I’ve been searching high and low, and it seems that while information about the film scores of John Barry, who also wrote the music for some series about a spy named James something or other, is abundant, much of the history of his work for television, including today’s spotlighted theme, has been lost to the ages.
Am Am9 Em Em9
e|---5----7----7----7---|
B|---5----5----8----7---|
G|---5----5----9----9---|
D|---7----7----9----9---|
A|---7----7----7----7---|
E|---5----5-------------|
The Persuaders wasn’t really a spy show. It’s more of a buddy adventurers show, starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis as a pair of playboys who help people in trouble. Still, the Barry connection, plus the supreme awesomeness that is this theme made it irresistible for me (with the help of Simon Rigot) to tab out. The theme was featured in what has to be one of the greatest opening sequences of all time:
One of the few bits I could find on the theme comes from this unsourced section of Barry’s Wikipedia entry:
One of Barry’s best known compositions is the theme for the 1971 TV series The Persuaders!, also known as “The Unlucky Heroes”, in which Tony Curtis and Roger Moore were paired as rich playboys solving crimes. The score for the series was composed by Ken Thorne.The theme went on to be a hit single in some European Countries and has been re-released on collections of 1970s disco hits. The instrumental recording features Moog synthesisers.
I wouldn’t go so far as to call the Persuaders a disco theme. It’s got more in common with Roy Budd’s later theme for The Sandbaggers, and Barry’s own theme for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, than anything Gloria Gaynor ever did. Still, the track was definitely a product of its time, and was marketed as a single through this strange performance by Pan’s People on Top of the Pops:
Well, it was actually available on June 26, but I was lax in letting you know. Jeremy Duns is a freelance journalist, and fellow espionage aficionado, and, with the publication of his debut novel, a critically acclaimed writer of fiction.
Free Agent is the first in a planned series of books starring secret agent Paul Dark, and has so far gotten rave reviews from the likes of Kirkus, Booklist, and David Morrell, creator of Rambo. The novel also scored a starred review at Publisher’s Weekly, which raved:
Set in London and Nigeria during the latter’s 1969 civil war with flashbacks to the months after WWII, Duns’s terrific debut will draw inevitable comparisons to early John le Carré, though the lead character, turncoat British Secret Service agent Paul Dark, is a complete original. In Nigeria, KGB agent Vladimir Slavin has asked the British for asylum, offering in trade the name of a Soviet mole lodged in the upper echelons of the Secret Service. That mole, we soon learn, is Paul, an ideological victim of youth and notions of revenge, who in 1945 assisted his father, a fellow MI6 operative, in a number of secret missions to hunt down and kill Nazi war criminals. Paul flees to Africa, where he expects to find a former Russian nurse he once loved and whom he once believed long dead. Seldom has a thriller plot taken more unseen turns as Paul searches for the truth about his past and the reality of his present. Readers will eagerly await the sequel.
Jeremy has been marketing his book in the best way possible, by going directly to fans and readers, being incredibly accessible, and even helping promote our fandom in return. And here’s a preview trailer that he used in introducing readers to the world of Paul Dark:
Dark is really a villain, but because the story is told from his perspective our attitude towards him is perhaps a little different than to, say, the Jackal in Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of The Jackal. I wanted to crawl beneath this character’s skin because I thought it would provide an interesting perspective on the Cold War, and because there *were* British agents who spied for the Soviets in this way, and I wanted to try to explore why and how that might have happened.
I recently received my copy of Free Agent in the mail, and, though I sadly have not yet had a chance to read it from cover to cover, the bits that I have read have me excited at the prospect of a new age of stylish, well-written espionage novels. You’ll be getting a full review from me soon, but in the meantime, Jeremy was kind enough to send along a brief excerpt to tempt you into a purchase. Free Agent is available at Amazon, or really, wherever fine books are sold.
Free Agent by Jeremy Duns / UK and Canadian cover
London, 1969:
‘I was enveloped in a fog of cigarette smoke as I walked into Ronnie Scott’s. Once I’d made my way through it, I saw that the support band was still on – three earnest young men sweating for their art in matching orange brocade suits – and the place was packed.
