Excellent series. First class acting from a superb cast, most notable for me were Lucy Boynton (she played her role perfectly), Tom Hollander (who pretty much excels in every role I see him play, especially as 'Corky' in the Night Manager) and finally Joe Cole (I wasn't actually looking forward to his performance as I wasn't keen on him in Peaky Blinders but I think that was more likely down to the character he had to play in hindsight, in this he really rose to the task and pulled it off brilliantly). The story had enough twists to make it different to the movie and for me, made it much more watchable. Even the musical score was brilliant, very reminiscent of the late 60s spy movies and TV shows.

I'm hoping they'll bring the cast back either in either another Deighton adaptation (there's plenty to choose from, 7 in total featuring Harry Palmer IIRC) or a continuation of the Ipcress File. I hope they choose the former given Deighton's writing talent, rather than winging it by using their own writers to go off on a totally made up 'from scratch' Iprcress sequel. Either way, I hope the key players return. Credit too to John Hodge who wrote the script for the adaptation, I hope they will bring him in for any sequel as well, too many times great adaptations have been ruined by writers who try to out-smart the original authors and end up making a complete disaster of it. Hodge took the original and developed the story only where it needed to be (bringing out Maddox and Jean Courtney more who is kick-ass in her own right in this). First class job. Early in the year but definitely the best series I've seen so far.

It took two tries several weeks apart for me to get through episode one, and now I see that I had to allow Harry Palmer to grow on me, which he did.

I am not a fan of spy programming, because they seem so similar with their themes of conspiracy in the halls of power and heroes not knowing who they can trust as they try to save the world, or at least a corner of it.

But once I connected to Mr. Palmer, I had no trouble sticking with this series and enjoying it overall. Tom Hollander felt like the glue that held the story together. Affable but firm, he seems to be the guiding hand in the plot, at least until he encounters issues of his own. And the ensemble cast did what they needed to do to keep the story moving. I particularly appreciate the growth in importance of the Alice and Chico characters, who were instrumental for the show to pull off one of the necessary plot twists.

I didn’t quite buy the whole brainwashing plot thread, but I won’t go into detail as that would perhaps lead to unforgivable spoilers. Besides, I watch SF programming such as time travel movies, so I have no problem with, as they say, suspending my disbelief to enjoy the show. And even with the nearly cliche spy movie betrayals and mistrust, I recommend the show even for non espionage fans like myself.