The Ipcress File (TV Mini Series) Episode #1.1 (2022) User Reviews

Hard not to make comparisons, but I enjoyed it.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 20 June 2022]

Harry Palmer faces an eight year stretch in a British military prison for black market dealing, but he's offered a chance to redeem himself with a mission.

It's a production of some scale, and for me that's where the true strength is, it looks fabulous, great location work, wonderful visuals, and of course it gets the right flavour, I feel like I'm transported back to the era.

Hard not to draw comparisons with the original, which is of course pretty iconic, and whilst I don't quite think this is up there, it's a good start, definitely well paced.

The Russian villain, all I could see was Tyson Fury, not too sure about him. If Tyson Fury chose to act, there are definitely parts out there for him.

Good start, 7/10.

Episode 1

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 7 March 2022]

Len Deighton's Harry Palmer was famously portrayed by Michael Caine.

Surprisingly Joe Cole is older than Caine was when he first played Palmer in the Ipcress File in 1965.

I do think it was a misstep to make Cole look like Caine with those glasses.

After all when Matt Damon played Jason Bourne. No one said but Richard Chamberlain played him in the 1980s, let's get Damon to look like Chamberlain.

The first episode delves the back story of Harry Palmer. Imprisoned for selling goods in the black market in West Berlin.

He is of working class stock who got a first degree in mathematics. In the army he was officer material but decided it is more profitable to make money on the side. Palmer is resourceful and a man of flexible morals.

In prison he is sent on a task by Major Dalby (Tom Holland.) A shady intelligence boss who is on the trail of some missing nuclear scientists. Palmer knows someone in Germany who is of interest to them.

The first episode is the set up and I believe it expands on some ideas and characters that are not in the novel. Then again it has to as the series is six parts long.

It was a decent opener with scenes effortlessly pilfered by Holland.

Anachronistic dialog distracts from the story

[silverton-37959 · 7/10 · 12 January 2024]

The Maddox character, a black CIA officer in 1963 Berlin is enough of an anachronism without dialog from the 21st century, such as, "Yes, I'm black", and "Can we grab a coffee?" followed by, "It's all good". This is lazy writing, and is seriously out of place in a series intended to present one of Len Deighton's best works.

Casting choices so far are not too bad, and production values are good as well. I hope that the dialog writing improves so that the series will be enjoyable for readers of Deighton's novels. Joe Cole is doing a pretty good job as Harry Palmer. If that role had been miscast I probably wouldn't have liked this first episode as much as I have so far.

Delightfully Old-Fashioned

[TondaCoolwal · 9/10 · 10 March 2022]

The Ipcress File will always be challenging to translate to the screen since, in the book, the main character is never identified. Harry Palmer was a name invented for the Michael Caine movie. Consequently, that film becomes the authorised version. Having said that, this version is at least true to the spirit of the novel. To satisfy Caine-anites we get Palmer's back story as a black-marketeer, and in the first episode there is a wealth of period detail centreing on the Cold War frontline Berlin before he is arrested. A nuclear scientist is kidnapped and Palmer is granted a temporary release from jail at the request of Dalby, the head of one of those shady independent intelligence organisations set up for dirty jobs during WW2. Dalby is a snob, constantly sneering at our boy's working class background but, Harry matches him quip for quip. The inclusion of a black senior CIA operative in the early sixties is feasible, but unlikely. I think ITV is just ticking a box here. The intention is for Harry, being familiar with the Berlin underworld, to make contact with the likely ransom broker. A deal is set up but, since this is only the first episode, things go disastrously awry and Palmer barely escapes with his life. Plays very much like an early sixties spy film with no profanity or gratuitous sex (so far). Should be enjoyable.