WARNING: Major spoilers for episode one ahead.

In Munich, Germany, an embittered old man is seen mumbling to himself in his bathroom mirror.

However, it becomes clear not everything is as it seems as, when the camera pans around the small flat, an identical version of the man, Ralf, is seen dead in his living room armchair with an electrical cord around his neck.

The alive version is The Jackal – a master of disguise assassin who has assumed Ralf’s identity as a cleaner in the building owned by Manfred Fest, a prominent magazine magnate and political figure who’s in the running to be the next German Chancellor.

Sneaking into the building, “Ralf” shoots dead several members of the team, but a security guard catches on, prompting Manfred’s son, Elias, to flee. Despite appearing to make an attempt on his life, Elias is wounded but survives.

The Jackal heads to the roof, making his escape by abseiling down the side of the building, setting off a smoke bomb and disappearing in the cover it provides. He then returns to his hotel, stripping off the make-up to reveal his true face.

The next morning, Manfred is seen in the back of his car heading to see his son, while the Jackal prepares a sniper rifle in his hotel room, which overlooks the hospital.

When Manfred arrives, he is met by protesters who declare him a fascist. When he steps out of the car, the Jackal successfully shoots him in the head before he can get to safety from nearly two miles away. He then dismantles the gun into his bespoke suitcase, which conceals the weapon, plants a bomb in the room, and drives off undetected.

Both the room and the car later explode, eradicating any potential evidence he left behind.

In London, two MI-6 operatives hear what happened via a news report. Later that evening, one of the agents, Bianca, returns home to her husband and daughter, and after watching an interview with a man called Ulle Dag Charles (UDC) and his revolutionary financial tracking software called River, switches the channel to hear more about the assassination.

Back in Nuremberg, the Jackal has taken on a new appearance as a British intellectual. Driving across the border to France, he’s stopped by police, who search his car and suitcase but find nothing, allowing him through without incident.

The next day at work, MI-6 are discussing the Fest assassination and Bianca is annoyed that she’s missed out of a briefing, forcing her way in. Her colleagues are seen noting her as “knowing about guns but a pain in the a**e”, which she later proves by questioning the distance of the shot, the length of the gun, and how the killer got away.

She flags a name – Norman Stoke – as a man who was capable of creating guns that can be dismantled perfectly, and could create a weapon that can be broken down despite it being almost impossible. She offers to look into it, using an asset in Northern Ireland who may know where Stoke is now.

In Paris, The Jackal uses an internet cafe to access a specialist chat under username “Norman Guerre”, invoicing his client a remaining €3.1million for the Fest hit. He’s then messaged by a new user, who offers him a $10million assignment, but wants to meet him first. He’s hesitant, but agrees for $500,000.

Bianca heads to Belfast, where she meets with her informant, Alison, who works at a British haberdashery. She demands her informant find out where Stoke is, but she’s uncooperative. Returning home that night, Bianca faces the disappointment of her daughter, whose parents’ evening she skipped out on.

Now at Lake Malaren in Sweden, The Jackal poses as a birdwatcher as he awaits his new client. When she does arrive, he’s informed the target is UDC – and in response he requests at least 10x the $10million they first offered due to his high profile, before disappearing.

The next morning, Bianca gets creative, and arrests Alison’s daughter, Emma, who is protesting UDC. She then lies in an interrogation, accusing Emma of bottling a police officer, before offering the chance for her to call her mother.

Locking her in a prison cell, things go devastatingly wrong when Emma collapses and she’s rushed to hospital with a suspected cardiac issue. Bianca rides in the ambulance with her, but she falls into cardiac arrest.

In Cadiz, Spain, The Jackal arrives at a luxury remote villa and meets a woman – his wife, Nuria – who is delighted to see him. He makes a comment that he didn’t want to miss their son Carlito’s birthday.

But when he signs back into the chat room that evening, The Jackal is angered that the €3.75million he’s owed from Munich has not been paid.

In response, it becomes clear the client has no intention of paying him any more money, telling him simply “F**k You”.

In order to film the pivotal Manfred Fest assassination scene, actor and executive producer Eddie Redmayne had expert training in order to ensure, like the Jackal, he was executing his work with pinpoint accuracy.

Speaking on Sky’s The Jackal Files, the actor explains: “The shot that he takes, it's a world record breaking shot, and as part of the prep for playing the Jackal, I went with Paul Billis, the Army Specialist, and I learned to sniper, not quite at that length, but across a kilometre.”

“It's so technical and it's all specific to the wind, and the wind at different places. So when you're making those long distance shots, you have to judge the wind at various different levels, and you're having to just adjust everything specific to the wind,” he continues.

“The wind is everything for snipers. There is an element of ego to the jackal and by shooting this world record breaking shot, he kind of exposes himself.”

As much as episode one introduces us to the Jackal, it also introduces us to the secondary world of Bianca Pullman, who aims to bring him down.

Ruthless at work and demanding to get a seat at the table when it comes to her specialism, she’s labelled a nuisance by her co-workers – but there’s no denying her smarts.

However it’s clear this comes at the detriment of her personal life, with her husband and child coming in second place to her biggest passion in life, work.

“At the beginning of the series, you see her in her home, which is unfortunately not the place that she sleeps in – it's MI6,” actor and executive producer Lashana Lynch explains.

“That's her first home, her energy space, the place that she most connects with inside as a human being, as a person, as a woman, as someone who's as driven as her.”

“I found it quite comical playing it the way that she just barges into meetings, the way that she interrupts people,” she adds. “She doesn't wait for people to think or speak or question. She always has the answers. She displays herself in this very upfront, brash way.”

Episode 2 >