“From Upshott with Love” turns a trail of transport records into an undercover assignment. River follows the suspected killer into the Cotswolds, Lamb questions a Russian defector, and Min’s enthusiasm for Webb’s security job takes him beyond the agreed plan. The episode’s comedy comes from cover stories and wounded pride, but its final encounter shows how quickly an amateur-looking mistake can become a real threat.
- Released
- 2 December 2022
- Runtime
- 49 minutes
- Source novel
- Dead Lions
- Director
- Jeremy Lovering
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Watch and read
Open the official programme page or explore the source novel.
Detailed plot
Reveal episode spoilers
Lamb calls on Nikolai Katinsky at his language school. He tries a pretext involving someone owed money, but Katinsky recognises both the trick and the visitor. Their conversation moves on to cicadas and Alexander Popov. Katinsky describes overhearing a conversation about keeping the sleeper operation alive and identifies Andrei Chernitsky as the other man involved. His description fits the large, bald figure Dickie followed. For Lamb, a story dismissed years ago is beginning to acquire identifiable people.
River’s investigation is more prosaic. He visits a taxi office to find where the suspect went after leaving the train. The initial answer sends him back towards Oxford Parkway, but speaking to the driver produces a different destination. Kenny has been paid to give a misleading account of the fare. River catches him trying to contact the suspect and forces the truth out of him: the journey ended at the Upshott flying club. The driver has turned what should have been a simple enquiry into another small obstacle course.
At the airfield, River asks Roddy to trace the number Kenny called. The phone appears to be in Estonia, suggesting that their target has already flown out of the country. Kenny drives away and leaves River at the deserted club. The lead has brought him somewhere significant without leaving him an obvious person to question. He reports back to Lamb, who has prepared the paperwork for the next stage rather than accepting that the trail is finished. River receives a journalist’s identity and instructions to return to Upshott undercover.
Min and Louisa meet Pashkin’s security men, Piotr and Kyril. Louisa notices that they are carrying guns despite their denial and insists that they leave them behind for the building sweep. Their uncertain account of where they are staying also attracts attention. Min follows their taxi on his bicycle, watching them collect a package from an import-export business before losing them. His initiative does not impress Louisa, who wanted him to stick with their shared assignment rather than set off alone to prove himself.
Lamb meets Taverner and requests official cover for his investigation, using Webb’s borrowing of his staff as leverage. Taverner is already managing the security implications of an anti-capitalist march and Peter Judd’s plans, but Lamb insists that Dickie’s death cannot be filed safely in the past. She subsequently demands that Webb explain his proposed Russian meeting and keep her informed. Min, meanwhile, continues pursuing the security men after his row with Louisa. This time they detect him. A gun pressed behind his head ends the episode before the consequences of his persistence become clear.
Turning points
Reveal turning points
Katinsky’s account provides a name where Dickie’s phone supplied only a code word. It also creates an immediate problem of trust: Lamb needs what the defector knows without accepting that an old intelligence contact is telling the whole story. His failed opening deception is a useful warning that this witness can recognise a performance.
River’s new identity changes the scale of his task. He is no longer just following a journey backwards; he has to enter a community and make strangers believe he belongs there. Min faces the opposite problem. His bicycle pursuit is energetic but conspicuous, and his wish to act independently carries him away from Louisa’s caution. The cliffhanger brings those approaches into sharp focus: being willing to go into the field is only the beginning of the job.
The driver and Katinsky also show how unevenly an invented identity works. Lamb can improvise a pretext but cannot make an old contact forget who he is. River can pay for an answer without making that answer true. Both conversations demand a second attempt after the first performance fails. The episode keeps the work awkward and recognisable, with irritation doing as much to shape the exchanges as any display of cool professional control.
Book vs show
Reveal book and television spoilers
Shirley questions the Cotswolds taxi driver in Dead Lions. River takes that job on screen, establishing his personal connection to the trail before going undercover.
The novel’s prospective Russian asset is Pashkin himself; the episode presents him as the route to Nevsky, whom Webb ultimately wants to cultivate.
River’s later novel cover is a writer researching a book. Television equips him to pose as a Times journalist asking about village life.
The novel’s airport evidence points towards Prague. The adaptation sends Chernitsky’s phone to Estonia, giving the apparent disappearance a different destination.
Mick Herron, Dead Lions (2013).
Characters and actors
Linked locations
The London work moves between Slough House, the Russian security arrangements and Nevsky’s guarded home. River’s enquiry takes him to the taxi office and the deserted Upshott flying club, establishing the rural destination that his new cover will let him investigate. Lamb and Taverner discuss official support away from headquarters, continuing their habit of conducting sensitive business on a public bench.
Trivia
The episode title plays on From Russia with Love. Its humour comes from sending River towards a picturesque English village rather than giving him the glamour of a conventional Bond assignment: taxi receipts, a reluctant driver and a prepared cover identity are the tools he actually has.
Questions and answers
Has Chernitsky escaped to Estonia?
The traced phone suggests that he has. That is the evidence available to River here; the later investigation challenges the conclusion, so the phone’s position should not be confused with a confirmed sighting of its owner.
Why does Lamb give River a journalist’s identity?
River needs a reason to ask questions and spend time around Upshott without presenting himself as an intelligence officer. The cover lets him investigate the flying-club connection from inside the village.
Why does Louisa object to Min’s pursuit?
He leaves their agreed security work to follow the Russians alone and loses them. She sees the unscheduled pursuit as unnecessary risk rather than proof that he is a better agent.