The Story

UNDERCOVERS is a new four-part TV drama series based on the true story of the police spies who infiltrated British activist groups over the last 50 years . . . and the women who unwittingly had relationships and even children with the spies.

UNDERCOVERS faithfully tells the jaw-dropping story of the dirty war fought between the Metropolitan Police and two generations of political activists in Britain over the last half century. The story starts in 1968, when the Met formed the “Special Demonstration Squad” - nicknamed “The Hairies” by their colleagues - after a Vietnam War protest turned violent in Grosvenor Square. It continues as police spies infiltrate every kind of political group, from neo-Nazis and the ALF, to climate campaigners, anti-capitalists, anti-racists, old ladies in peace groups and multicoloured ravers. Along the way, the spies form long-term relationships, set up homes and even have children under their false identities, in what has been termed “state-sponsored sexual abuse”. When the spies inevitably disappear, they leave emotional carnage - and women obsessed with finding out the truth.

The Team

Franny Armstrong

Creator / Writer

Franny has directed three documentaries - THE AGE OF STUPID, McLIBEL, and DROWNED OUT - which have together been seen by 70 million people. She founded the 10:10 climate campaign and was named in the Guardian as one of the world's "Top 100 Women".

Simon Beaufoy

Script Exec

Simon is one of Britain’s most successful screenwriters. At the age of only 25, he wrote the smash-hit film THE FULL MONTY. He then won an Oscar for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. And his recent adaptation, THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, just took a cool $840 million at the box office.

Tony Garnett

Executive Producer

Tony is Britain's foremost producer of political television dramas. Throughout his 40-year career, he's had countless hits, including BETWEEN THE LINES, THIS LIFE, and BALLYKISSANGEL. He produced many of Ken Loach's movies, including the game-changing KES and CATHY COME HOME.

John Battsek

Executive Producer

John is probably Britain's most prolific documentary maker. He's produced more than 25 successful feature docs including Oscar-nominated RESTREPO, Oscar-winning ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER, Oscar-shortlisted SERGIO and Oscar-winning SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN. He's also produced some dramas which didn't do quite as well.

Lizzie Gillett

Producer

As producer of AGE OF STUPID, Lizzie managed a crew of 105 people in six countries. Alongside Franny she pioneered the now-ubiquitous "crowd-funding" model, raising £900,000 from 300+ people. She also produced Stupid’s GLOBAL PREMIERE - the world's biggest-ever live film event, featuring Kofi Annan and Radiohead's Thom Yorke, which was beamed by satellite from New York to over a million people in 63 countries.

Hilary Norrish

Script Exec

Hilary Norrish has worked with Guy Hibbert on both Complicit and his Bafta-winning Omagh. She's worked with Ronan Bennett on Top Boy, with Simon Block on The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall, and with Alan Bleasdale on The Sinking of the Laconia. Bleasdale says: "I sometimes have the feeling that Hilary, who is small in stature but not in courage, has for the past three years dragged a dead man around on her back."

Tamsin Allen

Lawyer

Tamsin has provided expert legal advice - sometimes paid! - to every Spanner production since McLIBEL. Given the always-contentious nature of the subjects we choose to make films about, Tamsin is the lynchpin of our team and has got us out of hot water numerous times (including from bed at 4am in the UK whilst Franny and Lizzie were held up at gunpoint in Nigeria). She is Head of Media at Bindmans LLP and also represents the phone hacking victims in the Leveson Inquiry.

Spanner Films

Production Company

Spanner Films is known primarily for AGE OF STUPID and McLIBEL and for inventing crowd-funding. We also love our film about Indian villages getting submerged by a giant dam, DROWNED OUT, and our software which lets anyone organise their own local film nights, INDIE SCREENINGS. We recently won the "inspiration award" at the UK's No 1 doc film festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest.

Stephen White

Finance

Stephen is the financial wizard who developed UNDERCOVERS' groundbreaking crowdfunding model, which takes advantage of the UK's SEIS/EIS tax breaks. Stephen has 10+ years experience advising everyone from cupcake sellers to tech companies to environmental consultants. He was previously the Finance Director at 10:10, the climate change campaign inspired by Spanner's film THE AGE OF STUPID.

Nicola Cutcher

Researcher

Nicola has worked for Panorama, Newsnight, and This World. She made an innovative TV doc about the London riots with the BBC and the Guardian.

Eveline Lubbers

Researcher

Eveline wrote her PhD about corporate and police spying, published as the book SECRET MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK. A research fellow at the University of Bath, she coordinates the Undercover Research Group - a group of independent activists building an in-depth public website about the spies.

Torchbox

Web Company

Torchbox have made Spanner Films’ websites for the past five years. They do “digital stuff for the good guys” and clients include the University of Oxford, RCA, World Economic Forum, WWF, Action Aid, ONE, Citizen’s Advice, UNHCR and Oxfam.

Invest in the film

As with all Spanner Films' projects, UNDERCOVERS is being partly financed independently, so we can keep some editorial and creative control and therefore make the films we want to make. As of Feb 2016, we've raised £550,000 from equity crowd-funding for the project.

Probably the most important reason people decide to invest in UNDERCOVERS is that they want to help get this story out to a massive international TV audience. Second is probably the valuable personal tax breaks, the chance that it's a financial success and the possibility of making some (or even, fingers crossed!) lots of money. And then there's the fun stuff like invitations to premieres, visiting the set and even appearing as extras.

Undercovers TV

News, gossip, jobs, lawsuits

Recent tweet