Sacha Baron-Cohen takes centre stage as the lead protagonist in this world class espionage thriller which takes inspiration from true events surrounding the life of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy who managed to transcend to the top levels of Syrian government through tradecraft, deception and charm in the lead up to 1967’s “Six Day War”

Cohen’s task- laid bare by ruthless and unscrupulous Mossad superiors- is to destabilise Syria’s murderous regime and feed intelligence back to Israel in order to establish territorial and military superiority in the Middle East.

Despite his obvious intelligence and ability to think on his feet, Eli has a huge ego which grows over the course of the series, leading him to take more and more unnecessary risks by deviating from his specified mission and going into business for himself.

The secretive nature of his job leads him to spend years in exile from his family who believe he is merely an overworked but overpaid international sales person tasked with exporting Israeli products to the Western world. Slowly but surely, lines begin to blur and Cohen- perhaps suffering with a form of Stockholm syndrome- struggles to disseminate between his true self and his Syrian alter-ego Kamal Amin Thaabet.

Edge of your seat stuff which had my heart pounding on a regular basis and the shortness in nature of the series leaves you begging for more.

If this doesn’t place the Borat actor at the upper echelons of his profession in your eyes then nothing will. World class.

Rating: 9.5/10

Viewed: February 2020