US premiere date for ’60s spy drama ‘The Ipcress File’ announced
It’s been announced when the new adaptation of The Ipcress File will begin in the US.
The six-part mini-series launched in the UK earlier this year.
Set in 1963 in Berlin and London, The Ipcress File is based on the classic espionage novel.
Len Deighton’s 1962 book was previously adapted into the classic Michael Caine film nearly sixty years ago, with four sequels following.
ITV’s 2022 version stars Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders) as Harry Palmer, the character made famous by Michael Caine.
Watch the trailer:
The “twist-laden spy thriller” also stars Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody), Tom Hollander (The Night Manager), Ashley Thomas (Top Boy), Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Dublin Murders), and David Dencik (No Time to Die).
The Ipcress File will premiere in the US and Canada on AMC+ on Thursday 19th May.
Each new episode will be released weekly through to the end of June.
Courtney Thomasma, general manager for AMC+, commented: “AMC+ is proud to partner with ITV Studios to bring John Hodge’s thrilling adaptation of the beloved spy novel to US audiences.”
There’s no news yet on a second season, which would likely adapt Deighton’s 1964 novel Funeral in Berlin, but the show’s producers are said to be hoping their The Ipcress File series might be the first of many Harry Palmer adventures for ITV.
Ruth Berry at ITV Studios revealed in 2020: “Being the first in a series of books featuring the intriguing Harry Palmer, it also has potential to run and run.”
The official synopsis for The Ipcress File reads: “Harry Palmer is a British army sergeant on the make in Berlin. In this newly partitioned city, a sharp working-class young man with sophisticated tastes can make a lot of money.
“Wholesaler, retailer, fixer, smuggler, Harry’s varied interests bring him into contact with everything and everyone – until the law catches up with him and it all comes crashing to a halt. Harry finds himself sentenced to eight years in a grim military jail in England, all his prospects abruptly torn away.
“But his impressive network and efficiency have not gone unnoticed, and a gentleman from British intelligence has a proposal. To avoid prison, Harry Palmer will become a spy. And the case on which he cuts his teeth will be The Ipcress File.
“Harry’s links to the man suspected of kidnapping a missing British nuclear scientist result in him being conscripted for a dangerous undercover mission that takes him from The Beatles’ London to the Berlin Wall, from the back alleys of Beirut to the white-hot sands of a nuclear atoll in the Pacific.”
The Ipcress File novel by Len Deighton is available on Amazon.