The phoniness of the entire production is emphasised by the fact that it was filmed not in Sussex but in Wales.

Director Andy Goddard (Downton Abbey) has made something determinedly old-fashioned out of all this while Izzard's attitude to the role could be summed up as: when in doubt, do nothing.

It's unfair of me to put it this way, but had I viewed Six Minutes to Midnight on PBS, I'd probably have felt it was just fine.

Six Minutes to Midnight had the opportunity to be a small but tight espionage thriller but sadly squanders the potential by veering into cliché and having almost zero dramatic tension.