a5c7b9f00b MI5 officer Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) and Margot Tyrell (Helena Bonham Carter) are on the run together across Europe, going from town to town in Germany. But Worricker knows his only chance of resolving his problems is to return home and confront his nemesis-the prime minister, Alec Beasley (Ralph Fiennes). To do this, he's going to have to bring to light some unsavory facts about the prime minister's financial and business arrangements. But Worricker is haunted by the suspicion that he's not the only person out to undermine the prime minister.
The Johnny Worricker Spy trilogy concludes with Salting the Battlefield, in which our hero with his ex girlfriend, Margot are criss-crossing Europe trying to stay one step ahead of the security services and a vengeful Prime Minister. Worricker is being watched - His family and friends are being watched - He is running out of cash and he needs to make a move to reach an endgame.
In the final installment of David Hare's Worricker trilogy, ex-MI5 analyst Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) pops up in Germany. He's still on the run from the British authorities, who are now aided by the German intelligence service in the cat-and-mouse game of tracking him down. The scandal involving the shady dealings of the British Prime Minister (Ralph Fiennes) is threatening to break in the open. A wind of change is palpable and one gets the feeling that events are finally heading to a showdown. It was always difficult to keep up the quality and suspense after the excellent first two films. For one, I found there was just a little too much explaining at the beginning rather than trusting in the intelligence of the viewer. So 'Salting' is probably the weakest of the trilogy, but weaker than excellent is still very good. I particularly liked the circular quality of the ending and the fact that, as in life, none of the main characters comes out as a real winner.<br/><br/>The acting and the production values, as in the other episodes, are consistently excellent. The sensitive camera work supports the intricate mood changes and turns in conversations. Paul Englishby's Jazz tracks are a perfect match for Worricker's character. In a recent interview with Zap2it, Bill Nighy said that he would love David Hare to write more 'Worricker' for him. It's going to be a tough call to come up with an original storyline and to keep up the quality, but I for one wouldn't mind if he tried.
Nothing is perfect but sometimes we have to be grateful for large mercies. In view of the generally mindless dreck that is offered on the screen (big or small) David Hare has at least given us intelligent dialogue written for adults and spoken clearly by a cast of actors who know what they're doing. No faux dramatic, over-amplified background music and no extraneous background noise ... we're here to hear people speak not how noisy the traffic is on a London street. It goes without saying that Bill Nighy is Worricker personified and it's hard to imagine anyone else in the role ... all that world-weary patience; it was good to see him finally lose his cool in the final episode and lash out as everything seemed to be falling apart. Highly recommended.