Entertainment

Don't miss: Deutschland 83, Channel 4, January 3

Martin (Jonas Nay), Alex (Ludwig Trepte) and Yvonne (Lisa Tomaschewsky) in Deutschland 83
Martin (Jonas Nay), Alex (Ludwig Trepte) and Yvonne (Lisa Tomaschewsky) in Deutschland 83 Martin (Jonas Nay), Alex (Ludwig Trepte) and Yvonne (Lisa Tomaschewsky) in Deutschland 83

IT'S 1983 and the Cold War is heating up: Russian SS20 missiles in East Germany are pointed west, American Pershing II missiles will soon be placed in West Germany, facing east.

Set against this perilously nuclear backdrop, Deutschland 83's gripping thriller serial follows Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay), a 24-year-old East German native sent over the Wall as an undercover Stasi spy.

Hiding in plain sight in the West German army as Officer Moritz Stamm, where he's assigned to a top West German general, Rauch must gather NATO secrets while resisting the temptations of capitalist decadence – including the general's beautiful daughter, Yvonne (Lisa Tomaschewsky).

Everything is new to him, nothing is quite what it seems and everyone he encounters is harbouring secrets.

Created by married German-American team Anna and Joerg Winger, Deutschland 83 makes the most of a pivotal period of Cold War tension, where the world's nuclear arsenals rested on a hair trigger.