An Englishman Abroad is a 1983 BBC television drama, based on the true story of a chance meeting of an actress, Coral Browne, with Guy Burgess, one of the famous group of Cambridge spies who worked for the Soviet Union whilst with MI6.
Filmed in Glasgow and Dundee in the early 1980s, the setting is Moscow in 1958, to which Burgess had fled following MI6 detection of his treason. Burgess meets Browne in a theatre dressing room and charms her. Later on she is invited to his Moscow flat to measure him for some clothes that he would like ordered from his London tailors.
The characterisation of Burgess by Alan Bates has been held in high acclaim. This is the story of a very English Englishman trying to ignore his homesickness for the country he has betrayed while also trying to cope with post-Stalinist Russian life and convince himself that it was all worthwhile.
Coral Browne stars as herself. The production was written by Alan Bennett and directed by John Schlesinger.
English actress Coral Browne travels to Moscow, and meets a mysterious Englishman. Turns out he's the notorious spy, Guy Burgess. Based on a true story, with Ms. Browne playing herself. Written by David Spalding
