Craft vs daft: Spy series The Ipcress File gets espionage right

Looking for a stylish Cold War-era spy drama? Move along, sir. Nothing to see here. We leave the slick suit, smart gadgets, witty quips, assassination, flirtation and martini quaffing to the MI5 boys. WOOC(P) – and according to unconfirmed rumours, that stands for War Office Operational Communications, Provisional – is about getting the job done and getting out without making a scene.

What are we talking about? Follow our man in Berlin, Harry Palmer (Joe Cole) in The Ipcress File, as he demonstrates the art of invisibility in his first case: the kidnapping of nuclear scientist Professor Dawson. And see how Harry puts the craft in “spycraft” – with a few how-not-to demonstrations from the big boys.

Mr Nobody: Harry Palmer vs James Bond

Look at Harry Palmer. No really, where did he go? This is not a man who draws the eye by stalking into a room like a dangerous panther with a predatory gleam in his eye. His hair? Bylcreamed to his skull like a wet stoat. His shirt collar? Wilted … or rolled, because he’s wearing a turtleneck. Ugh. The tie? Knitted, with suspicions of coffee stains. At the start of the series, Harry evades military police by slipping into a coat and hat. Yes, it works. He’ll fit in with the masses, slouching and sauntering a speciality.

Unlike James Bond, 007, nobody’s asking for the name of Harry’s tailor.

Connections and old-school ties

Again, unlike Bond, Harry doesn’t have a family crest, a run-down posh estate, or tales of growing up skiing. He’s the son of a dock labourer and a textile worker. And he built his post-war career smuggling lobsters, chocolate and currency, putting his degree in mathematics to practical use.

As a result, he doesn’t know the comfortable heads of criminal networks, he knows the minions. It’s a lot more threads to pull than if you just know the top knobs.

The fights: Harry Palmer vs Jason Bourne

Remember the beat-down scene in Bridget Jones’s Diary where it was like watching two toddlers trying to give each other wedgies? In episode 2 of The Ipcress File, we see Harry fight an ex-MI-6 agent like that, and lose.

Harry’s the kind for a kick in the shins before he dashes off down the alley like a rat. A smart mouth and a knack for pressing people’s buttons beats bullets and brawn any day. Brainwashed super-assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon in The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Supremacy and Jason Bourne) a man having a permanent rough day, might be able to knock out an attacker with just one punch, but after the third car accident and sixth punch-up, he probably wishes he was Harry Palmer.

The ‘tude: Harry Palmer vs Ava

Being deadly and quietly respectful didn’t work out for Ava (Jessica Chastain) the assassin in Ava. It’s a far cry from our lad Harry who approaches his job with the resentful attitude of a cater-waiter who’s been called in at Christmas and intends to get his revenge by stuffing the maximum number of eggrolls into his pockets.

Harry’s boss Major Dalby (Tom Hollander, who you’ll also see in The White Lotus Season 2) is old school, you know, the kind who eventually turned out to have been bought off by the Russians in real life. It’s that healthy scepticism of authority that keeps Harry on top of his game.

The travel: Harry Palmer vs Ethan Hunt

Yes, Harry sees London, Berlin, and Lebanon. But he flies public airlines, goes through regular old passport control, and gets around town by bus and has to stay in B&Bs with nosy landladies. It gives him an edge of unpredictability and untraceability.

Now try to calculate how much time Mission Impossible’s superspy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) spends conspicuously racing around the globe, leaping between buildings in London, and climbing up and down landmarks for the proverbial meeting that should have been an email.

The ladies: Harry Palmer vs (yes, you guessed it) James Bond

Unlike other agents with a love-and-leave-them approach (oh, hi there, again, James Bond), Harry goes out of his way (and above his pay) to get photographed committing adultery so that his wife can get the divorce she wants.

Harry’s more personal relationships with women clue him in to how these bonds can be used to reach people that other agents in the intelligence community treat as somewhat inhuman… which is why he attends a funeral in episode 2 and makes a compassionate statement that makes a Russian diplomat put away his gun.

The craft highlight

In episode 1 of The Ipcress File, Harry spots the Dawson double and nicks a cup to prove it, with run of the mill fingerprints. He claims the man “didn’t look like a physicist”. But it’s more likely that the moment Dawson’s “kidnapper” tells Harry that he can check Dawson’s scars to make sure that he has the real man, that Harry smells a rat.

When someone points a big, red finger to get your attention, it’s likely because they’re hoping that you miss a sleight of hand they’re pulling off under your nose.

Spy movies that put the “craft” in “spycraft”

Six Minutes to Midnight

Eddie Izzard wrote and stars in this film as schoolteacher Thomas Miller who’s sent to an elite German girls’ boarding school in England as a spy just as WWII is about to break out. The spy is someone with a suitable background who can pass as boring, and instead of globetrotting, they have to figure out exactly how much the gym teacher loves Hitler. Sometimes it can be hard to tell.

Red Joan

Red Joan is based on the life of real KGB spy Melita Norwood (played by Dame Judi Dench and Sophie Cookson), who supplied the Soviet Union with information about the development of atomic weapons for 37 years, going undetected from the mid-1930s until 1999, when an ex-KGB archivist spilled the beans. How did she do it? She was a woman in a relatively menial position. She may as well have been the wallpaper.