I usually savoured the atmosphere, but tonight I had to find Vanessa, and fast. I was close to half an hour late and I wasn’t sure what kind of mood she would be in – our afternoon of lovemaking might have left her feeling the snub even more.
We hadn’t visited the club since the previous summer, and it had expanded in the meantime, but I remembered that she liked to sit as close to the stage as possible, so I by-passed the bar and made for the candlelit tables up front. There was no sign of her. I scanned the crowd desperately: a handsome Indian gent in a pinstripe suit and white turban; a party of young women, all sporting the same outlandish hairdo; an elderly man enraptured by the band, playing along on an imaginary piano – every face in London, it seemed, but one. Perhaps she was in the lavatory, or had left a message with one of the waitresses. I was walking towards the bar, when I felt a tug at my sleeve.
‘So there you are,’ she whispered in my ear. ‘I was about to give up hope!’
Her hair was down and her body poured into the turquoise shantung dress I’d bought her at Dior a few weeks earlier on a spree. She’d embellished it with a cream organza shawl and a necklace of ivory bones that showed off her tan. Her eyes were a little hooded, and one shoulder sloped oddly: she was either drunk, or high, or both.
I felt the tension leave me. ‘I’m sorry, darling,’ I said, raising my voice so I could be heard over a saxophone solo. She laughed gaily and offered me her hand. I took it and she led me away from the stage, towards her table.
‘Yes, well, I’m sorry, too. Where on earth have you been? Killing Russians again?’
I forced a smile. ‘Not quite. But something came up.’
‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘I’ve been quite happy, really. I bumped into one of Daddy’s friends and he’s been entertaining me in your absence – such a charming man, and so knowledgeable. I believe he’s also in your game?’
The tall, slender figure was seated at her table between a half-finished bottle of chilled Riesling and a plate of chicken curry, his jacket resting on his knees and his eyes fixed on me.
‘Why, hello, Paul,’ said Pritchard, with a wintry smile. ‘Fancy seeing you here.’
Starting today, and continuing until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.
I’ve been intending this series of posts for awhile, and it’s unfortunate that the sad news of the death of Karl Malden serves as the kick-off to the series, but so it goes….
Karl Malden credit in Billion Dollar Brain
In the last film of the Palmer trilogy, Billion Dollar Brain, Malden played Leo Newbegin, an old acquaintance of Harry’s who wants to get him involved in a profitable venture involving a supercomputer and a megalomaniacal Texas billionaire. Newbegin’s true goals aren’t cooperative or altruistic, but self-serving. In the end, he’s brought down by that commonplace Achille’s heel, love for a cold and uncaring, yet beautiful blonde.
Billion Dollar Brain was certainly not the highlight of Malden’s career (actually, it’s hard to put a finger on a single highlight — was it How the West Was Won? On the Waterfront? Patton? His role on television’s Streets of San Francisco?), but even here, in a mostly thankless role, he excels. In his character’s debut, he’s nude in a sauna, greeting the secret agent turned detective who once saved his life:
“It’s a bit warm in here for me, Leo,” says Palmer.
“Well don’t be shy, take your clothes off,” replies Newbegin. Then, responding to Palmer’s hesitation: “Oh, come on, don’t be so British!”
In fact, why don’t we enjoy that entire scene, which may have also been, as you’ll see in the end, an influence on nude scenes in the Austin Powers films:
Malden was one of those classic character actors, always recognizable from the bulbous nose he got from twice breaking it as a youth, but also melting into any character put before him. Malden would substantially improve any film that he was a part of, this one included.
Kees was kind enough to upload an interview with Malden from the set of Billion Dollar Brain. I thought this exchange was especially interesting:
Interviewer: It seems that the heroes of films today are the new ugly so-called, as opposed to the pretty boys of yesterday.
Malden: I think they’re coming to their fore — they’re just beginning to come to their fore. I think you take a look at Burt Lancaster. You take a look at Lee Marvin, you take a look at Ernest Borgnine, who is kind of the leader of this whole thing. I think we’re gonna have our day, and I belong in that category, the leading man, the ugly leading man….
