The IPCRESS File is Len Deighton's first spy novel, published in 1962. The story involves Cold War brainwashing and includes scenes in Lebanon and on an atoll for a United States atomic weapon test, as well as information about Joe One, the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb. The story was made into a film in 1965 produced by Harry Saltzman, directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Michael Caine; and a 2022 TV series, starring Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander.
Leonard Cyril Deighton is a British author. His publications have included cookery books and works on history, but he is best known for his spy novels.
Harry Palmer is the name given to the anti-hero protagonist of several films based on spy novels written by Len Deighton, in which the main character is an unnamed intelligence officer. For convenience, the novels are also often referred to as the "Harry Palmer" novels.
Funeral in Berlin is a 1964 spy novel by Len Deighton set between Saturday 5 October and Sunday 10 November 1963. It was the third of Deighton's novels about an unnamed British agent. It was preceded by The IPCRESS File (1962) and Horse Under Water (1963), and followed by Billion-Dollar Brain (1966).
Billion-Dollar Brain is a 1966 Cold War spy novel by Len Deighton. It was the fourth to feature an unnamed secret agent working for the British WOOC(P) intelligence agency. It follows The IPCRESS File (1962), Horse Under Water (1963), and Funeral in Berlin (1964). As in most of Deighton's novels, the plot of Billion Dollar Brain (1967) is intricate, with many dead ends.
Horse Under Water (1963) is the second of several Len Deighton spy novels featuring an unnamed British intelligence officer. It was preceded by The IPCRESS File and followed by Funeral in Berlin.
Billion Dollar Brain is a 1967 British espionage film directed by Ken Russell and based on the 1966 novel Billion-Dollar Brain by Len Deighton. The film features Michael Caine as secret agent Harry Palmer, the anti-hero protagonist. The "brain" of the title is a sophisticated computer with which an anti-communist organisation controls its worldwide anti-Soviet spy network.
Bernard Samson is a fictional character created by Len Deighton. Samson is a middle-aged and somewhat jaded intelligence officer working for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) – usually referred to as "the Department" in the novels. He is a central character in three trilogies written by Deighton, set in the years 1983–1988, with a large gap between 1984 and 1987. The first trilogy comprises the books Berlin Game, Mexico Set and London Match, the second comprises Spy Hook, Spy Line and Spy Sinker, and the third and final trilogy comprises Faith, Hope and Charity. The plot of the entire trilogy of trilogies revolves around Samson's wife Fiona, also an intelligence officer, and which side she is really working for, after she has defected to the East Germans in the first trilogy, leaving a distraught Bernard with their two children. Her defection also causes some of his superiors to question his loyalty.
Tío Pepe is a brand of Sherry. It is best known for its fino style of dry sherry made from the palomino grape. The Tío Pepe brand is owned by the González Byass Sherry house.
Guy Doleman was a New Zealand born actor, active in Australia, Britain and the United States. He is possibly best remembered for being the first actor to play Number Two in the classic cult series The Prisoner.
The Ipcress File may refer to:
Funeral in Berlin is a 1966 British spy film directed by Guy Hamilton and based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Len Deighton. It is the second of three 1960s films starring Michael Caine as the character Harry Palmer that followed the characters from the initial film, The Ipcress File (1965). The third film was Billion Dollar Brain (1967).
The Ipcress File is a 1965 British spy film directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Michael Caine. The screenplay, by Bill Canaway and James Doran, was based on Len Deighton's novel The IPCRESS File (1962). It received a BAFTA award for the Best British film released in 1965. In 1999, it was included at number 59 on the BFI list of the 100 best British films of the 20th century.
Michael Caine is an English actor who has appeared in over 130 films and has had multiple television appearances. Caine's acting career began in the 1950s, when he was cast in many small, often uncredited roles in British films. Caine gained recognition as one of the most famous actors of the 1960s through his breakthrough role in the film Zulu (1964). He then portrayed spy Harry Palmer in the films The Ipcress File (1965), Funeral in Berlin (1966) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967). He also had starring roles in The Italian Job and Battle of Britain. His role in Sleuth (1972) led him to an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination. Caine has won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the films Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and The Cider House Rules (1999). More recently, Caine has gained a new following through his collaborations with British-American filmmaker Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight Trilogy films, as well as The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017) and Tenet (2020). Caine officially retired from acting in October 2023.
Bullet to Beijing is a 1995 made-for-television film that continues the adventures of the fictional spy Harry Palmer, who appeared in the 1960s films The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain, based on books by author Len Deighton. Though an alternative title is Len Deighton's Bullet to Beijing, Deighton was not associated with the film.
Spy Story is a 1974 spy novel by Len Deighton, which features minor characters from his earlier novels The IPCRESS File, Funeral in Berlin, Horse Under Water, and Billion Dollar Brain.
Cookstrips are recipes drawn as black and white graphics with short instructions. They were invented by Len Deighton while studying at the Royal College of Art in the 1950s. Deighton, who is a keen cook, originally drew the cookstrips as instructions to himself in order to keep his expensive cookbooks from becoming dirty in his kitchen.
"I’m very messy, and didn’t want to take them into the kitchen. So I wrote out the recipes on paper, and it was easier for me to draw three eggs than write ‘three eggs’. So I drew three eggs, then put in an arrow. For me it was a natural way to work."
Len Deighton's Action Cook Book is a 1965 collection of cookery strips originally published in the Observer newspaper, with additional information and notes. Aimed at "an audience of men unskilled at knowing their way around the kitchen", the book has been described as a cult classic from the period and helped pave the transition from cooking being only for women, into being a sophisticated expectation of a modern man.
Len Deighton is an English author known for his novels, works of military history, screenplays and cookery writing. He had a varied career, including as a pastry cook, waiter, co-editor of a magazine, teacher and air steward before writing his first novel in 1962: The IPCRESS File. He continued to produce what his biographer John Reilly considers "stylish, witty, well-crafted novels" in spy fiction, including three trilogies and a prequel featuring Bernard Samson.
The Ipcress File is a British cold war spy thriller television series loosely based on the 1962 novel The IPCRESS File by Len Deighton. Written by John Hodge and directed by James Watkins, it stars Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander. It was first broadcast at 9pm from Sunday 6 March to 10 April 2022 on ITV. The entire series was available for streaming, with commercials, on ITV Hub after episode 1 was broadcast. Within a week the full series was also available, commercial-free, on BritBox in the UK.
