The Green Prince, TV review: Tale of loyalty and friendship goes far beyond enemy lines

The Sky Atlantic show focused on how the son of Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef came to be recruited by the Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet

The Green Prince on Sky Atlantic has some narration problems of its own. It set itself up as a thriller but began with no real tension. Instead, the story – of how the son of Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef came to be recruited by the Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet – was told with seemingly no build-up by the Green Prince himself, Mosab Hassan Yousef, and by secret-service officer Gonen Ben Yitzhak, Mosab's "handler".

But by the time Mosab (who looks like a more attractive Ed Miliband) had recounted the huge lengths that the Israeli secret service went to in order to keep his fellow Palestinians believing he was a military target, including Shin Bet blowing up his family home with a missile, we were hooked.

Mosab's incredible, duplicitous life, which he maintained he led to prevent killings on both sides of the conflict, saw him agreeing to imprisonment twice. When Gonen stepped in to rebuild trust with Mosab, thinking he was close to giving up on his insider role, he was sacked for breaking Shin Bet protocol.

What followed was a tale of loyalty and friendship that went far beyond enemy lines.