Cold War Thriller ‘Honey’ Scores First Sales After Cannes World Premiere

EXCLUSIVE: The first sales for Honey have rolled in as the darkly comedic thriller had its world premiere in Cannes.

The Cold War drama is for the BBC and ZDF. It has been pre-bought by Australian streamer Stan and Sky in New Zealand. Fifth Season is distributing the show and has also sealed presales with OSN+ for the Middle East and North Africa and Hot in Israel.

The deals come in the wake of a glitzy premiere for the series at MIPCOM in Cannes. The sunny setting on the Côte d’Azur was far removed from the icy East Berlin backdrop of the opening episode of the show. It follows Martha, played by Ann Skelly (House of Guinness), a deep cover agent in 1982 Germany. She explores a shadowy world of counterespionage and finds herself blindsided by desire in a Cold War ménage à trois.

Skelly, Sally Woodward Gentle, the series executive producer at Sid Gentle Films, lead writer and EP Emma Moran and Jennifer Ebell, EVP, Television Distribution at Fifth Season all spoke about the show before the first episode rolled.

Skelly appears alongside Nate Mann, Jannis Niewöhner and Rory Kinnear in the series.

“Seeing a character so brazen and bold and full of want, that’s really fun because I didn’t really grow up with many female characters like that,” Skelly said of playing Martha in the Deadline-moderated Q+A. “She’s just incredibly ambitious and totally backs herself and is full of confidence, but not quite the experience, which is, I think, so much fun to watch a character like that.”

The Martha character is one that went on to appear in Killing Eve. Fiona Shaw played the character latterly known as Carolyn Martens. The team behind Honey, however, have been at pains to stress that while it is the same universe, it is not a prequel.

The series has elements of spy thriller, romance, comedy and drama, and Moran said that was what drew her in. “The tone was what excited me about the idea, I loved smashing together romance and spy [genres],” she said.

“We’re in semi-totalitarian society [in the series] where you have to watch yourself ,and desires have to be restrained. With the love triangle that dominates the show, it was so satisfying play with those two poles of, ‘I can’t say who I am, I can’t do this’ but then to have desire crash into that.”