An Affair with a Married Woman

"An Affair with a Married Woman" is the first episode of the 1983 British biographical television series Reilly, Ace of Spies. In 1901 Sigmund Rosenblum emigrates from Russia to England, where he has an affair with a vicar's wife and changes his name to Sidney Reilly.

Plot

British agent Sigmund Rosenblum steals a top-secret oil survey of the Persian basin from the Russian Empire. Posing as an Odessa academic, Rosenblum travels by train thru the Caucasus bearing the documents. At Baku, the Russian police board the train and Rosenblum is detained in town, along with the Reverend and Mrs. Thomas, by the careful but suspicious Police Chief Tanyatos. Flirtatiously manipulating Margaret Thomas, Rosenblum contrives an escape, during which he kills a border guard and abandons the Thomases in the hands of the angry Russian authorities.

In London, Rosenblum withholds key elements of the stolen oil survey form SIS director Sir George Smith-Cumming. With the survey in demand, an agent of Vickers magnate Basil Zaharoff gets heavy-handed and murders Rosenblum’s friend Rose. Rosenblum tracks Zaharoff down, and they forge a bloody pact over the body of Rose’s killer, Zaharoff's agent Rowhedge.

Under British pressure, the Russian government releases the now invalid Reverend Thomas and his disgraced wife Margaret who return to London amid a storm of public scandal. Smith-Cumming and Fothergill convince Margaret that they have no knowledge of Rosenblum, but are embarrassed when he attends a press conference. Rosenblum propositions Margaret on the spot, telling her she will soon be a very rich widow. Disgusted, Margaret dubs Rosenblum despicable, but when Reverend Thomas dies she marries Rosenblum. With a new wife and a new fortune Rosenblum, adopts the new identity of Sidney Reilly.

Impressed by Rosenblum’s theft of the Russian oil survey, Admiral Fisher orders him to Port Arthur in the Russian far east.

Cast

• Reilly/Rosenblum Sam Neill
• Zararov Leo McKern
• Cummings Norman Rodway
• Fothergill Peter Egan
• Margaret Jeananne Crowley
• Tanyatos John Rhys-Davies
• Reverend Thomas Sebastian Shaw
• Admiral Fisher Denis Holmes
• Pomeroy John Hart Dyke
• Elliott John Monckton
• Rowhedge Howard Lew Lewis
• Firsig Vic Tablian
• Rose Michele Copsey
• Sergeant Kott Ben Feitelson
• Mrs A Barbara Ashcroft
• Harringay Jonathoan Steward
• Markstein Dennis Chinnery
• Detective John Ludlow
• Worthing Susie Fairfax

References

• Andrew Cook, Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly; 2004, Tempus Publishing, ISBN 0-7524-2959-0.
• Andrew Cook, On His Majesty's Secret Service, Sydney Reilly Codename ST1; 2002, Tempus Publishing, ISBN 0-7524-2555-2.
• Richard Deacon, Spyclopaedia; 1987, Macdonald & Company Publishers Ltd, ISBN 0-356-14600-6.
• Natalie Grant Deception on a Grand Scale, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence Volume 1, Number 4, 51-77, Winter 1986
• Natalie Grant The Trust, AIJ 11-15, Winter 1991
• Michael Kettle, Sidney Reilly: The True Story of the World's Greatest Spy; 1986, St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-90321-9.
• Robert Bruce Lockhart, Memoirs of a British Agent (reprint); 2003, Folio Society, ASIN B000E4QXIK.
• Andrew Lycett, The Man Behind James Bond; 1996, Turner Publishing, ISBN 1-57036-343-9.
• Robin Bruce Lockhart, Reilly: Ace of Spies; 1986, Hippocrene Books, ISBN 0-88029-072-2.
• Richard B. Spence, Trust No One: The Secret World Of Sidney Reilly; 2002, Feral House, ISBN 0-922915-79-2.

External links

• "An Affair with a Married Woman" at the Internet Movie Database