Hooray Hannay

THE first rule of spying, according to Richard Hannay, is that “no one should involve themselves in intelligence work without a good breakfast”.

He needs a hearty meal considering the scrapes in which he finds himself in the latest TV film version of The 39 Steps.

Writer Lizzie Mickery has taken a few liberties with the original without sacrificing the basic concept of a decent, honest man on the run after being accused of a crime he didn’t commit.

The year is 1914. Hannay (Rupert Penry-Jones, late of Spooks) is recently back from Africa and so bored that he has “taken to staying out at night seeking entertainment”.

We remain ignorant of exactly what he gets up to although the newspaper placards warn that TENSIONS RISE IN BALKANS. If you’ve ever had rising tension in your Balkans, you’ll sympathise.

Hannay finally finds something to occupy his attention when a British secret service agent gatecrashes his living room and proceeds to talk about a German espionage ring and a plot to assassinate a high-ranking European figure that could trigger a major war.

Before you can say 007, Hannay is left with a corpse shot by a German spy dressed as a milkman and facing an accusation of murder. He does the only thing any true Brit can do in such a situation – he runs for his life.

He doesn’t stop moving for the next hour or so, using train, bicycle and car to flee from both the good guys who want to lock him up and the bad guys who want to kill him.

Along the way he picks up a plucky suffragette (Lydia Leonard) who coats his wounds in mustard after he smears the same stuff on hers in one of those will they, won’t they? scenes that provides an excuse for Penry-Jones to remove his shirt.

The air is thick with sexual tension as the pair are forced to share a bed for the night. “Where do you stand on women?”

asks liberated Victoria.

“Generally, I try not to stand on women,” quips this Hooray Hannay.

She comes to change her mind about him being a male chauvinist pig as they flee across Scotland, telling him, “It’s possible you’re not the delusional maniac I first thought you were.”

The 39 Steps is a rollicking old-style adventure with Penry-Jones the perfect square-jawed hero and Leonard matching him in pluck as the heroine.

ITV1 opts for a little light lesbianism in contrast to Hannay’s heterosexual romp around the Highlands. This Andrew Davies adaptation of the novel by Sarah Waters, of Tipping The Velvet and Fingersmith fame, is a dark and brooding affair.

Anna Madeley is do-gooder Anna Prior who, after the death of her father, decides to become a visitor at Millbank Prison in the London of the 1870s.

This dark, dank place makes the prison in Bad Girls look like Sunnybrook Farm.

The 270 women locked up include some of the cleverest thieves in England. So Anna had better keep her hands on her family jewels as she wanders among them.

She’s drawn to one prisoner, Selina Dawes (Zoe Tapper), who’s a spirit medium but whose otherworldly work caused a death during a seance. “I only ever meant to do good, to help people,” she says.

The two women are attracted although, apart from a spot of slow snogging, their romance seems doomed. Until, that is, Selina hatches a plan to get out of jail free.

Affinity makes a welcome change for all the tinsel-tinged dramas around at this time of year. It looks great, Tapper and Madeley convince as the odd couple, and there’s a twist in the tale that you probably won’t see coming.