BBC Cold War Spy Drama Honey Is Actually A Stealth Killing Eve Prequel Series

Now here's a delicious TV news twist we didn't see coming. When the BBC unveiled plans for a "flirty" Cold War spy drama called Honey just last week, poured from the pen of Extraordinary creator Emma Moran and hailing from Killing Eve producer Sid Gentle, it would be fair to say that the show had our curiosity. But now, courtesy of Deadline, we're discovering that this isn't just a show from the producer of Killing Eve, it's a full-on prequel to Phoebe Waller-Bridge's wildly entertaining thriller series — one set to chart the origins of fan-favourite Carolyn Martens, the head of MI6's Russia Desk. And that has our attention.

Originally played to BAFTA winningly brilliant effect by Fiona Shaw, Carolyn Martens is a master manipulator and one of the most compelling of all Killing Eve's incredibly complex characters, a near-peerless agent whose arc — from multiple time world-saver to [REDACTED] — still polarises the show's fandom to this day. And while the Beeb for whatever reason decided to omit the tiny detail that Honey is in fact a Carolyn Martens origin story from their description of the show, in retrospect all the signs — the 80s East Berlin setting, the 'Marta'/Martens connection, the pitching of the synopsis, previous whispers of plans for a Carolyn-centric spin-off show — were there.

Honey's official synopsis reads as follows: "Marta, 24, is a deep cover agent for MI6. Surrounded by enemies and constantly under threat of her cover being blown, she tries her hardest to avoid detection by Friedrich Bauman, the new Head of Counter Espionage for the Stasi. Finding herself caught between Friedrich and the reckless, arrogant (and incredibly attractive…) CIA operative Aaron Neeland, she is blind-sided by desire in this Cold War menage-a-trois. The risk of being garrotted or incarcerated is nothing compared to the horrifying ordeal of falling in love.”

There's been no word as of yet on who will be tasked with filling Fiona Shaw's shoes here, or indeed any official confirmation from the BBC that this is a prequel to PWB's Emmy award winning show, though that seems to be merely a formality at this point. What we do know is that there's an awful lot of buzz around Honey right now, and we'll bring you more updates just as soon as we decode the next cryptic clues about what's in store.