‘The Ipcress File’ premiere date confirmed: ’60s spy thriller begins soon
ITV has confirmed when its new adaptation of The Ipcress File will start.
The upcoming “twist-laden spy thriller” is led by Peaky Blinders actor Joe Cole as Harry Palmer, the character made famous by Michael Caine.
Set in 1963 in Berlin and London, the six-part mini-series 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 was filmed last year in Croatia and Liverpool, England, based on the classic espionage novel by Len Deighton.
Watch the trailer:
The Ipcress File begins at 9pm on Sunday 6th March on ITV.
With new episodes airing weekly, it’ll be going head to head on Sunday nights with the final season of Joe Cole’s former series Peaky Blinders over on BBC One.
Cole played John Shelby in the first few seasons of Peaky Blinders, and you can watch a brilliant recap here if you’re struggling to remember the story so far in that show!
The Ipcress File will premiere in the US and Canada on AMC+ this spring.
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. We are also excited to work with Joe Cole again, following the enormous popularity of Gangs of London, this time in his new spellbinding performance of the iconic, working-class British spy.”
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.”
Len Deighton’s 1962 book was previously turned into the classic Michael Caine film in the mid-’60s, followed by four sequels.
The producers of ITV’s new mini-series are also optimistic that their new show could be the first in a series of adaptations of Deighton’s novels.
The Ipcress File novel by Len Deighton is available on Amazon.