Red Joan review – soporific spy story
Judi Dench is underused in this dreary dramatisation of the life of Kremlin agent Melita Norwood
What if the old lady next door was in fact a former Soviet spy, whose stolen secrets added fuel to the nuclear arms race? This rather too mild-mannered drama, directed by Trevor Nunn, combines the red peril with a blue rinse. But the storytelling, like the beige-heavy cinematography that takes its cues from liver spots and tea-stained dentures, could do with a bit more colour.
Joan, loosely based on real life “granny spy” Melita Norwood, is played by both Judi Dench, as the octogenarian facing a possible charge of treason, and Sophie Cookson as her idealistic younger incarnation. The numerous flashbacks do most of the dramatic legwork, with Dench underused in a role that requires her to repeatedly drift off into private reveries about her long ago affair with commie-hotty Leo (Tom Hughes, acting through a floppy fringe and an indeterminate borscht of an accent).