Plot | Cast | Interview | Trailer | Where to watch
Calling all espionage lovers and thriller fanatics, this is for youuuuuu!
If high-stakes secrets, unpredictable twists, and emotional drama are your thing, then Betrayal will be your next obsession. This brand-new ITV drama is landing on ITV and STV, Sunday 8th February, and honestly… we cannot wait!
Written by award-winning playwright David Eldridge and directed by BAFTA and Emmy nominee Julian Jarrold, Betrayal throws you deep into the shadowy world of modern-day MI5. Packed with familiar faces, shocking plot twists and storylines that will keep you guessing right until the final credits roll, Betrayal is shaping up to be one of the most talked-about ITV dramas of February.
And psssst, here at Freely we even managed to do some of our own investigating to bring you an exclusive interview, so read on to find out more!
What is Betrayal about?
Betrayal stars Shaun Evans as John Hughes – a seasoned MI5 operative who’s beginning to feel out of step with a rapidly changing intelligence world.
When John uncovers a sinister plot involving a gang with Iranian ties, he makes the dangerous decision to go rogue. As the agency closes in and pressure mounts for him to step aside, John finds himself reluctantly paired with Mehreen Askari-Evans – an agent initially tasked with replacing him. Together, they race to uncover the truth before it’s too late.
And it’s not just the job falling apart. Away from the covert ops and coded conversations, John’s personal life is unravelling too. His marriage to his wife Claire is cracking under the weight of secrets, suspicion and a life lived in half-truths.
With the clocking ticking down: will John uncover the truth – and save his relationship – before everything crashes down around him?
Who’s in Betrayal?
Shaun Evans (Until I Kill You, Endeavour) takes the lead as John Hughes, the MI5 operative at the centre of the investigation.
Romola Garai (The Years, Suffragette) plays Claire Hughes, John’s wife, whose patience is tested by years of secrecy and mistrust.
Zahra Ahmadi (Beyond Paradise, The Bay) appears as Mehreen Askari-Evans, an intelligence officer brought in to replace John – and later, his unexpected ally.
Nikki Amuka-Bird (Avenue 5) joins the cast as Simone Grant, John’s superior officer at MI5, determined to keep control as events spiral.
Alongside them expect to see, Omid Djalili (The Letter for the King, His Dark Materials), Matthew Tennyson (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grantchester), Hayley Tamaddon (Unforgotten, Coronation Street), Ben Lambert (Outlander, The Crown), Julia Watson (Doctor Who) and Julian Wadham (Black Doves, The Crown).
An interview with the cast of Betrayal:
Zahra Ahmadi
What really drew you into the role?
I think how well written it was. Dave's [David Eldridge] writing, he's such a fantastic writer. He writes human relationships really well. I think he's got this innate sort of empathy with the human condition, and that's really what drew me to it.
The show is all about trust and navigating tense moments with gangs and crime. What's a big moment in TV around crime, betrayal or drama that really sticks with you?
Wow, that's a great question. I have to really think about it because I've watched a lot of great TV. There's a series that I love that I don't feel many people have seen. It's called Tremor. It’s a really beautiful piece of TV because they do a lot of betrayal on really different scales: betrayal by a government to take care of the whole geographical area of people; betrayal within interpersonal relationships; there’s infidelity; there’s friends struggling to maintain friendship in the aftermath of that situation. There are four series in total and it's brilliant.
Do you see yourself coming back to espionage?
Definitely. I mean, espionage is very exciting, first and foremost. But what Dave's done on this is make the personal side of things just as high-octane as the professional side. So espionage has a huge appeal, whether dealing with how they work professionally or how that impacts their private life.
Are there any shows or series you’re watching at the moment that helped you with Betrayal, or that you're enjoying generally?
It's really bad because when people ask me that, it's almost always reality. I love Traitors . I love Married at First Sight, all iterations of it. In terms of series I've watched recently, it's a lot of comedy, [one that] I'm still not over is Colin from Accounts. It's very different to Betrayal. Colin from Accounts was so beautifully natural and believable with, the performances and the characterisation. I find it really inspiring to watch anything like that, because it transcends genre, and it's much more about the craft of acting.
The relationship on screen feels incredibly natural, even within an espionage setting. How important was that for you when portraying an Iranian character with historical context linked to MI5?
It’s really interesting. I'm from a mixed background – my dad’s from Iran, my mum's Cornish actually. So for Mehreen and myself, life imitates art and vice versa – it's important to find the balance in your dual heritage, whatever that balance ends up being. Something we touch on later in the series is that Mehreen’s dad moved here from Iran. So any connection she has with her Iranian heritage is primarily through her own connection, her own research. She taught herself the language, that she's able to communicate and obviously she looks the way she does, lends itself to her being quite an effective spy.
Romola Garai:
We’d love to know how Claire as an outsider to MI5 is impacted by espionage and secrecy, is that a really important thing for the character and how it carries throughout the show?
I think what’s unusual about Betrayal as a show is that you have a man whose life is dedicated to protecting the country in these very high‑stakes, very dangerous circumstances, but you have a lot of access to his home life. He's married to a woman, Claire (my character), who's a GP. They have young children, and so you see the kind of human cost of the job that he does and also the cost on her of being married to someone whose job is all‑consuming and also involves a lot of lies and secrecy.
You’ve been in some amazing dramas, shows and films. What about Betrayal was different to you, and why was that such an important factor when you decided to join the cast?
I think usually with spy dramas, you have a male character who's doing important things, but he has no affiliated life outside. Certainlly no caring responsibilities, no relational responsibilities and then if the character does have them, they're definitely on a lower level of importance in terms of the narrative. It is very unusual to see the domestic space and John's work elevated to the same level. So I was really excited by that. I thought that was a really bold thing for ITV and the creative team to do so I was really hooked as soon as I understood that there was going to be a matching of those two spaces. I was like: “I really want to be part of this”.
How did Claire working in the NHS translate into the domestic scenes with Sean, especially balancing empathy for human life with understanding his work in MI5 and the secret service?
I think that Claire, does have an understanding that John's job is very important. And I think she understands that she has to accept that he is not going to be able to tell her things about national security. But I think you can accept something intellectually and not accept it emotionally. What's happened over the course of their relationship is that the heart is rebelling against the head, and the emotional toll of being shut out of his life – and the lies essentially that have corroded their marriage – has become emotionally intolerable to her. Everything you see in her journey over the show is her heart rebelling against that status quo.
The Trailer for Betrayal:
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Where can I watch Betrayal?
You can stream all episodes of Betrayal from Sunday 8th February on ITVX and STV Player, or tune in weekly on ITV1 and STV.
And if you're loving our recommendations, why not check out all of the other amazinggg shows coming in 2026!
