Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983)
Stranger than Fiction...
It’s Sam Neill weekend on Luke Honey’s WEEKEND FLICKS. And I’m glad we’ve expanded the repertoire to include television, as it gives me an excuse to write about Reilly, Ace of Spies, adapted from Robin Bruce Lockhart’s book by Troy Kennedy Martin and produced by Euston Films for Thames Television — essential viewing for British audiences during the mid-1980s. We’re currently on an Eighties period drama television binge, watching an episode a night of Granada’s superb Sherlock Holmes (1984-1994), which I’m enjoying immensely — I can’t stress that enough. We’re now on Series 2, with Edward Hardwicke replacing David Burke (as Watson) and Holmes making a miraculous reappearance — like the Second Coming — following the debacle at the ‘fearful’ Reichenbach Falls.
The mid-80s was a good time for television period drama. If you can cope with the flat lighting, lousy makeup and stagey, theatrical direction. Everybody talks about the BBC, but, actually, many of the classic — and greatest — period dramas were made for commercial television: think: Upstairs Downstairs (1971-75), Lillie (1978), Danger UXB (1979), Brideshead Revisited (1981), Winston Churchill- The Wilderness Years (1981), The Jewel in the Crown (1984), even — dare I say it — Flambards (1979). In those days, production designers (please step forward Julia Trevelyan Oman) had a deep knowledge and understanding of history, and, consequently, were more than capable of an authentic period look, without the need for a ‘twist’, ‘to make it current’ or to make things ‘relatable to a modern audience.’ There was a 70s or 80s aesthetic, sure — of course there was: a touch of blow-dry here, a synthetic fabric there, even a Tudor radiator in Elizabeth R (1971) — but it wasn’t deliberate. Okay, in Reilly, Ace of Spies, Leo McKern’s nose looks like Pinocchio’s in Plasticine — but there’s a meticulous elegance to the series, an elegance missing in our coarse and (so far) disturbing 21st century. Sam Neill, as Sidney Reilly, and Peter Egan, as Major Davenport, are sophistication personified. Actors spoke proper in them days.
And you can see why Eon Productions screen-tested Sam Neill for Mister Bond. Back in 1986. With sexy Fiona Fullerton in a huge double bed. And why Eon wanted him for the part. Sam, in my opinion, owns it. He would have made a superb 007. One of the great ‘what ifs’ of film history. Fleming’s urbane, clubbable, ruthless Mandarin of government: a mannered, cultured and suave interpretation of Milk Tray Man. As opposed to somebody who looks like they’ve come to mend your washing machine. But Neill cooly — and rather wisely— turned Bond down. Good on him. Too much baggage.
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