Billion Dollar Brain wasn’t Malden’s only spy film role. For more, see Wes Britton’s memorial post, Karl Malden — The Spy.
Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.
I first saw this item in a photograph advertising the Geppi’s Entertainment Museum of Baltimore and have been curious about it since. This week, I found one online in an ebay auction. I’ve contacted the seller, Joe, and he has kindly consented to let us use pictures of the board and game pieces here for our Harry Palmer discussion.
“The IPCRESS File,” a board game issued in 1966 by Milton Bradley. Game No. 4643. A suspense / espionage game modeled after the popular 1965 British espionage film starring Michael Caine as “Harry Palmer, the cool
British agent,” and Len Deighton’s 1962 novel, “The IPCRESS File.”
For 2 to 4 players
For ages 10 to adult
Object: Get the “Double Agent” before he gets you
Average play time 25 minutes
The game is 100 percent complete. It includes board, 24 cards, four agent pieces, four stands (one for each agent piece), two red-and-gold dice and original box.
Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.
Roland Barthes famously wrote of the death of the author in his 1967 essay of the same name, espousing that, “We know now that a text is not a line of words releasing a single ‘theological’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author-God) but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash. The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture.” Barthes felt that critical analysis of texts must come from texts themselves, and not from guessing at the author’s biographical background or intentions.
A worthy thought from a powerful essay, one that has influenced literary criticism since it’s publication three decades ago. And yet, perhaps in keeping with a culture that seeks to make celebrities of anyone, we still turn to our authors for the final word, rip apart their lives for clues to unravel their works, and revel in their dirty laundry as much, if not more so, than that of their characters.
Inevitably, we still turn to our authors for answers. And so, it’s hardly worth resisting the urge to share this recent BBC biographical documentary of Len Deighton, The Truth About Len Deighton, with Sir Michael Caine, Sir Max Hastings, journalist Peter Evans, advertiser / writer John Salmon, and others. It’s a quality piece of work, and even includes a bit where Deighton teaches the viewer to make a proper omelet (we’ll probably be coming back to this one later in the series).
Thanks to Toni B. at the Yahoo! Len Deighton Discussion Group for uploading this!
Note: As you click to play, this video will open a pop-up ad in a new window. I’m sorry for this, but it’s worth the second’s worth of annoyance to see this wonderful documentary!
Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.
Today I intend to start reading Len Deighton’s The IPCRESS File, and you should too! If you don’t have a copy, you should order one. And to hold you over while that one arrives, I’ve included the prologue and first chapter of the book below.
***
PROLOGUE
Copy to: no. 1. Copies 2
Action: W.O.O.C.(P).
Origin: Cabinet.
Authority: PH6.
Memoranda:
Please prepare summary of Dossier M/1993 /GH 222223
for Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Defence.
THEY came through on the hot [permanently open] line at about half past two in the afternoon. The Minister didn’t quite understand a couple of points in the summary. Perhaps I could see the Minister.
Perhaps.
The Minister’s flat overlooked Trafalgar Square and was furnished like Oliver Messel did it for Oscar Wilde. He sat in the Sheraton, I sat in the Hepplewhite and we peeped at each other through the aspidistra plant.
‘Just tell me the whole story in your own words, old chap. Smoke?’
I was wondering whose words I might otherwise have used as he skimmed the aspidistra with his slim gold cigarette case. I beat him to the draw with a crumpled packet of Gauloises; I didn’t know where to begin.
‘I don’t know where to begin,’ I said. ‘The first document in the dossier…’
The Minister waved me down. ‘Never mind the dossier, my dear chap, just tell me your personal version. Begin with your first meeting with this fellow…’ he looked down to his small morocco bound notebook, ‘Jay. Tell me about him.’
‘Jay. His code-name is changed to Box Four,’ I said.
‘That’s very confusing,’ said the Minister, and wrote it down in his book.
