David Burke played a very good Doctor Watson in the first two series of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett.
Burke's portrayal of Stalin was memorable for all the wrong reasons. He was saddled with a bad wig and he just came across as unconvincing. Up against Tom Bell's Dzerzhinsky, you think that this Stalin would not want to rile him up.
One person who certainly riles up Stalin is Reilly.
Stalin has discovered that Dzerzhinsky has created the highly successful organisation "The Trust". It has Russian operatives all over the world keeping track on people who want to harm Russia. It brings in funding, the money people think they are giving money to depose the government. It goes into the state's spying activities.
It is a success that Stalin does not appreciate as he thinks one day it will turn on him.
Another person with a memorable scene is Savinkov who is thrown to his death from a top floor window. A kind of Russian goodbye from The Trust. It leads Reilly to come to Russia himself, almost tempting fate now that Stalin wants him arrested.
Russia has moved on by 1925, Lenin is gone and Stalin is in charge. Reilly: Ace of Spies still continues, it should been done with by now but there is still one more episode to go.