"Game, Set, and Match" (1988) TV series

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

3 October 1988 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

An adaption of Len Deghton's trilogy, "Berlin Game," "Mexico Set," "London Match." Bernard Samson, Played by Ian Holm...

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Based On Novel

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Ian Holm	...	Bernard Samson (13 episodes, 1988)
Michael Culver	...	Dicky Cruyer (13 episodes, 1988)
Gail Harrison	...	Tessa Kozinski (13 episodes, 1988)
Anthony Bate	...	Bret Renssalaer (11 episodes, 1988)
Michael Degen	...	Werner Volkmann (10 episodes, 1988)
Frederick Treves	...	Frank Harrington (9 episodes, 1988)
Mel Martin	...	Fiona Samson (8 episodes, 1988)
Amanda Donohoe	...	Gloria Kent (8 episodes, 1988)
Brigitte Karner	...	Zena Volkmann (6 episodes, 1988)

Runtime:

60 min (12 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Granada Television

Trivia:

Despite winning awards and being acclaimed by the critics in the UK it was a ratings disaster.

Would have been a perfect realization but for huge casting gaff

Though it can be had on grainy DVD from underground sources, Len Deighton himself refuses to allow this series to be legitimately released on DVD or anywhere else--and I can't really blame him. It is in most ways an extraordinarily faithful and masterful realization of his Game, Set, Match novels, with a perfect script, a cast that with only one exception brings the novels' characters to life without missing a nuance, and fine staging and direction to capture the sardonic, cleverly convoluted, slow-burning-fuse feeling of the books. The big problem is that one exception in the cast--Ian Holm, playing the main character, Bernard Samson. Holm is a terrific actor who does everything he possibly can with the role, but he is hopelessly, almost ludicrously miscast. Samson is smart, but he's also a sort of thug; we're constantly reminded in the books, if indirectly, that he is street and battlefield educated, that he is an intimidating and attractive physical presence, that he is a hardened, even murderous field agent. Holm plays the braininess well, but can't help but come off as fussy, small, refined and soft--he could far more easily pass for one of the inbred Eaton/Oxford wimps that Samson can't help terrifying in the halls of MI6. It's painful to watch the somewhat trollish Holm as Samson squiring the tall, exquisite actresses Mel Martin and Amanda Donohoe, or going toe to toe with the towering, effortlessly tough Gottfried John as Erich Stinnes (and who, without the accent, would have made for a vastly better Samson than Holm.) It's a devastating flaw in what otherwise might have been the best screen realization of a spy story ever.