3 replies to this topic

[Bloodknok]

The nineteen eighties were arguably Len Deighton's decade as far as spy fiction was concerned; and his Bernard Samson series of novels were the archetype of that era, reflecting the hard-bitten nature of a Cold War that had become very frosty. The Game, Set and Match novels were filmed in 1988 for ITV and, with Ian Holm in the lead role, proved a modest rating success (though it did win a couple of awards).

News has emerged recently not only about plans for the resissue of all of Len Deighton's key books in 2009, to mark his 80th birthday, but also of more interest is the first discussion, formally, of plans by ITV to re-shoot Game, Set and Match. More details on this story are available here and here.

Famously, Len Deighton purchased the rights to the original Granada TV series, first broadcast in 1988 and never shown again, mostly because he disagreed with the portrayal of Bernard Samson by Ian Holm (something I agree with). In the interim, the Berlin Wall has fallen and in many ways Deighton's star has faded because of the lost of the wall, arguably one of the most important 'characters' in his books. But maybe, with the PR push for his 80th birthday and a modest revival of interest in his work, and the 20th anniversary of the Wall's fall in November 1989, the time is right for reappraising his spy fiction.

There are a number of questions raised by this intriguing hint by ITV:

• Who will play Bernard Samson?
• Who will direct any movie or mini-series?
• Will there be enough budget to recreate Cold War Berlin?

There are no more details emerging yet, but it's something that I'm sure will provoke interest among spy fiction fans.

[marktmurphy]

I thought ITV were cutting back on drama production. There are certainly hints that even successful stuff like Primeval and Lewis are too expensive for them at the moment.

[Scrambled Eggs]

I thought ITV were cutting back on drama production. There are certainly hints that even successful stuff like Primeval and Lewis are too expensive for them at the moment.

Thats what I was thinking. Maybe something smaller scale to stick on ITV3 or something?

[Bodo Lempke]

I wonder what ever became of this?