The new British 7-episode original miniseries “Close to the Enemy,” which Angela Bassett co-stars in, is now available for USA audiences via SVOD platform, Acorn TV (a property of Robert Johnson’s RLJ Entertainment), the premier North American streaming service for British television.
Set in a bomb-damaged London hotel during the aftermath of World War II, “Close to the Enemy” is a thriller that follows British intelligence officer whose last task for the Army is to ensure that a captured German scientist, hands over secret cutting-edge military technology crucial to national security. Angela Bassett plays Eva, a confident American jazz singer who breathes life into the bomb-damaged London hotel at the center of the series, with her music; she’s a member of an ensemble cast that’s led by Jim Sturgess, with Freddie Highmore, Charlotte Riley, Phoebe Fox, August Diehl, Robert Glenister, Alfie Allen, Charity Wakefield, with Lindsay Duncan, and Alfred Molina rounding out the starring cast.
On what attracted her to the series, Bassett said: “Because I love the BBC. It has a very rich history of doing incredible work. I’ve never had an opportunity to travel that way before… But then I weighed up the pros and cons, and saw there were so many pros. I realized what an amazing writer and director Stephen is. Sometimes it’s brilliant just to be in the company of someone that creative. You don’t get those opportunities every five years or even every lifetime! So you show up and you say, ‘Yes, please!'”
Basset goes on to describe her character Eva as follows: “She’s a courageous businesswoman who has had to leave America in the 1940s to escape racism… She moves to London to exercise her creative instincts and business acumen. She is the leader of the whole band of men. She brings life back to that once grand hotel from the bottom up… She invades the space of the buttoned up, stodgy people upstairs with her boldness, her brassiness, her beauty and her sensuality. They have never seen anyone like her before! She puts me in mind of Josephine Baker, who went to Europe, turned it on its head and generally enlivened the joint!”
The 7-part “Close to the Enemy” made its USA Premiere on Acorn TV on Monday, Last week Monday, November 14, 2016. To watch, you’ll have to subscribe to Acorn, which is available to USA audiences on various devices, at a cost of $4.99 a month. Currently, you can sign up to receive 1 week for free: https://signup.acorn.tv/.
A first clip from “Close to the Enemy” (episode 2, which premieres today) featuring Bassett as Eva, has been released and is embedded below (followed by the series’ trailer):
And here’s the series’ trailer:
