Gemma Arterton spills on 'improvised' ITV Secret Service as she admits co-star 'couldn't help it'

Olivia Gantzer
Tue, 14 Apr 2026 04:01:01 +0000

Gemma Arterton has opened up about her working relationship with Rafe Spall on ITV's forthcoming spy thriller Secret Service, praising their instant connection on set.

Speaking to GB News and other media, she also revealed she and the actor had improvised some scenes in the intense drama.

"He's great," Ms Arterton said of Mr Spall. "He's a great actor, very, very playful, same as me."

She explained that their similar approaches to performance made capturing authentic moments effortless.

"I think it was very easy for us to just have that naturalness when needed," she added.

The pair's shared sensibility allowed them to develop what Ms Arterton characterised as a genuinely naturalistic on-screen dynamic throughout the five-part drama.

When asked about whether any scenes involved improvisation, Ms Arterton confirmed that spontaneous moments did make it into the final cut.

However, she stressed these additions were minimal given the quality of the material they were working with.

"Only in small sections, because the script was so good and I didn't feel like we needed to embellish it in any way," she explained.

The actress went on to playfully suggest that her co-star had a particular tendency towards off-script moments.

"There's little moments. I think Rafe can't help it!" she joked.

The series was penned by ITV broadcaster Tom Bradby, who initially conceived the story as a novel before developing it for television.

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Mr Bradby revealed that the concept emerged from his observations about Russian interference in Western democracies and growing concerns over whether politicians were being bribed or corrupted by foreign powers.

"I just thought, well, imagine what that would that really be like... How would your bosses react? How would the politicians react?" he explained.

This central question led to the creation of the protagonist Kate, a character Mr Bradby developed to explore these anxieties from an intelligence officer's perspective.

The writer initially envisioned the project as a television series but found the concept so vivid that he first committed it to paper as a novel.

He acknowledged that while global events have evolved since his original idea, the subject matter has only grown more pertinent.

"It just seems to get more and more relevant, which is great for the drama, but possibly not for democratic societies," Mr Bradby noted.

Mr Bradby expressed his ambitions for the series, hoping to deliver gripping mainstream entertainment that would resonate emotionally with audiences.

"I really hope that may be the result," he said of wanting viewers to reflect on the drama after watching.

Secret Service follows a British intelligence officer racing to expose potential connections between a UK politician and the Kremlin, with her reputation and family at stake as a murder investigation and election unfold simultaneously.