Cox has been cast as Daddy, the Director-General of MI5; Pirrie as Wendy Straw, the naïve and impressionable secretary; Ritter as Bobby Waterhouse, the louche and ambitious head of counter-espionage; Aris as Alan, the teams cheerful and guileless expert in bugging and interception; Hughes has been cast as Joe Lambe, the troubled but genius interrogator, able to read every tic and turn of human nature, but hiding dark secrets of his own; Dooley as Jim Fenchurch, a stoic and sceptical Special Branch detective; and Hamilton as Sarah Montag, Bobby Waterhouse's dry-witted and fiercely clever deputy.
Created by Toby Whithouse, The Game is set during the 1970s and tell the story of the invisible war fought by MI5 to protect the nation from the threats of the Cold War. The series begins just as a KGB defector reveals the existence of a devastating Soviet plot, codenamed Operation Glass. The charismatic but paranoid head of MI5, known simply as Daddy (Brian Cox), then assembles a secret team to investigate. The exact nature of the threat is unclear. All they know is that the Soviets are reactivating sleeper agents across the UK and giving them all a task. Every episode our team receive a new name on the list. Each name is a new traitor to investigate, a mission into the unknown and a step closer to understanding Operation Glass. The series, which has received an order for six hour-long episodes, is being produced by BBC Cymru Wales with Faith Penhale, Brian Minchin and Toby Whithouse serving as executive producers. Complicit helmer Niall MacCormick is directing.