I don’t know which is more sizzling – the script or Lucy Boynton’s up-do!
What is the point, people are asking, of ITV’s The Ipcress File? The 1965 film, starring Michael Caine, was the last word, surely, so what is the point of turning it into a series? Because it might be fun? How does that sound? And this is fun. The script sizzles, the story is terrific in its silly way, and it is stunning visually. There’s a character, Jean, whose hair – an up-do – is so magnificent I kept freeze-framing to see how it was done. I have yet to attempt it at home.
And one last thing: although the makers couldn’t have known it when this was commissioned, could a Cold War thriller actually be more timely? Possibly not.
This stars Joe Cole as Harry Palmer, and although it’s a fresh version of Len Deighton’s novel, it opens with a nod to the film. That is, with Harry reaching for the heavyframed glasses on his bedside table before rising to grind his own coffee beans. It wasn’t customary, in the 1960s, for men to know their way around the kitchen, so this immediately establishes a fact: here we have someone who is his own man.
But while there are nods, this never lapses into mimicry. Cole is his own man, too. Caine brought a seemingly effortless naturalism to the role, while Cole adds watchfulness and a certain chippiness. He does brilliantly in what could have been an entirely thankless role. I was entranced.
The film was 110 minutes, whereas this will be six hours so it’s necessarily less rushed. Previously, the fact that Palmer was a soldier banged up in a military prison before he was recruited as a spy was only ever alluded to, but here we see what led to his imprisonment – selling contraband to East Berlin. Naughty boy.
His handler is Major Dalby, who is suitably posh and is played by Tom Hollander, who improves whatever he is in by at least 87 per cent. (See The Night Manager.) Just the way he says ‘spies’ is somehow sarcastic and funny. The script sizzles, often with class tension. Palmer is no Bond. Palmer has to get receipts for everything, which is most un-Bond-like, and his father is a docker.
He tells Dalby he was arrested by the military police for selling lobsters to Russian ministers to keep their mistresses happy. ‘For some unfathomable reason,’ he says, ‘I never did get the Nobel peace prize.’ ‘Must have been your working-class origins holding you back again,’ retorts Dalby, sardonically. Doesn’t sizzle much on paper, I agree. You had to be there, I guess.
The plot sees Harry return to East Berlin to spring an abducted British atomic scientist who is ‘vital to the development of a new class of nuclear weapon’. Dalby has his eyes on him at all times – there’s a wonderful scene when Palmer tries to retrieve his stashed money from a locker and Dalby suddenly pops up – and fellow British agent Jean has her eyes on him at all times too.
She is played by Lucy Boynton as one of those Hitchcockian icy blondes. Her up-do is, as I’ve said, a work of art, but this is superstylish throughout. The cars, the interiors, the clothes. I could happily watch this series all day, every day just for the mise-en-scene. Even the ITV ident at the beginning was blissfully retro.
As for the direction, yes, it is beset by the ‘Dutch tilt’ – setting the camera at an angle and tilting an entire scene – which sometimes made you want to shout: ‘For heaven’s sake, treat yourself to a spirit level!’ But this was intended to discombobulate, plus it also served as a tribute to Sidney J. Furie, who did all that with the original film. And more. (There was a lot of the camera staring headlong into glaring lights, if I remember rightly.) This is a classy drama, and if you are still hankering for the point of it all, perhaps I may remind you of this: stick around and you’ll learn how to resist being involuntarily hypnotised. It has to be worth it for that.
Briefly, Cheaters. It’s the best comedy drama since Starstruck, by which I mean the Rose Matafeo romcom, not ITV’s new Saturday night game show where the judges have to pick between three Freddie Mercurys. (What is the point of that? I think you can reasonably ask that here.)
The basic set-up has Josh (Joshua McGuire) meeting Fola (Susan Wokoma) on a trip to Finland, where they have drunken sex. She’s married to Zack (Jack Fox), while Josh has a long-term girlfriend, Esther (Callie Cooke). But it’s just a one-night stand. Or would be if they didn’t then discover, on their return to London, that they’re now neighbours. Ouch.
It’s wonderfully performed by everybody, heads off in some unexpected directions, makes you care about the characters and, get this: each episode is only ten minutes long. This makes it feel excitingly do-able even if you do then watch six in a row (there are 18 in all), which defeats the object somewhat. You can watch weekly or as a box set. So go on, fill your boots.