Liaison is a British-French thriller television series written by Virginie Brac, directed by Stephen Hopkins and starring Vincent Cassel and Eva Green. It premiered on 24 February 2023 on Apple TV+.
Contents
Premise
A thriller following French spies and terrorists.
Cast
Vincent Cassel as Gabriel Delage, Alison’s former lover, a mercenary for Telkis and a former French Foreign Legion and DGSE operative
Eva Green as Alison Rowdy, Delage’s Anglo-French former lover and a Home Office Special Adviser to the Minister of Security
Peter Mullan as Richard Banks, the Minister of State for Security
Gérard Lanvin as Alain Dumas, the CEO of private security firm Telkis, former DGSE commander and Delage’s superior
Daniel Francis as Albert Onwori, a human rights lawyer and Alison's current partner
Stanislas Merhar as Didier Taraud, a senior adviser to the French President and head of an Elysee Palace taskforce set up to counter the powers of the DGSE.
Irène Jacob as Sophie Saint-Roch, the Director of the DGSE
Laëtitia Eïdo as Sabine Louseau, Taraud's mistress and a senior aide in the European Commission
Eriq Ebouaney as Bob Foret, a board member of private security firm Antropa
Patrick Kennedy as Mark Bolton OBE, CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre
Bukky Bakray as Kim Onwori, Albert's teenage daughter
Olivia Popica as Hobbs, a Detective Inspector in the Metropolitan Police SO15
Patrick Malahide as Jack Rowdy, Alison’s father, a former British Army Major General and NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
Aziz Dyab as Samir Hamza, a Syrian hacker and Walid’s younger cousin
Marco Horanieh as Walid Hamza, a Syrian hacker and Samir’s older cousin
Lyna Dubarry as Myriam Hamza, Samir’s wife and mother of his child
Thierry Frémont as the President of France
Tchéky Karyo as Joseph Miller, the CEO of Antropa
Production
Development
In June 2021, it was announced that Apple TV+ had greenlit Liaison, marking the platform's first "Anglo-French" production. Stephen Hopkins is directing, Virginie Brac is writing, and Gub Neal and Jean Benoit Gillig are executive producing. Additional executive producers include Hopkins, Sarada McDermott, Justin Thomson, and Ed Barlow, with Joanie Blaikie and Eric Jollant producing. It is co-produced by Ringside Studios and Léonis Productions.
Casting
It was announced alongside the main series announcement in June 2021 that Vincent Cassel and Eva Green would star. Also cast were British actors Peter Mullan, Daniel Francis, and Bukky Bakray and French actors Gérard Lanvin, Stanislas Merhar, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Laëtitia Eïdo, Eriq Ebouaney and Thierry Frémont.
Filming
Principal photography began in London in June 2021.
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 48% of 23 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "More tedious than it is dangerous, Liaison generates some spark from Vincent Cassel and Eva Green's pairing but generally underwhelms as an anemic addition to the espionage genre." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating, the series has received an average score of 48 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
