Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton, Tom Hollander, Ashley Thomas, Paul Higgins, David Dencik, Joshua James, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Anastasia Hille, Brian Ferguson, Matthew Steer, Nora-Jane Noone, Corey Johnson, Ifran Shamji, Anna Geislerová, Paul Bazely, Marko Braic, Tamla Kari, Mark Quartley, Alexandria Moen, Ben Turner, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Anna Schumacher, Gaby French, Shireen Farkhoy, Nigel Hastings, Therese Bradley, Claire Cox, Chris Lew Kum Hoi.
There are characters embedded in literature and television to whom an audience is always forgiven for thinking of the most celebrated actor to inhabit the role above any possible other, such is the power of the performance that the reader will arguably automatically envisage the player even if they have only heard of the actor, the conscious belief of the thespian being handed down as if by the magic of film and cinema’s own memory.
You cannot but help think of the bespectacled Harry Palmer as anybody but Michael Caine, such is the impression and imprint on society of the image of the man that to imagine anyone else as the reluctant and anti-authority spy, that the grand man of British and international cinema inhabits the role with every waking moment.
To tackle such ingrained perception takes courage, and under James Watkins’ direction and with John Hodge’s adaption of Len Deighton’s superb novel firmly adding layers to the bone, the six-part series of The Ipcress File starring Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton, Tom Hollander, and Ashley Thomas, is perhaps as close to fulfilling the ideals and cinematography of the original film.
Joe Cole’s Harry Palmer is treated with a greater sense of compassion in respect, and it is to the direction and sequencing of the piece that lends its colour, its piercing eye for observation and almost regret of the treatment of the man that lends itself to the weight of the series.
Indeed, the aspect of camera position is such on each frame that it seems to replicate the disjointed way we look to the game of espionage, the backstabbing, the recklessness, and the fear all going hand in hand with the emotional drive of sex as a weapon and the power that comes with success, it is one that pushes the series onwards, a nod to its 60s predecessor with the unfussy coloured aspect, a swathe of nostalgia in its final polished delivery.
With terrific performances from all within the series, including the more obvious more unfocused characters, especially from the likes of the engaging Tamla Kari, Alexandria Moen, Matthew Steer, and Chris Lew Kum Hoi, it can only be hoped that the creative forces behind the superb adaptation take quick steps to go further with the legend of Harry Palmer, and bring Len Deighton’s intricate work to a wider audience in the 21ST century.
Whilst Michael Caine is forever engrained in the public conscious in the role of the reluctant spy, it is kudos to Joe Cole and all around him that The Ipcress File is one that flourishes under intense scrutiny.
Ian D. Hall