Like the previous reviewer, I have seen this series only once at it's original airing -- I've hoped in vain to find it on tape or DVD since! After I saw this series I read Deighton's Game, Set, Match trilogy and that made me realize that it was Ian Holm's portrayal of Bernard Sampson that made this special.
Most spy thrillers feature loners of one kind or another. These people live lives where duplicity is their stock and trade. You can't really have a family hanging around if you're going to try to fool all of the people of all of the time -- I mean your family has seen it all! So spy heros are usually disconnected from normal human relationships. Some are as cartoonish as James Bond (can you even *imagine* what Bond's mother would be like?). Some are as rich and textured as George Smiley. But invariably, these are men apart.
Not Bernard Sampson. Bernard is one of us. Not only does he have family, he has family TROUBLE. His beautiful wife Fiona has just defected to the East Germans. When you're a British agent that is seriously embarrassing. And she was a spoiled rich girl from a better class and much more money. Her father is big in the establishment, of course he really blames Bernard. Why not? Bernard is not from the right kind of family after all. He grew up in Berlin of all places and he never had the sort of money that breeds good manners and gets you into the right school.
Bernard's messy marital problems are just what his simpering, bureaucratic boss Dickie needs to make sure that Bernard's career doesn't rise to threaten his own. And it would if Dickie couldn't find a way to keep him down, because Bernard is the last true professional at MI6. He knows the spy game from beginning to end. From the messy killings to the scary skull-duggery to the boring stakeouts he lives this life in a way that his nicer superiors can only imagine. And perhaps they sense it because they don't trust him at all.
And under it all Bernard keeps going. He is a dedicated father. He STILL loves Fiona (she has a strange way of showing up suddenly for parental visits). And he knows that he'll never have the career that others may enjoy but he still can't refuse to do the work when he knows that no one else can.
On paper, in the Deighton books, Bernard is an interesting variant on the classic British spymaster. Portrayed by Ian Holm he's hauntingly real. Even now, some 13 years after seeing the series I can still see his craggy face and his tired walk. The terrible betrayal of his wife sits on his shoulders like the weight of the world. But his eyes were like cold metal probes. He was always the one who saw the most, understood the most. And because he was also the only real pro, he was the one left to do the dirty work.
Most spy thrillers feature loners of one kind or another. These people live lives where duplicity is their stock and trade. You can't really have a family hanging around if you're going to try to fool all of the people of all of the time -- I mean your family has seen it all! So spy heros are usually disconnected from normal human relationships. Some are as cartoonish as James Bond (can you even *imagine* what Bond's mother would be like?). Some are as rich and textured as George Smiley. But invariably, these are men apart.
Not Bernard Sampson. Bernard is one of us. Not only does he have family, he has family TROUBLE. His beautiful wife Fiona has just defected to the East Germans. When you're a British agent that is seriously embarrassing. And she was a spoiled rich girl from a better class and much more money. Her father is big in the establishment, of course he really blames Bernard. Why not? Bernard is not from the right kind of family after all. He grew up in Berlin of all places and he never had the sort of money that breeds good manners and gets you into the right school.
Bernard's messy marital problems are just what his simpering, bureaucratic boss Dickie needs to make sure that Bernard's career doesn't rise to threaten his own. And it would if Dickie couldn't find a way to keep him down, because Bernard is the last true professional at MI6. He knows the spy game from beginning to end. From the messy killings to the scary skull-duggery to the boring stakeouts he lives this life in a way that his nicer superiors can only imagine. And perhaps they sense it because they don't trust him at all.
And under it all Bernard keeps going. He is a dedicated father. He STILL loves Fiona (she has a strange way of showing up suddenly for parental visits). And he knows that he'll never have the career that others may enjoy but he still can't refuse to do the work when he knows that no one else can.
On paper, in the Deighton books, Bernard is an interesting variant on the classic British spymaster. Portrayed by Ian Holm he's hauntingly real. Even now, some 13 years after seeing the series I can still see his craggy face and his tired walk. The terrible betrayal of his wife sits on his shoulders like the weight of the world. But his eyes were like cold metal probes. He was always the one who saw the most, understood the most. And because he was also the only real pro, he was the one left to do the dirty work.