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Sleepers

  • TV Mini Series
  • 1991
  • 55m
IMDb RATING
8.3/10
446
YOUR RATING
Sleepers (1991)
Sleepers-Vol. 2
Play trailer0:52
6 Videos
3 Photos
ComedyDrama

Amidst the thaw of glasnost, the Kremlin discovers that two Soviet agents, sent to England under deep cover in 1965, have been "lost." A beautiful and ambitious Russian agent, sent to London... Read allAmidst the thaw of glasnost, the Kremlin discovers that two Soviet agents, sent to England under deep cover in 1965, have been "lost." A beautiful and ambitious Russian agent, sent to London to track them down, becomes embroiled in a tangle of CIA, KGB and MI-5 plots and counter-... Read allAmidst the thaw of glasnost, the Kremlin discovers that two Soviet agents, sent to England under deep cover in 1965, have been "lost." A beautiful and ambitious Russian agent, sent to London to track them down, becomes embroiled in a tangle of CIA, KGB and MI-5 plots and counter-plots as the two lost agents, now utterly assimilated, try to avoid detection.

  • Stars
    • Nigel Havers
    • Warren Clarke
    • David Calder
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    8.3/10
    446
    YOUR RATING
    • Stars
      • Nigel Havers
      • Warren Clarke
      • David Calder
    • 19User reviews
    • 1Critic review
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 nomination

    Episodes4

    Browse episodes
    TopTop-rated1 Season1991

    Videos6

    Sleepers-Vol. 2
    Trailer 0:52
    Watch Sleepers-Vol. 2
    Sleepers: On The Run
    Trailer 1:29
    Watch Sleepers: On The Run
    Sleepers: The Net Tightens
    Trailer 1:48
    Watch Sleepers: The Net Tightens
    Sleepers: Welcome Home
    Trailer 1:56
    Watch Sleepers: Welcome Home
    Sleepers: The Awakening
    Trailer 1:54
    Watch Sleepers: The Awakening
    Sleepers-Vol. 1
    Trailer 0:49
    Watch Sleepers-Vol. 1

    Photos

    Sleepers (1991)
    Sleepers (1991)
    Add photo

    Top cast

    Edit
    Nigel Havers
    Nigel Havers
    • Jeremy Coward…
    Warren Clarke
    Warren Clarke
    • Albert Robinson…
    David Calder
    David Calder
    • Victor Chekhov
    Michael Gough
    Michael Gough
    • Andrei Zorin
    Joanna Kanska
    • Maj. Nina Grishina
    Christopher Rozycki
    • Oleg Petrovski
    Richard Huw
    • Igor Kostov
    Alan David
    Alan David
    • K1
    William Chubb
    • George Wetherby
    Angus MacInnes
    Angus MacInnes
    • Bill Sullivan
    Ricco Ross
    Ricco Ross
    • Karl Richfield
    Annie Hulley
    Annie Hulley
    • Sandra Robinson
    Candida Gubbins
    • Alison
    Jane Nash
    • Serena
    Tara Moohan
    • Sharon Robinson
    Barbara Young
    Barbara Young
    • Elsie
    Andrzej Borkowski
    • Doctor
    Ian Taylor
    • Gary Robinson
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    User reviews19

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    10/10
    A fabulous send-up of post-Cold War culture
    This mini series is endlessly entertaining, whether you're a student of the Cold War, an Anglophile, or an espionage buff. It captures brilliantly the guarded peace developing among the world's remaining superpowers in the last days of the Soviet Union, and it makes you howl with laughter in the process.

    Havers and Clarke (who was also a dialogue coach on the project) play Soviet agents sent underground as sleepers to the UK in the Mod '60s by enigmatic KGB guru Gough. Now it's the 1980s, glasnost has begun the Soviet thaw, Gough is shut up in a mental hospital, and Havers and Clarke have become very British indeed--the former a successful investment banker, and the latter a union boss in northern England (married and with children, no less). The sleeper project is discovered in Moscow, and the two agents are contacted, much to their dismay (as Havers observes, why should he give up his posh and comfortable life "for a bowl of red cabbage and a bed-sit in Vladivostok?"). Hilarity ensues, as an uptight KGB agent (a woman who makes Ninotchka come off like Pollyanna) is dispatched to bring the wayward sleepers home. Add in a KGB contact who looks just like Gorbachev (though named Chekhov--"No relation"), classic odd-couple pairings, a suspicious mother-in-law, and Britain's World Cup star Bobby Charlton, and you've got something worth watching, my friend.

    Every couple of years or so, I send off a message to the BBC, recommending this title for VHS or DVD release, and I always get a kind note thanking me for my interest. So far, no result. I can't even begin to imagine why. Should this surface again on television, run for your VCRs and DVRs!
    helpful•31
    1
    • klg19
    • Feb 16, 2000

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    FAQ1

    • What is the music the CIA agent Karl listens to on his walkman as he monitors Grishina in episode 2?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 10, 1991 (United Kingdom)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Languages
      • English
      • Russian
    • Also known as
      • Шпала
    • Production companies
      • British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
      • Cinema Verity
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      55 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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