Cambridge Spies Quotes

Cambridge Spies is a Historical drama that appeared on TV in 2003 on BBC Two. Cambridge Spies stopped airing in 2003.

Cambridge Spies was on for 4 episodes. It features Mark Shivas as producer, and John Lunn as composer. Cambridge Spies is executive produced by Laura Mackie.

Cambridge Spies is recorded in English and originally aired in United Kingdom. Each episode of Cambridge Spies is 60 minutes long. Cambridge Spies is distributed by BBC.

The cast includes: Tom Hollander as Guy Burgess, John Light as James Jesus Angleton, Simon Woods as Charlie Givens, Toby Stephens as Kim Philby, Samuel West as Anthony Blunt, Patrick Kennedy as Julian Bell, Rupert Penry-Jones as Donald Maclean, and Anna-Louise Plowman as Melinda Maclean.

Cambridge Spies Quotes

Tom Hollander as Guy Burgess

• (Tom Hollander) "Listen. Babies are dying in this country because they are not fed properly. Old men and women die alone and without dignity. Why? Because they're poor. That's all. Because they're poor. I hate it. I hate it with all my being and I would do anything to change it, anything. Personal feelings, small indignities, they have to put aside. It's hard. Sometimes it's very hard. But it has to be. And I know you feel the same."

• (Tom Hollander) "Isn't he beautiful? His name is Julian Bell. He frightens me 'cause he burns so brightly. Bright, beautiful flames burn out."

• (Tom Hollander) "My father died fucking my mother. I heard her calling, or bleating really. And I came into the room and for a horrible moment I thought I'd got it wrong and that her calls for help were in fact small bleats of pleasure. She's got a narrow range of expression, my mother."
• (Rupert Penry-Jones) "Why are you telling me this?"
• (Tom Hollander) "I had to roll him off. And I rolled him a bit too vigorously and he fell off my mother, off the bed and onto the floor and broke his arm. I mean he was dead, of course, so he didn't mind. But it made it a bit tricky with the coroner. My mother had to give evidence about how he died and she did it very well, of course. As only an English woman of decent heart and stout bosom can. Rising splendidly above the banal and the absurd. It's how I'd like to be remembered."
• (Rupert Penry-Jones) "Rising above the banal and the absurd?"
• (Tom Hollander) "As an English woman of stout heart and decent bosom."

• (Tom Hollander) "Is it the uniforms, Givens?"
• (Simon Woods) "Keep out of this."
• (Tom Hollander) "Rowing eights, rugby fifteens. Large groups of men wearing the same clothes. Is that the attraction?"
• (Simon Woods) "Shut up."
• (Tom Hollander) "The best clothes are in Berlin, aren't they. Black boots, leather belts. Click your heels, Givens. Click, click, click."
• (Simon Woods) "I'm warning you, keep out of this."
• (Tom Hollander) "Keep out? But that's the whole point, isn't it. Not keeping out."
• (Simon Woods) "You're a bloody ponce."
• (Tom Hollander) "Hit me, go on. It's what you do, isn't it? Go on Givens, hit the bloody ponce."

• (Tom Hollander) "I got beaten up by a keen theatergoer, Angleton."
• (John Light) "Why?"
• (Tom Hollander) "In England, when one is having a piss at the urinal, and eight urinals on either side of one are unoccupied, and a man comes in and doesn't choose to piss seven urinals away or even three urinals away but stands right bloody next to you, then it means something. And when, apropos of bugger-all, he starts up a bit of a chat about new writing in the theater, it means "Bugger me," frankly. But not here, it would seem. Apparently, in this appallingly friendly country, it means nothing of the kind. It means what it is: passing pleasantries in a public lavatory in the middle of the night."

Samuel West as Anthony Blunt

• (Samuel West) "Not in front of the socks, Julian."

• (Samuel West) "Even when you're silent the noise is remarkable."
• (Tom Hollander) "Noise?"
• (Samuel West) "The noise of your heart pumping away on your sleeve. The cacophony of your gawp."
• (Tom Hollander) "Does it show that much?"

Toby Stephens as Kim Philby

• (Toby Stephens) "To the revolution."

• (Toby Stephens) "It's a simple, unavoidable choice, Donald. Communism or fascism. Everything in the middle has gone to sleep. To fight fascism you have to be a communist. Anything else is appeasement."

Rupert Penry-Jones as Donald Maclean

• (Rupert Penry-Jones) "Hullo"
• (Anna-Louise Plowman) "Hi. You're English."
• (Rupert Penry-Jones) "Does it show?"
• (Anna-Louise Plowman) "You say hello with the letter U where the letter E oughta be."
• (Rupert Penry-Jones) "Well, you're American."
• (Anna-Louise Plowman) "You noticed."
• (Rupert Penry-Jones) "You say hello with the letter I where the E and the L and the L and the O ought to be."
• (Rupert Penry-Jones) "I hate America."
• (Anna-Louise Plowman) "Are you gonna tell me why?"
• (Rupert Penry-Jones) "For the way you treat workers, the way you treat black people, the way you appropriate, mispronounce and generally mutilate perfectly good English words. Cigarette?"

Add or Update Quotes

If you have a quote to add or change, please fill in the form below.