2 l May
15 - 21, 2022
Northeast Oregon TV Weekly
‘The Ipcress File’ opens anew in
AMC+ espionage drama
BY JAY BOBBIN
Joe Cole stars in the AMC+ series
version of “The Ipcress File,” which
premieres Thursday.
Harry Palmer may not be James Bond, but he’s had his
own longevity in the spy game ... with a number of common
threads.
Novelist Len Deighton’s working-class sleuth has displayed
investigative smarts over a six-decade history in literature and
film, and the story that introduced him – “The Ipcress File” –
gets a fresh workout in a limited series premiering Thursday,
May 19, on AMC+. Joe Cole (“Gangs of London,” “Peaky
Blinders”) assumes the role Michael Caine famously played
in a series of films, as military veteran Palmer is arrested for
smuggling in early-1960s Berlin.
His only way out of a long prison term Is to agree to act
as an operative for British intelligence, with his first case
apparently linking someone he knows to the disappearance of a
nuclear scientist. Lucy Boynton (“Bohemian Rhapsody”), Tom
Hollander (“The Night Manager”) and David Dencik (“No
Time to Die”) also star as the globetrotting tale takes Palmer to
Beirut and the Pacific over its six episodes.
The executive producers of “The Ipcress File” include Hilary
and Steven Saltzman, a highly notable fact since their father
Harry – who, in partnership with Albert R. Broccoli, also
made the early James Bond movies – was the producer of the
Harry Palmer screen capers in the 1960s. (The elder Saltzman
also enlisted such Bond-series staples as composer John Barry,
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production designer Ken Adam and editor Peter Hunt for the
first version of “The Ipcress File.”)
Though Christopher Plummer and Richard Harris
reportedly were among the first choices to play Palmer,
Saltzman is said to have started considering Caine after
seeing the actor in his first major movie role in 1964’s
“Zulu.” Spotting Caine at another table while eating out,
Saltzman summoned him over ... and by the time Caine
returned to dining partner Terence Stamp, he had the part
of Palmer.
For the new “Ipcress File,” star Cole has retained the
bespectacled look associated with Caine, who went on to
portray Palmer in two other Saltzman-produced theatrical
pictures in successive years, “Funeral in Berlin” (1966) and
“Billion Dollar Brain” (1967). As it turned out, he wasn’t done
with the role after those projects: He would reprise it in two
mid-1990s cable movies originally presented on Showtime in
the United States, “Bullet to Beijing” and “Midnight in Saint
Petersburg” (both teaming him with Jason Connery, son of
Sean Connery, who played Bond for Saltzman).
Whether the remake of “The Ipcress File,” which already
has been shown in England, prompts further revisitings of the
adventures of Harry Palmer remains to be seen. For now, fans
of the 1965 movie are likely to find it interesting to see the
new take on a truly classic spy story.
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