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The Waiting Time (DVD)
Year: 1999
Rating: M
Director: Stuart Orme
Cast: Mark Pegg, John Thaw, Zara Turner
Release Date: February 09, 2011
Distributor: Time Life
The Film: 2.0
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5"...a bit flat..."
Films depicting Communist spies as the dastardly enemies always seem a little dated. Opening in an East German air base in 1988, this two-part British mini-series then flashes forward a decade.
Soldier Corporal Tracy Barnes (Zara Turner) attacks a visiting German politician, Dieter Krause, seemingly without any motive. Tracy is then detained under the Official Secrets Act and her loyal mum hires dependable solicitor's clerk Joshua Mantle (John Thaw) to help her.
The Waiting Time has plenty of espionage, diplomatic cover-up and cold war talk, but given the film was first broadcast in 1999 it's all a bit flat now. The world has changed so much and talk of east versus west no longer has the impact it once did.
Still, John Thaw is always a reassuring presence in any film. He's like a kindly grandfather and you can't help but cheer him on as he gets caught up in adventure with a much younger partner.
Based on a novel by Gerald Seymour, The Waiting Time is only for cold war enthusiasts or Thaw fans.
