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With Tom Hiddleston up to his old racy tricks in The Night Manager – not to be confused with Netflix hit The Night Agent, which also returns in February – espionage thrillers are all over our TVs. Anyone would think we lived in unstable times with growing public distrust of governments.
So who is the all-time top small-screen spook? We’ve rated the Top 20. Just make sure you destroy this list after reading …
20 Napoleon Solo (The Man from UNCLE, 1964-1968)
Suavely played by Robert Vaughn, this gadget-wielding Cary Grant-alike was the small screen’s answer to 007 – partly because Bond creator Ian Fleming was a consultant on the NBC series. Napoleon “no relation to Han” Solo and his stoic Russian sidekick Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) worked for the United Network Command for Law & Enforcement, foiling the evil THRUSH (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables & the Subjugation of Humanity) and its dastardly plans for world domination. Somehow they kept straight faces amid all the absurd acronyms.
19 Tamar Rabinyan (Tehran, 2020-present)
Once you’re in, there’s no way out. With alumni of the equally ace Fauda on its writing team, this breathlessly tense espionage thriller became the first Israeli series to win an Emmy. It follows computer hacker Tamar (Niv Sultan) whose first field mission for the Mossad takes her to Iran to destabilise a nuclear reactor. It’s twisty and timely as the coolly charismatic Tamar fights to escape from behind enemy lines. Streaming on Apple TV, it added A-list oomph with Glenn Close in season two and Hugh Laurie in the third.
18 Simon Templar (The Saint, 1962-1969)
Eyebrow-arching Roger Moore limbered up for his later stint on Her Majesty’s Secret Service with this ITV caper. As Simon Templar, he was a Robin Hood-style maverick who worked for whichever side of the law served the greater good. Once per episode, an animated halo would appear above Templar’s head as he broke the fourth wall. Banging theme tune, too.
17 Hanna (Hanna, 2019-2021)
The 2011 film, starring Saoirse Ronan as a teen assassin raised off the grid by her spy father Eric Bana, was solid enough. The Prime series, created by The Night Manager’s David Farr, is even better. Esmé Creed-Miles stars as the prodigious super-soldier, who evades her CIA pursuers to unearth the truth about the secret government programme from which she was rescued as a baby.
16 Steve Austin (The Six Million Dollar Man, 1973-1978)
“We can rebuild him. We have the technology.” After being near fatally injured when a Nasa test flight crashed, astronaut Steve Austin (Lee Majors) was reconstructed by scientists with $6m worth of bionic implants. Now with superhuman strength, speed and vision, he became the ultimate half-cyborg secret agent. Austin’s old flame, tennis player Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner), soon got her own spin-off, The Bionic Woman. Both became firm playground favourites, despite the shonky sound effects.
15 David Callan (Callan, 1967-1972)
This hard-boiled gloomfest was an antidote to the camp spy romps of its day. It followed the work of a shady secret service branch called “Section” as its haunted assassin Callan (Edward Woodward) repelled internal security threats by torturing and terminating hostiles. He loathed his posh bosses, all codenamed “Hunter”, and had a love-hate bond with malodorous informant “Lonely”. Woodward later riffed on his macintosh-clad vigilante persona in schlocky US action series The Equalizer.
14 Guillaume Debailly (The Bureau, 2015-2020)
Bringing a touch of French flair to our list is the charismatically troubled agent codenamed “Malotru” (Lout) from this suspenseful Canal+ series. After six years undercover in Syria, moody hero Guillaume (Mathieu Kassovitz) returns to Le Bureau des Légendes in Paris, where he struggles to readjust to a normal life – not least when his lover from Damascus arrives to renew their affair. Based on real accounts by former spies, it’s coolly captivating and all too credible. In the English-language remake, The Agency, produced by George Clooney, the equivalent role was played by Michael Fassbender.
13 Eve Polastri (Killing Eve, 2018-2022)
She inevitably suffered by comparison with Jodie Comer’s designer-frocked assassin Villanelle but Sandra Oh was still superb as a bored MI5 analyst who becomes obsessed with catching the psychopathic gun-for-hire. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s intoxicating thriller, adapted from Luke Jennings’ novellas, became a bona fide cultural phenomenon, even if it suffered diminishing returns in later seasons.
12 John Steed (The Avengers, 1961-1969)
Like the semi-serious template for Austin Powers, this knowing caper was set against the backdrop of swinging 60s London. Battling super-villainy were debonair “MI5½” agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee), with his bowler hat and brolly, alongside his kickass female partners – most memorably Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) and Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman). Both later became Bond girls. All arch dialogue, jazzy soundtrack and Pierre Cardin costumes, it’s a kitsch cult classic. “Mrs Peel, we’re needed …”
11 Martin Rauch (Deutschland 83, 2015-2020)
This cold war saga became the first German-language series to air on a US network and built a devoted UK fanbase on Channel 4. East German border guard Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay) was sent through the iron curtain as an undercover agent to steal military secrets for the Stasi. Rich in period detail and with a pulsating synth-pop soundtrack, it mixed slinky thrills with endearing coming-of-age drama.
10 Sydney Bristow (Alias, 2001-2006)
Showrunner JJ Abrams’ breakout hit was this zippy thriller about student turned spook Sydney (Jennifer Garner), a double agent working against the malevolent network known as SD-6. Fierce fights, whizzy tradecraft and head-spinning conspiracies were lent emotional resonance by Syd’s damaged relationship with her spymaster father, Jack (Victor Garber). Across five seasons, Garner became so synonymous with her character that she starred in real CIA recruitment videos.
