‘Get Carter? I thought no reputable actor would do it’: how Mike Hodges shook up British film
To be clear, a producer did not pull a loaded gun on Mike Hodges on the set of the Omen sequel. It actually happened in an office, during…
The Eagle Has Landed author Henry Patterson – a master of the ‘civilised thriller’
Patterson’s early thrillers, written (under several different names) to supplement his wages as a comprehensive-school teacher and later a university lecturer, had been standard fare. It was…
The Ipcress File episode 2, review: thank goodness they didn’t make Harry Palmer into an action hero
Joe Cole is a year older than Michael Caine was when The Ipcress File came out in 1965 – 33 to Caine’s 32 – yet looks as…
How The Ipcress File is bringing 1960s espionage chic to life
“I realised doing this show that a hat finished every outfit off,” he says, “and when it wasn’t there, the silhouette looked almost incomplete. I tried to…
The Ipcress File, episode 1, review: a sexy spy thriller with one short-sighted bit of casting
“My friend and I will settle for the best of everything,” says Tom Hollander’s menacing, smarmy, charming spook-wrangler Dalby, in ITV’s The Ipcress File. It’s a statement…
How Len Deighton got British men into the kitchen
The idea that a knack with a saucepan can be placed among a man’s arsenal of sexual attractions belongs to the film of The Ipcress File rather…
The Ipcress File, first-look review: Caine is a hard act to follow for TV’s new Harry Palmer
Does any film have a classier opening than The Ipcress File? After a superbly executed scene involving a scientist on a train, we cut to Harry Palmer…
Harry and Meghan should follow the Caines when it comes to downsizing
The easiest way to spot a Celebrity Clown, or at least one of the ways, is they live in a 16-bathroom house, and there are two of…
The Ipcress File: how a bespectacled ‘anti-Bond’ changed Michael Caine’s life
In 1964, a 31-year-old Michael Caine was having dinner with his roommate Terence Stamp at the Pickwick Club in Soho, when the big-cheese producer Harry Saltzman sent…