The Iris Affair is one of those dramas that begins with something happening later in the story – here, as someone’s getting savagely beaten up – before going back to a previous point in time.
However, it instantly gets across how Iris Nixon (Niamh Algar – Playing Nice) is hard as nails, but quite early on, she meets up with Cameron (Tom Hollander – The Ipcress File), an investor who wants to recruit her because she’s good with puzzles, and that’s what he needs for one that hasn’t been solved, involing an apparently uncrackable password which will get the machine up and running again.
She goes to his ‘evil lair’ in Sardinia, and sees a huge machine, similar to “Deep Thought”. Nicknamed “Charlie Big Potatoes”, it’s asleep, and Cameron wants her to wake it up.
Alas, the code which needs to be cracked is the size of a novel, and the only man who has a clue is now rather incapacitated. But if she can’t make the machin surface, Cameron will be in a bit of trub with very bad men.
Sacha Dhawan – who helped ruin Doctor Who – is completely unnecessary as Alfie, a weird youtuber commenting on her actions.
However, for the rest of it, there’s lots of double-crossing going on, with Iris finding she has a target on her back that attracts a 4 million Euros payday. So, it’s all fairly straight-forward in plot terms, but while it’s quite daft and has a lot of style over substance, it’s largely enjoyable, although it does have more running about than any actual coherent plot.
The Iris Affair beings tomorrow on Sky Atlantic.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Cert: 
Running time: 45-60 minutes per episode (6 episodes)
Release date: October 16th 2025
Studio: Sky Atlantic
Format: 2.00:1
Series Directors: Sarah O’Gorman, Terry McDonough
Producers: Tim Bricknell, Neil Cross, Daniel Toland
Creator: Neil Cross
Writers: Neil Cross, Susan E Connolly, Ian Scott McCullough
Music: Atli Örvarsson
Cast:
Iris Nixon: Niamh Algar
Cameron: Tom Hollander
Alfie: Sacha Dhawan
Joy: Meréana Tomlinson
Nico: Maya Sansa
Ako Nakamura: Alessia Yoko Fontana
Dia Ramachandran: Amina Zia
Manu Chopra: Adrian Paul Jeyasingham
Bruni: Marco Leonardi
Meski: Angela Bruce
Teo: Lorenzo de Moor
Claude Baptiste: Simon Rizzoni
Ingo Hauser: Christoph Hülsen
Akim: Julia Messina
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.