‘It’s a confusing story,’ I told him. ‘I’m in a very confusing business.’
The Minister said, ‘Quite,’ a couple of times, and I let a quarter inch of ash away towards the blue Kashan rug.
‘I was in Lederers about 12.55 on a Tuesday morning the first time I saw Jay,’ I continued.
‘Lederers?’ said the Minister. ‘What’s that?’
‘It’s going to be very difficult for me if I have to answer questions as I go along,’ I said. ‘If it’s all the same to you, Minister, I’d prefer you to make a note of the questions, and ask me afterwards.’
‘My dear chap, not another word, I promise.’
And throughout the entire explanation he never again interrupted.
Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.
A busy day today, so I’m only a couple of chapters into The IPCRESS File. How’s your progress coming at home? I wish it had occurred to me before yesterday that this series of posts could probably benefit from a “book club” style conversation. I hope that those of you who haven’t read The IPCRESS File will give it a chance, if you’re not already, and that those of you who have already read it are inspired to give the novel at least a refresher skim.
Today, I want to briefly touch upon a…I hesitate to call it a literary movement — perhaps more of a phenomenon or environment…that might help explain the anonymous character who would later be filmed as “Harry Palmer.” I won’t assume that the group of creators, sometimes dubbed “angry young men,” by the critics and press, or their works were a direct influence on Deighton, but that they were at least writing about the same social conditions. I had originally intended with this post to explore a number of different authors and works that would inform a reading of The IPCRESS File, but in researching and writing have found that an extended look at one work should do the trick:
John Osborne -- Look Back in Anger (1956)
Osborne is often hailed as the prototypical example of the “angry young man” writer. Indeed, the phrase was said to be coined by press officer George Fearon in response to Osborne’s 1956 play. Though there are earlier examples (Kingsley Amis’ titular character in Lucky Jim, for instance, or even in Graham Greene’s short story “The Destructors”), the lead character in Osborne’s play, Jimmy Porter, personifies the anger, as he spits acidic diatribes that stem from his hope for a better society and the cynical view that such hopes are futile.
These writers, and their characters, were of a generation of young British men who fought in the war, were treated somewhat equally in social status and class to that of their peers during their service time, received an education, and then promptly found that, post-war, nothing had really changed for them. Amidst the rubble of the bombings, England was rebuilding, and in that rebuilding, was changing. This wave of literature, which gave rise to so-called “kitchen sink” realist films, was part of that change. So, it might be argued, was the rise in popularity of the Liverpudlian Beatles.
The “heroes” of the “angry young man” are discontented with their place outside of the establishment, but are also sort-of in-betweeners, often having to reconcile their lower and middle-class upbringings and their upper-class educations. They struggle to find a place to be happy, without constantly feeling the pressure of those above them. Often, the characters were not so much angry as disillusioned and alienated. As Jimmy’s wife, Allison, tells her father in act two of Look Back in Anger: “You’re hurt because everything’s changed, and Jimmy’s hurt because everything’s stayed the same.”
The play opens with Jimmy, Allison, and their supportive lodger Cliff, and takes place entirely in their shared flat. Allison’s background is, if not upper-class then nearly so, and Jimmy comes from a working-class family. He, ironically, works in a sweets shop, a job for which his college education over-prepared him, and spends much of his time acrimoniously deriding post-war England and accosting his flatmates. Tensions arise from two developments: Helena, an equally upper-crust friend of Allison’s, arrives and creates a rift, and Allison slowly lets everyone know that she’s pregnant with Jimmy’s child, with Jimmy finding out last of all. In the end of the second act, Allison’s father arrives to take her home, after Helena places a rescue call, and by the beginning of the third act, the situation has seemingly changed completely though some things look familiar….
