Impressions of a Spy : W. Somerset Maugham’s WWI ‘Ashenden’ isn’t About Action But Intrigue

The late British author W. Somerset Maugham absorbed life like a sponge. The people and incidents he encountered became the inspiration for his renowned novels, plays and short stories, including “Of Human Bondage,” “The Razor’s Edge,” “The Moon and Sixpence,” “Rain,” “The Letter” and “Ashenden,” a collection of stories based on his experiences as a spy during World War I.

In the preface of “Ashenden,” which was published in 1928, Maugham writes that the seven stories were “founded on experiences of my own during the war, but I should like to impress upon the reader that they are not what the French called reportage, but works of fiction.”

Four of those classic spy tales--”Guilia Lazzari,” “The Traitor,” “Mr. Harrington’s Washing” and “The Hairless Mexican”--have been brought to life in the new A&E;/BBC two-part presentation “Ashenden,” airing Sunday and Monday on A&E.;

In his first major screen role, British theater actor Alex Jennings stars as writer-turned-spy John Ashenden; Ian Bannen plays his boss, the cold, calculating R; and Joss Ackland is featured as Cumming, the real mysterious founder of MI5, the British secret service. Elizabeth McGovern, Rene Auberjonois, Alfred Molina and Alan Bennett guest-star in the various episodes.

Bringing “Ashenden” to the small screen was a labor of love for producers Joe Knatchbull and Julian Hope and writer David Pirie, all of whom are Maugham fans.

The producers spent two years chasing down the rights. “That proved to be a very difficult experience,” Knatchbull said.

The rights were owned by an American major who had bought them from Maugham in 1947. Though Alfred Hitchcock’s 1936 thriller “Secret Agent” is very loosely based on the “Ashenden” stories, “They were never made either as a movie or a TV series,” Knatchbull said. “They just languished in a vault.”

After finally acquiring the rights, the producers and Pirie chose what they considered the four best stories and decided to expand upon them by putting them in a more historical context. “I was very keen to find out a bit more of what happened to Maugham during his career as a spy,” Pirie said.

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Maugham was recruited by the MI5 because he was fluent in French and German and could live in neutral Switzerland under the guise of being there to write a play.

“I think Maugham went into spying with very realistic motives,” Hope said. “Maugham, and indeed Ashenden, went in for patriotic reasons. He wanted to help his country.”

The trio had hoped to uncover 14 Ashenden stories that were never published. Maugham supposedly destroyed them because they were considered too politically sensitive and violated England’s Official Secrets Act.

“There are no copies,” Pirie said. “No one knows what was in them, so it leads to fascinating speculation as to what they could have contained. All of that made us want to take this further.”

The producers scoured Maugham archives and letters looking for the stories. They came up empty-handed. So, Pirie did his own detective work. He decided to research the secret service during Maugham’s period to “dig up material that way,” but he found that all pertinent material also was covered by the Official Secrets Act.

Undaunted, Pirie contacted people who either worked in espionage or had written on the subject. One contact, a writer, had a diary written by a man who had been recruited by the secret service the same time as Maugham.

“It turned out to be an amazing chronicle of the service Maugham entered,” Pirie said. After reading the diary, Pirie decided to add the real-life Cumming to “Ashenden.”

“It was my feeling Cumming would have undoubtedly been known to Maugham,” he said. “He was the most swashbuckling, colorfully romantic figure in the service at the time.’

The four “Ashenden” stories are all true, but no one is certain if all are based on Maugham’s own exploits.

A&E;’s Delia Fine, director of drama programming, said “Ashenden” appealed to the network because it was not the typical action-packed spy thriller. “Clearly, this is not a slam bam-James Bond-ski chase-down-a-hill sort of thing,” she said. “It is much more cerebral.”

There are no happy endings in “Ashenden,” Pirie said. “He isn’t that heroic. He is no superman. He is flawed and probably the wrong person for the job.”

The same holds true for Maugham, who became very disillusioned with the brutality of the spy business. “After the war, his whole life completely changed,” Pirie said. “Although he went back to England, he never again lived in England after he published the book. It was a pretty major experience in his life.”

Part I of “Ashenden” airs Sunday at 5 and 9 p.m.; Part II airs Monday at 5 and 9 p.m. on A&E.; Penguin has reissued the “Ashenden” stories ($8).