Sir Tom Stoppard, an admirer of Graham Greene’s work, jumped at the chance to write the screenplay for The Human Factor (1979) from what Greene once described as “a novel of espionage free from the violence which has not, in spite of James Bond, been a feature of the British secret service”.
Unfortunately, the resulting film turned out to be a disaster - artistically, technically and logistically, not least because extreme budgetary restraints constantly hampered the production, much of which was filmed in and around Greene’s home town of Berkhamsted.
