
It began as Project MK-Ultra. It became the US government's ultimate experiment in absolute terror. Setting out to uncover the sudden disappearance of a friend, journalist Anna Roland is drawn into a labyrinthian trail of CIA Black Ops, illegal chemical testing, unexplained radio transmissions and disfigured entities hidden deep within a government vault. Anna's fears for her friend are only just the beginning. Some secrets are too terrifying to be told...
Night Moves
Josh and Dena, two young environmental activists, are planning a large scale act to force the world to think about what they're doing to the environment. They pull in Harmon, a man with a sketchy past, to help them pull off their big plan. However, unforeseen consequences bring a whole host of guilt, paranoia and other problems, and their ultimate act will change themselves more than the world around them.
Munich
In 1972, the Summer Olympics in Munich, which had been dubbed “The Olympics of Peace and Joy”, were off to a rousing start. Suddenly, without warning, an extremist Palestinian group known as Black September invaded the Olympic Village, massacring the Israeli Olympic team. While the Munich terror was seen and felt around the world, the intensely secret aftermath of the event has remained largely unknown. Now, from director Steven Spielberg comes this gripping thriller based on the events of Munich 1972 and the highly charged mission of retribution that followed, by the covert hit squad who carried out one of the boldest and most aggressive assassination plots in modern history. In taut, vivid and human detail, the film takes audiences into a hidden moment in history that resonates with many of the same emotions in our lives today.
Pawn Sacrifice
In a gripping true story set during the height of the Cold War, American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) finds himself caught between two superpowers when he challenges the Soviet Empire. Pawn Sacrifice chronicles Fischer's terrifying struggles with genius and madness, and the rise and fall of a kid from Brooklyn who captured the imagination of the world.
Route Irish
Ken Loach's uncompromising look at the privatisation of war in Iraq follows former SAS trooper Fergus, who convinces his childhood friend Frankie to join his team of security contractors in Bagdad for a generous salary. Together they risk their lives a in city overtaken by violence and greed. But when Frankie dies in 2007 on the "Route Irish", the most dangerous road in Bagdad, Fergus rejects the official explanation for his death and sets out to discover the truth.
The Ipcress File
This tense thriller stars acting legend Michael Caine as agent Harry Palmer, whose investigation into the kidnapping and brainwashing of British scientists sparks off a trail of intrigue, double-dealing and murder.
