Mr. Palfrey of Westminster will soon be paying a visit to DVD stores in both the United States and England, courtesy of Acorn Media and Network, respectively. Who is Mr. Palfrey? Embodied by Alec McCowan (probably best known to spy fans as Algernon, Never Say Never Again's Q), Mr. Palfrey would describe himself as "just a civil servant." Others might see him as a bespectaled, somewhat Smiley-esque (in his unassuming appearance, anyway, if not his rather smug manner) master of counter-espionage and spycatcher extraordinaire. Week after week, he devises elaborate schemes to ensnare moles and plug security leaks. Palfrey is aided by a capable legman, or "plumber" ("I plug leaks.") named Blair and a secretary named Caroline (Briony McRoberts), and reports to a Thatcher-esque female boss known only as "the Co-Ordinator" (Caroline Blakiston). It's sort of like Mission: Impossible meets Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
Network's Region 2 release is an Amazon exclusive, available only from Amazon.co.uk (where it comes out tomorrow, August 16, and can be pre-ordered for £18.69).In addition to both regular seasons of the show (originally broadcast in 1983 and '84), Network's release includes the pilot, an episode of Thames’ anthology series Storyboard, and a 1989 "postscript" featuring Clive Wood's character.
Acorn's 3-disc Region 1 release, due out on September 21, includes every episode of the regular series (both seasons), but sadly not the pilot or postscript. However, that shouldn't stop American spy fans from picking it up. I've just watched the first proper episode on Acorn's set, and it sets up all of the characters and their relationships. In fact, Mr. Palfrey meets his new boss and his regular associates for the first time, so I'm not sure what that Storyboard episode could have entailed.
That first episode is written by George Markstein, a man with some experience of his own in the intelligence world well known to fans of the genre for his contributions to The Prisoner and Callan, among other series. His script actually pays homage to Callan and places Mr. Palfrey of Westminster firmly in the same world as that great show. (In a tale of inter-agency miscommunication, Mr. Palfrey comes up against an assassin from "the Section," Callan's shadowy branch of the intelligence community.) Another frequent spy writer, Philip Broadley (The Avengers, Department S) also contributes scripts, and guest stars include genre alumni like Richard Johnson, Julian Glover, Ronald Hines and Martin Jarvis.
I started writing this post nearly a month ago when both companies first announced the show, and it got buried for a while. But reading about it then triggered some important connections in my brain. For some reason, I had long believed as a kid that Alec McCowan played Smiley. Now these memories aren't actually based on my own viewings of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy or Mr. Palfrey of Westminster (both of which aired on PBS in the US), but on memories of my parents watching them when I was far too young to appreciate such political skullduggery. Anyway, I was always sure that I wasn't merely mising up Alecs McCowan and Guinness; my memories seemed too concrete. And now I finally realize why I thought that; I was mixing up Smiley with Mr. Palfrey! It's good to put that together. At any rate, I'm very excited to discover Mr. Palfrey's adventures in Whitehall.
