TV review: Cutesy American humour makes Ponies a show suited to summer sunshine

I was surprised by Ponies, I definitely like it, but don't get too excited

Ponies is available on NOW TV

Ponies (NOW) isn’t what I thought it was going to be. But I like it.

I thought the story of two American spies in 1970s Moscow would be grey raincoated men on park benches saying ‘the moon is high tonight’ to each other. There is a bit of that at the start, but the two CIA agents involved end up dead in an air crash so the action switches to their widows. You read that right.

It’s clumsy really, but the CIA decide to hire them for a covert mission. It works because the two widows, Bea (Emilia Clarke) and Twila (Haley Lu Richardson) are funny and also furious that their husbands’ deaths remain unexplained. Bea is educated and speaks Russian thanks to her mother; Twila has a blue-collar, trailer park background, spoiling for a fight.

There is a lightness of touch. Twila’s cover is as a secretary at the US embassy in Moscow, the writers play that for laughs with plenty of ‘thank you honey’ patronisation. But things take a darker turn when they come across Andrei from the KGB. He’s straight out of Bond-villain- Russian-baddie central casting with the weird twist that he goes around in an Aran sweater.

The plot doesn’t hang around. Their covert mission is revealed, make contact with a Russian asset called Sasha. He has tousled hair and a sheepskin coat that wouldn’t look out of place at a Fontaines D.C. concert. Whoever did costume and hair were definitely having fun.

There is a bit of spy-porn too, if you like codewords and invisible ink. But really, it’s about the two lead characters. The CIA head in Moscow tells Twila she’s not spy material, because her front-foot character will put people off and stop them trusting her.

Meanwhile, bookish Bea is given a revolver and told to break into Sasha’s apartment to check if he can be trusted. The characters get to go on a journey, as they say in script-writing school. But they’re good characters, properly acted, so you don’t mind.

Don’t get over excited about this show. It lacks the intrigue of a proper John Le Carré yarn like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. And the humour in Ponies is cutesy American rather than the scathing sarcasm on offer in Slow Horses. But it rocks along nicely, Haley Lu Richardson is a revelation as Twila and the KGB guy wears an Aran jumper. Le Carré is good for dark winter nights; Ponies is more suited to summer sunshine. Give it a watch.