BBC One's Honey Reimagines Killing Eve Origins in 1982 East Berlin

Honey, a prequel to Killing Eve, premieres Saturday 14 November at 9pm on BBC One. The series traces the origin of Carolyn Martens, the spy-handler played by Fiona Shaw in the parent show, recasting her here as a young honeypot operative in East Berlin, 1982.

Created by Emma Moran, the show opens with the young Martens smuggled into the eastern sector in the back of a Trabant driven by her handler, Anderson. Renamed Martha Schmitt, she receives her instructions: seduce well-placed men and take compromising photographs that will persuade them to pass sensitive information to the West. The East German government, the title page notes, runs an army of citizen informants. "Everyone is watching … look hot!"

Martha is partnered with Kurt Fischer, an American agent the reviewer describes as "a chauvinist moustache", which displeases them both. What follows is her battle to be taken seriously as a spy, and not fall in boring love — a struggle familiar to any woman in any job, though perhaps with less eyeball removal.

What kind of spy story is this?

Moran's show comes on bright and flirty, with gags, pop songs and knowingly anachronistic dialogue. One worker at a sausage factory, discussing a murdered colleague Martha is investigating, says: "That guy was a dick. He never came to any ice-cream socials."

The production is handsomely shot, with stylish credits resembling a redacted Stasi dossier. Spy purists, however, may be left out in the cold. The reviewer calls Honey "arguably, a music video version of a traumatised country", noting that supporting characters who quip "Can I get my eggs jammy?" are hardly a representation of oppressed cold war citizens. Martha strides around in a bright miniskirt and thigh-highs, looking, the reviewer writes, more like she is coming home from a fun night at G-A-Y than a harrowing day in the GDR.

The plot favours sensibility over sense. Martha and Kurt don ludicrous disguises, like Cluedo characters. Martha acts impetuously when confronted with casual misogyny, even on secret missions — right-on, but likely to blow her cover. In one debrief scene, she plays hammy shagging noises from a cassette player to fool a Stasi microphone that sits nowhere near the player; the physics does not stack, but it fuels great running gags.

Who stands out in the cast?

• Ann Skelly plays Martha, bushy-tailed and bright.
• Rory Kinnear plays Anderson with brilliant stuffiness.
• Nate Mann plays Kurt, his brush moustache bearing a striking resemblance to Aidan Turner's character in Rivals.
• Jannis Niewöhner, an actual German, plays Friedrich Baumann, a repressed Oberstleutnant spy-hunter with the delicate, blue-eyed beauty of a ballet dancer.

Baumann is the most interesting part of the show. Cruel yet conflicted, his scenes carry a wisp of sexual charge, giving the series something meaty to chew on. Niewöhner's native accent highlights the fruity efforts of castmates who sound, at times, as if they are trying to reboot 'Allo 'Allo — yet the show is so brazen that these squeaky seams become part of its camp joy.

The reviewer's verdict is direct: those seeking Antony Beevor or Anne Applebaum-style verité should keep moving. Honey is more Doctor Who than Das Boot — they could have called it Carré on Spying. It hits a sweet spot, and does not worry about the details.