Here’s a clip with Kenneth Branagh as Porter, in a well-made “filmed play” version from 1989 (directed by Dame Judi Dench, also with Emma Thompson, Siobhan Redmond and Gerard Horan):
The play was made into a film in 1958, and in this case there is a direct connection to the later Palmer movies: Look Back In Anger, made by influential director Tony Richardson with Richard Burton and Claire Bloom, was one of the first achievements by producer Harry Saltzman, who would go on to produce the Caine films. Along with another Saltzman production, 1960’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (based on the novel by another “angry young” author, Alan Sillitoe), this adaptation of Osborne’s play would play a role kicking off the British New Wave film movement. And so, in a way, The IPCRESS File, coming in 1965, is a combination of Saltzman’s greatest successes to that point — the “kitchen sink” representation of the day-to-day life of a working class bloke, with the high tech gadgets and codenamed villains of the James Bond films.
(Another spy film connection that’s probably obvious — Burton and Bloom were, of course, the stars of Martin Ritt’s 1965 adaptation of LeCarre’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. There’s more to just the casting, however. I can see Alec Leamas as an “angry middle-aged man” dealing with the same feelings of disillusionment.)
Look Back in Anger movie poster
In Deighton’s work, and later through the interpretation by Michael Caine, the “Palmer” character faces the same issues of class and not belonging. He responds not with anger, but with sarcasm and sass. As Andrew Spicer writes in his, Typical Men: The Representation of Masculinity in Popular British Cinema: “In the novels, [the Palmer character] is identified as a displaced ’scholarship boy’, a figure from a provincal university, resentful about the privileges conferred by birth, class, a public-school education and the Old Boy network, who dissociates himself from the Establishment by his cyncial humour” (77). Deighton himself was born in a workhouse (as you’ll recall from the documentary, because the hospital was full up), to a chauffeur and a part-time cook.
“Palmer” exists in that in-between — not upper-class, but not really lower-class anymore either — a state perhaps most acknowledged through his love of gourmet food. My favorite scene in the movie adaptation, which we’ll revisit later, is the grocery store scene in which Ross implies that Palmer is attempting to purchase status by favoring the champignons over the button mushrooms. Caine proves his upper-class tastes through his methodical food preparation, but betrays his roots every time he speaks in that Cockney accent.
I’m sure we’ll be talking more about these issues later, but I wanted to explore some of these thoughts as a basis for my reading of the novel. I’m eager to hear your thoughts on the subject as well (please comment!).
One last note of interest. Osborne, the angry young man who wrote Look Back in Anger wound up playing opposite Caine as one of the most laid-back, but dangerous villains ever to grace the screen in Mike Hodges’ 1971 film Get Carter. In his auto-biography, What’s It All About?, Caine describes Osborne as a personal hero, and says, “[He] was cast as the chief villain and he was marvelous. He had not acted much since his success as a writer and he really seemed to enjoy his role of the ruthless gang boss, even though he was not typical casting.”
Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.
Since I didn’t warn you all with enough advance time that we’d be reading The IPCRESS File this week, I think I’ve found a sort of alternative. Following this, we’ll at least be reading Horse Under Water (1963), Funeral in Berlin (1964), and the Billion Dollar Brain (1965). I’m not sure yet, but we may also read An Expensive Place to Die (1967), Spy Story (1974) and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Spy (1976), which are sometimes referred to as “Harry Palmer” novels, though the jury is still out on whether that distinction is true.
So…find these books now! Reserve them at your library! Seek them out at used book stores! Failing that, follow the links above and purchase them from Amazon (full disclosure: I’ll get a little kickback from such purchases. I think somewhere around 4%, which means that if you buy the one-cent used paperback, I’ll make roughly $0.0004).
In the meantime: The audio file that is playable below is the first of three that make up a 2004 BBC radio production of The IPCRESS File. I’ve only listened to the first few minutes, but so far the radio play seems to be a fairly faithful, if condensed, version of the novel, and Ian Hart does a good job as a coolly disinterested secret agent. If it veers completely from the book later, it will at least provide another counterpoint for our discussion.
Here’s what the BBC said about the production when they released it (original airdate — January 17):
The IPCRESS File by Len Deighton has become one of the great popular icons of the post-war era, through both the book itself and the film starring Sir Michael Caine. This brilliant thriller is as exciting today as the day it was published. And this new radio dramatisation remains faithful to the book, most noticeably in the character of the narrator. In the film, Michael Caine played Londoner Harry Palmer but, in the book, the narrator has no name and is from Burnley. Not a lot of people know that!
