THE SPY AND THE CHEF SHOW - SEASON TWO

Netflix’s new show The Spy features Sacha Baron Cohen as Israel’s most famous spy, Eli Cohen, who in the 1960’s went deep undercover for Mossad in Syria. Cohen posed as an Argentine-based Arab businessman who yearns to return to his ancestral homeland – the home of his father. Once in Syria, he schmoozes, wines and dines high-brow officials to such a degree, that he was nearly appointed the Deputy Minister of Defence. Cohen's knowledge of Syria's gun placements along the Golan Heights enabled Israel to defeat Syria in the Six-Day War in 1967. It’s six-part limited series - written and directed by Gideon Raff, who was responsible for an Israeli show called Prisoners of War, from which the TV show Homeland was adapted.

Eli Cohen is depicted here as stoic and rather internal as a character – quite taciturn - but as a lead, Baron Cohen exudes a magnetic screen presence. He’s next due to appear in The Trial of the Chicago Seven alongside Eddie Redmayne and Joseph Gordon Levitt, in the story of the seven people on trial following the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago - and Baron Cohen will play Abbie Hoffman. Aaron Sorkin is going to direct that – so based on his turn in this , I think Sacha Baron Cohen may evolve into quite a formidable character actor.

As well as The Spy (which is currently out on Netflix) landing tomorrow are some more episodes of filmmaker Jon Favreau’s The Chef Show - where the actor/director (of The Lion King and Iron Man) Jon Favreau and award-winning Chef Roy Choi, reunite to experiment with their favourite recipes and techniques. In these new episodes there’s an episode featuring Seth Rogen, who sweats his way through some serious food prep for a large catered dinner. Chef David Chang also features in another episode. BE WARNED - all episodes feature crazy delicious food that WILL make you ridiculously hungry – inevitably compelling  you to scour the fridge so you can whip up something tasty.