[Favourite of the Month] [Spoiler-Free review] 60 years after the publication of Len Deighton's classic espionage novel and 57 years after its famous movie adaptation, the short-sighted spy known as Harry Palmer is back with brilliance in The Ipcress File.
This 6 x 45-minute television series premiered last month in the U.K on ITV. AMC + will air it in the U.S.
Written by British author Len Deighton, The IPCRESS File (1962) was centered on an unnamed working class spy of a small intelligence agency called W.O.O.C.(P). (1). Harry Saltzman, co-producer of the James Bond films, turned the book into a movie. Directed by Sidney J. Furie and released in 1965, The Ipcress File starred Michael Caine as a spy with glasses called Harry Palmer. The actor played "the anti-007" in two other cinematographic adaptations of Deighton's work: Funeral in Berlin (1966, directed by Guy Hamilton) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967, Ken Russell).
In 1968, the project of a fourth Harry Palmer film (adapted from Horse Under Water) was abandoned by Saltzman. A different production team made the movie version of Spy Story (1976), directed by Lindsay Shonteff, with Michael Petrovich as "Patrick Armstrong". Years later, Michael Caine became an ex-spy named Harry Anders in Blue Ice (1992), helmed by Russell Mulcahy. The character was actually based on the Tad Anders series of novels by Ted Allbeury. The legendary actor finally put on the distinctive glasses of the real Palmer again in Bullet to Beijing (1995) and Midnight in Saint Petersburg (1996), two movies shot back-to-back under the direction of George Mihalka and shown directly on U.S. cable.
This year, Harry Palmer returns in a clever and stylish reinvention — for once the word is appropriate — of both The IPCRESS File novel and its film adaptation. This captivating six-part thriller produced by Will Clarke and Andy Mayson's Altitude Television was written by John Hodge (Trainspotting) and directed by James Watkins (McMafia). Joe Cole (Gangs of London, Peaky Blinders) is the new Harry Palmer. Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody, Murder on the Orient Express) plays agent Jean Courtney. Major William Dalby, their boss, is played by Tom Hollander (Doctor Thorne, The Night Manager). English actor and musician Ashley Thomas (Top Boy) plays CIA agent Paul Maddox.
West Berlin, 1963. British corporal Harry Palmer has a lucrative black market operation, lifting army goods and selling them to the east thanks to a local contact, until he's arrested by the military police and jailed in England. Meanwhile, the Minister of Defence faces a problem and Major Dalby, chief of an independent and "provisional" intelligence unit called the War Office Operational Communication, thinks that Prisoner 17315 Palmer is the solution. Peter Dawson, a nuclear scientist working on a neutron bomb project, has been kidnapped. Dalby wants to buy him back to Jan Pilsudski, the chief suspect, before Dawson is delivered to the enemy. Harry is the only known link to this Polish smuggler active in the Berlin U.S. sector because they did black market together.
Jean Courtney is sent by Dalby to negociate field assistance from the CIA with Paul Maddox, an African American officer, in exchange of information on Soviet master spy Colonel Gregor Stok. Harry
Palmer accepts a proposal from Dalby and tries to retrieve the missing
scientist in East Berlin. Though things turn bad, Palmer manages to get an
important clue. The search for Professor Dawson leads Harry and Jean from an experimental clinic in the English countryside to Beirut and on an island in the Pacific Ocean where the Americans test the neutron bomb. Colonel Stok and Dalby have a conversation about the major's past. Who can be trusted and what does IPCRESS mean?
The Ipcress File scriptwriter John Hodge and director James Watkins pay a subtle homage to the movie (right from the opening of the first episode) without rehashing it. The series format allowed a reworking of the book and film plots, including a considerable development of the characters. Harry Palmer is the son of a docker and a textile worker, a graduate of the Imperial College in Mathematics and a hero of the Korean War. His separated wife lives with one of his pals and she's waiting for their divorce. Joe Cole is definitely an apt choice for the smart and irreverent young spy growing in confidence as the mission progresses.
Called Jean Tonnesen in the novel, Jean Courtney was a supporting character in the film (2). Here Jean is living with her upper class parents and she has doubts about her future marriage. Her family and fiancé ignore that she's a highly qualified intelligence agent. They believe that she works for the BBC, "making tea at the World Service". Lucy Boynton gives to her role the perfect balance between glamour and depth. Dalby, the patrician head of W.O.O.C., epitomizes the reimagining of the source material. The major, portrayed with his customary talent and distinction by Tom Hollander, is definitely not the character played by Nigel Green in the first adaptation (3).
The Ipcress File does a splendid job with the reconstitution of the 1960s, which reminds of spy films or series from the era, and it makes an amazing use of the locations. Viewers visit Cold War Berlin (like in Funeral in Berlin), Lebanon or Finland (see Billion Dollar Brain) but the series was filmed in Liverpool, Cheshire and Croatia. Ashley Thomas and the rest of the cast are excellent, especially Anastasia Hille (Alice), Josha James (Chico), Swedish actor David Dencik (No Time to Die) as Colonel Stok (4) and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (General Cathcart). Also with Paul Higgins (Minister), Brian Ferguson (Randall), Nora-Jane Noone (Karen Newton), Matthew Steer (Dawson), Corey Johnson (Skip Henderson), Irfan Shamji (Carswell), etc.
An Altitude Television production in association with ITV Studios and the Liverpool Film Office. Exec produced by James Watkins, John Hodge, Steven Saltzman and Hilary Saltzman, Sandy Lieberson and Alexander Deighton, Andy Mayson and Andrew Eaton and Will Clarke. Produced by Paul Ritchie. The elegant and surprising music was composed by Tom Hodge (McMafia). Cinematography by Tim Maurice-Jones BSC. Editing by Stuart Gazzard. Production designed by James Price. Lili Lea Abraham is the art director. Costumes designed by Keith Madden. Maxine Carlier is the set decorator. Titles by Lipsync Design.
(1) For the problem of the meaning of W.O.O.C.(P)., read this interview of Len Deighton: https://deightondossier.blogspot.com/p/len-deighton-exclusive-interview-nov.html
(2) Played by Sue Lloyd, who returned as Jean in Bullet to Beijing.
(3) Colonel Ross, played by Guy Doleman in The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain is absent from this version.
(4) Played by Oscar Homolka in Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain. Derren Nesbitt played him in Spy Story. 
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