In historical terms, March 2022 will probably not go down as an auspicious date to launch your new Cold War thriller. But that’s exactly what ITV is doing with The Ipcress File, a new reimagining of Len Deighton’s 1962 novel that was so famously adapted for the big screen in 1965. Its protagonist, the Del Boy-inflected spy Harry Palmer, was one of the roles that transformed Michael Caine into a household name, and a turn that he reprised in four sequels over three decades. So big shoes to fill.
The actor whose feet we’re measuring is Joe Cole, best known for his TV roles in Peaky Blinders and Gangs of London. He brings a geezerish swagger to proceedings, though where the young Michael Caine was intimidatingly chiselled, Cole looks rather like a sexier Stephen Merchant. The action begins in 1963’s West Berlin, where Palmer is an army corporal on the make – though not for long, as a bad whisky deal sees him banged up back home in Blighty. The price of his freedom is agreeing to use his contacts in the Berlin underworld to hunt down an abducted nuclear scientist (Matthew Steer).
