Berlin Station (Epix 2016, Richard Armitage, Rhys Ifans)

In Berlin Station CIA officer Daniel Miller has uncovered information about a leak in CIA operations. He is transferred to the Berlin station and tasked with breaking it open.

Also at the Station is a former colleague of Daniel’s Hector DeJean and running the station is Steven Frost who has been in Berlin since the days of the cold war.

The series was created by espionage novelist Olen Steinhauer.

Richard Armitage, speaking to Parade about the series, said that what piqued his interest was that “this one in particular is quite different for me because I was fascinated with the fact that as a European playing an American, in a way, Daniel grew up with a European childhood. The thing that interested me was the idea of somebody who is a patriot but is questioning his patriotism, he is questioning his government, and he is questioning the institution that he works for, that being the CIA.”

In another interview with Channel Guide magazine Armitage spoke about the city of Berlin being a character in it’s own right… “We were there for five months and really, Berlin became another character in the show. I love the way that city exists in so many different time [periods] — it’s the 18th century, it’s the ’20s, it’s the ’50s, ’60s, the ’70s, it’s now. There are certain places that feel like the future, a certain architecture. The way the city moves … it’s so fluid, and our cinematographer really captured the movement and the sort of melting-pot way you could really disappear. It’s not by accident that [Berlin] is the sort of hotbed of espionage, really.”

A second season was commissioned late November 2016.

production details
USA / Epix – Third State – Harbor Men – Vanessa Productions Ltd / 20×50 minute episodes / Broadcast 16 October 2016 – December 2017

cast
Richard Armitage as Daniel Miller
Richard Jenkins as Steven Frost
Michelle Forbes as Valerie Edwards
Tamlyn Tomita as Sandra Abe
Leland Orser as Robert Kirsch
Richard Dillane as Deputy Liaison Gerald Ellman
Bernhard Schütz as Hans Richter