An Anti-James Bond

Best known for Peaky Blinders, rising star Joe Cole plays Harry Palmer in the new TV remake (Credit: ITV)

In 2006, an ordinary-looking pair of spectacles went on sale at Christie's, the London auction house. They were expected to fetch up to £3,000 ($4,088). In fact, they sold for £6,600 ($8,994), and the buyer had bought a little piece of movie history.

The spectacles were worn by Michael Caine when he played Harry Palmer in the 1965 espionage thriller The Ipcress File. Palmer, a former soldier, is introduced in a scene in which he is woken by his alarm clock, and reaches for his glasses before he gets out of bed. He's as blind as a bat without them – just one way in which he was not your typical action hero, certainly not back in the 60s.

In a nod to the movie, the very first shot of the new television adaptation of The Ipcress File shows Palmer's thick-rimmed spectacles. This time, Joe Cole (perhaps best known for his role in Peaky Blinders) plays the chippy working-class spy who loves culture, cooking and women but who doesn't have a lot of time for the posh public school boys who run British intelligence.

Like the film before it, the ITV series is based on the 1962 bestseller by the great spy novelist Len Deighton, which was published shortly after the cinema release of Dr No, the first instalment in the James Bond film franchise. Deighton's hero – unnamed in the novel but christened Harry Palmer for the screen – was quickly identified by critics and fans as being the anti-Bond.

James Watkins, director of the six-part adaptation, explains the differences between Ian Fleming's creation and Deighton's agent. "Bond is a superhero," he tells BBC Culture. "He kills without thinking or caring. He is establishment. He went to Eton. He uses his fists and his weapons more than his brain; gadgets, rather than real life.

"Harry is short sighted. Working class. Haunted by killing in Korea. A reluctant spy. Blackmailed into working for the establishment, insolent Harry is a constant thorn in their side. Trying to make his way in a world that is stacked against him. Always facing a class barrier. He's so much more relatable than the dinosaur Bond."      READ MORE...