Why I donned the iconic spectacles
JOE COLE on taking on Michael Caine’s legacy in the new adaptation of The Ipcress File
FEW SPY-THRILLER heroes have captured the imagination like Harry Palmer. Made legend by Michael Caine in five screen adaptations of Len Deighton’s espionage novels — including, most famously, the 1965 movie The Ipcress File — it now falls to Gangs Of London actor Joe Cole to reinvent the ‘working man’s James Bond’. And Cole is armed not just with a gun, but also with those signature black-framed glasses, worn by Caine with such élan in the movies.
“Getting the glasses right was essential,” says Cole. “They bring the character alive. They’re Harry’s armour against the tough world he inhabits. Costume designer Keith Madden and I went to opticians Cutler And Gross, and I tried on hundreds before deciding on the pair. Whenever I put them on to play him, I’d look in the mirror and Joe had given way to Harry.”
Indeed, the new TV series opens with a shot of the specs perched, post-coitally, on Harry’s nightstand. It may be still a period piece, with ’60s sexual politics to boot, but there’s a new vulnerability added to the rough-diamond charm. “He’s a bit of a contradiction in many ways,” Cole says. “He’s an army sergeant who’s won medals for bravery in the Korean war but finds himself drafted into the security services to work away a sentence in military prison. I think he carries a lot of demons from what he’s lived through.”
Initially, Cole considered playing Harry Palmer closer to Len Deighton’s original concept: “In the books he’s a Northerner from Burnley and I toyed with that accent, if just to take it a little bit away from Michael Caine’s Londoner,” says Cole. “But director James Watkins and I decided my own personality, accent and London background were better for the character, so we kept it close to home. James saw on set that I was easygoing and liked a laugh and he wanted me to bring that to the role. My Harry Palmer is someone you’d like to go down the pub with and get to know. So was Michael Caine’s.”
Cole read The Ipcress File and studied Caine’s performance in the movie carefully; the result is a blend of Deighton, Caine and Cole. “If it wasn’t for the pandemic, we might have had Michael down to set. I’d have loved to meet him and talk to him about his Harry Palmer and mine. I’d still love that conversation. He’s a phenomenal talent and a legend — one of the first working-class actors to beat down the path so others could follow.”
Cole still hopes that his predecessor will watch and approve. “It’s on terrestrial TV, so it’s easy, Michael. Give it a whirl!”