A brand new historical-political drama is headed to BBC Two starring Keeley Hawes and Toby Stephens.
Summer of Rockets, written by Stephen Poliakoff, is a six-part series set in a time of heightened tensions in Britain as the Cold War was in full swing abroad.
Russian-born Jewish inventor Samuel Petrukhin specialises in the making of hearing aids, with an impressive list of former clients – including Sir Winston Churchill. But he soon attracts the attention of MI5, puzzled by the close connection between a Russian and the government.
Here’s everything you need to know about Summer of Rockets...
What is it about?
Summer of Rockets centres on Russian businessman, Samuel Patrukhin, who manufactures hearing aids and is soon caught up in a mission with the Secret Service. All the while, his daughter Hannah is desperate to fly the nest and create her own identity while young son Sacha is shipped off to boarding school.
Both children create their own anxieties and drama for Samuel but his main priority takes him away from his own family and embeds him in new relationships, with a view to him sending information back to MI5 about those who he befriends. Kathleen, the wife of a charming MP called Richard Shaw, and their friend Lord Arthur Wallington are at the top of intelligence gathering operation, giving Samuel the chance to demonstrate his products at the height of the Cold War fear by spying.
As Samuel and Kathleen’s lives end up increasingly intertwined, the climate of fear around them in Britain rises and bubbles away during a dramatic and historic period.
Who is in the cast?
Bodyguard actress Keeley Hawes plays Kathleen Shaw while Toby Stephens is co-lead Samuel Patrukhin.
Lily Sacofsky and Toby Woolf play Samuel’s children Hannah and Sacha respectively while Linus Roache is Richard Shaw and Timothy Spall is Lord Wallington.
What has Stephen Poliakoff said about the series?
Poliakoff said the drama is a semi-autobiographical work, with some similarities between the plot and his childhood
“The story is fiction, but it has many elements that are true. Sascha, the little boy, is sent off to an austere and frightening boarding school, just as I was,” he said. “Samuel’s firm, the invention of the pager, the use of deaf workers and, most surreally, being suspected by the Secret Service of bugging Winston Churchill’s hearing aid, that’s all true.”
The writer and director also explained that even though it is a period drama, set in 1958, there must be “resonances” with the modern audience. In this case, that is shown by the “sense of technology exploding” with Poliakoff calls an “urgent concern”.
How can I watch?
Summer of Rockets starts tonight at 9pm on BBC Two. The full series will be available as a box set on BBC iPlayer after episode one, as well as airing weekly.