The narrator is a grammar school boy who transfers from Army Intelligence to a new agency which operates out of London’s Charlotte Street. He finds himself looking for a man named Jay, who runs an organisation that gets scientists, willing or not, into the communist block. His speciality is brain-washing.
The narrator begins to discover that all is not as clear-cut as it seemed when he and his boss are present at US Atomic bomb tests in the Pacific. In a world of espionage, who do you trust – and what happens if suspicion falls on you? The narrator finds out as old friends turn into new enemies and he is arrested by the CIA, who return him to his “communist” employers in Hungary.
Can the narrator trust anyone at all – even himself – or will he be destroyed by the very system that he is there to defend?
The IPCRESS File is dramatised by Mike Walker, one of radio’s leading writers with over 40 original plays to his credit, including the Sony Award-winners Different States and Alpha. Ian Hart plays The Agent and Fenella Woolgar plays Jean.
Producer/Toby Swift
Here’s the full cast:
The Agent….Ian Hart
Ross….James Laurenson
Dalby….Jonathan Coy
Jean….Fenella Woolgar
Jay….Peter Marinker
Chico….Jamie Bamber
Skip….Kerry Shale
Keightley….Adam Tedder
Alice….Rachel Atkins
Battersby….John Sharian
Adem….Raad Rawi
Embassy Official….Declan Wilson.
The music is, of course, adapted from John Barry’s film score. I’m going to take these audio files down after a week and a half, so you’d better listen while the listening is good!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Through July, or at least until I run out of things about which to talk, we’ll be looking at the Harry Palmer series of novels (in which the character doesn’t actually have a name), their author — Len Deighton, the films based on them, the star of those films — Michael Caine, and the television movies that followed. I will be re-reading the whole series of novels, re-watching the films, and giving my thoughts on all I encounter. I’ll inevitably be drawing heavily on the collection of Kees Stam, author of The Harry Palmer Movie Site, and Rob Mallows, creator of the Deighton Dossier, and other odds and ends that I’ve turned up over the years.
This is the second part of the BBC adaptation of the IPCRESS File from 2004, dramatized by Mike Walker, and starring Ian Hart as “The Agent.” For more details, see yesterday’s post. I’ll be taking this file down in 1.5 weeks, so listen now!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Mister 8 is a blog about secret agents, spies, international crime-fighters and other characters and tropes of spy fiction, and an occasional comic featuring the titular Mister 8 and his work for DOS. This blog is published as often as the author can muster the energy to do so, and content ranges widely from talk of TV shows and movies, to scans of out-of-print comics, to tabs and chords from the great spy themes.
We welcome any feedback, either via the comments section of each post, or through our contact page!
Field Reports
* Unseen I Spy scripts leaked
Debbie Mazar, better known as “Tatia Loring” on the I Spy forum, recently got her hands on some unproduced scripts written by Ernie Frankel, and, while she can’t share the scripts themselves, is posting her copious notes for the rest of us to peruse! Up first: “The Day They Gave the Bride Away”.
* CBR spotlights Christopher Cool
Greg Hatcher at Comic Book Resources’ Comics Should Be Good blog takes a look at young adult novels today, including a lengthy look at Christopher Cool, a character created by James Bond comic strip writer James Lawrence.
* Saint book out soon
Wes Britton writes: Ian Dickerson’s long- awaited book on The Saint is coming, and you can pre-order an autographed copy with your name listed in it. Dr. Who books are also at: http://www.hirstbooks.com/television.html
, or really, wherever fine books are sold.
. And to hold you over while that one arrives, I’ve included the prologue and first chapter of the book below.
(1963), 
(1964), and the 
(1965). I’m not sure yet, but we may also read 
(1967), 
(1974) and 
(1976), which are sometimes referred to as “Harry Palmer” novels, though the jury is still out on whether that distinction is true.