9 Jonathan Pine (The Night Manager, 2016-present)
He runs away from explosions! He has steamy threesomes! He changes his name and bares his bottom a lot! The lavishly produced Le Carré adaptation updated its setting to the Arab spring, where ex-soldier Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) staffed the front desk at a swish Cairo hotel – until tapped up by Olivia Colman’s intelligence officer to bring down arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie), AKA “the worst man in the world”. The equally slick sequel, now airing on BBC One, takes our reluctant secret agent to Colombia. Hiddleston remains a compelling blend of Etonian charm and shape-shifting amorality.
8 Harry Pearce (Spooks, 2002-2011)
When counter-terrorism section chief Sir Harry (Peter Firth) slipped on his black leather gloves, you knew things were about to get deadly. The BBC’s pacy procedural (tagline “MI5, not 9 to 5”) found hot young operatives foiling post-9/11 threats, while juggling their duplicitous private lives. There was a revolving security door at Thames House for the field agents. Hard-bitten Harry was the sole constant across 10 series. Would he get his well-deserved happy ending with GCHQ analyst Ruth (Nicola Walker)? I’m welling up just thinking about it *dabs eyes with leather gloves*.
7 Elizabeth Jennings (The Americans, 2013-2018)
On the suburban surface, Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) was a wholesome travel agent in 1980s Washington DC. In reality, she was a KGB sleeper agent named Nadezhda who sold package holidays by day but by night donned a sequence of ropey disguises to gather intel for Mother Russia. She pips her husband, Philip, AKA Mischa (Matthew Rhys), to our countdown because while he was plagued by conscience and a growing fondness for their adopted homeland, she remained a stone cold-killer who fought the cold war, one bad wig at a time.
6 Jack Bauer (24, 2001-2014)
Dammit, Chloe, put me higher up the list! With each season documenting “the longest day in the life” of maverick counter-terrorism agent Jack (Kiefer Sutherland), this groundbreaking thrill ride deployed split screen, copious cliffhangers and a beeping digital clock to crank up the real-time tension. As badass Bauer raced to save the world, he was happy to wield hacksaws, axes, screwdrivers, pens, wet towels and other improvised torture implements to serve his country. We just wished he’d take a bathroom break occasionally. No wonder he was so cross.
5 Number Six (The Prisoner, 1967-1968)
He’s not a number, he’s a free man. He has also crept covertly into our top five. The nameless British intelligence agent (played by series co-creator Patrick McGoohan) tried to quit his highly classified government position – only to be gassed, kidnapped and wake up imprisoned in an idyllic coastal village. Our hero waged a battle of wits against his mysterious captors in this 1960s counter-cultural take on the spy genre. With its Kafka-esque surrealism and sinister Portmeirion setting, The Prisoner aired just 17 episodes but exerts an enduring influence on pop culture. Be seeing you …
4 Carrie Mathison (Homeland, 2011-2020)
Sure, she had a taste for discordant jazz, gigantic goblets of chardonnay and meme-able facial expressions but let’s not hold that against Claire Danes’ CIA operative. Carrie’s bipolar disorder became her superpower – at least when she was taking her meds – enabling hyper-focus, tireless dedication and obsessive attention to detail. Initially she waged a one-woman campaign against Damian Lewis’s war hero turned al-Qaida asset. Later seasons saw her presciently fighting such evils as fake news, Russian electoral interference and terror attacks on European cities.
3 Danger Mouse (1981-1992, 2015-2019)
“He’s the greatest, he’s fantastic / Wherever there is danger, he’ll be there.” Who needs James Bond when you could have a crime-fighting, wise-cracking rodent who wears an eyepatch and lives in a Mayfair postbox? “The white wonder” – voiced by David Jason in the 80s ITV original and Alexander Armstrong in the CBBC reboot – is accompanied by bumbling hamster sidekick Penfold as he battles baddies led by wheezing toad Baron Silas von Greenback. DM has a flying car, wears inflatable dangertrunks, practises the ancient martial art of kung moggy and is so top secret that his codename has a codename. Good grief, chief.
2 George Smiley (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy/Smiley’s People, 1979/1982)
Forget Obi-Wan Kenobi. Sir Alec Guinness delivered his definitive late-career performance as MI6 veteran George Smiley, summoned out of retirement and brought back to “the Circus” to root out a Soviet mole. The classic BBC adaptation of John le Carré’s landmark novel was intricately structured as the cerebral spymaster unmasked the traitor at the heart of the secret service. Blessed with “the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin”, Smiley sifted through paperwork and politely probed sources over pots of tea. Le Carré hailed Guinness “a genius” for bringing him to such mesmeric life, citing the series as his favourite screen version of his work. In the 2011 film remake, Smiley was played by Gary Oldman. Talking of whom …
1 Jackson Lamb (Slow Horses, 2022-present)
Farting and arse-scratching his way to the top of our chart is the underdogs’ champion. Adapted from Mick Herron’s brilliant novels, the Apple TV hit sees jaded “joe” Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) presiding over a motley crew of MI5 outcasts, exiled to the grotty outpost of Slough House. Rude, crude and witheringly cynical, his scabrous management style isn’t what you’d call touchy-feely. Typical bon mots include “I’ve got haemorrhoids that are more fucking use than you” or “Bringing you up to speed is like trying to explain Norway to a dog”. Yet time and again, Lamb outwits his so-called superiors and proves that his disgraced rejects are more capable of keeping Britain safe than the grunts from Regent’s Park. He’s a potty-mouthed, chain-smoking, whisky-swigging, vindaloo-scoffing slob but somehow utterly lovable. Although I’d give it five minutes if I were you.
