So Long, Sir Ian

Image by source, fair use, Wikipedia.

I first saw Ian Holm on the big screen in Chariots of Fire, and soon after in Time Bandits and Brazil, but it wasn't until I watched the 1988 TV miniseries, Game, Set, and Match, based on the series by my favourite spy novelist, Len Deighton, that Sir Ian became my favourite actor.

Ian Holm was perfectly cast as the central character, Bernard Samson, the SIS British agent who must find a Russian double-agent within the organization. The series was brilliantly adapted for television and superbly acted by the well-rounded cast, including Mel Martin, Michael Culver, Michael Degen, and others.

Deighton went on to create two more trilogies, based on the Game, Set, and Match series: Hook, Line, and Sinker, and Faith, Hope, and Charity. A tenth book, Winter, sets up the city of Berlin—but from a German family's perspective, from 1899 to 1945—and introduces characters that are carried forward into the modern-day spy stories.

When the TV series aired, I was patiently awaiting the first book in the second series, Spy Hook, and as I read it, I could picture Ian Holm reprising the role of Samson as he pulls himself together after the crushing outcome that was set in the first trilogy (no spoilers, here). And indeed, I hoped that another TV miniseries would spawn from the new stories, and that Holm would once again play our hapless hero.

By the time I saw the movies Robin and Marian and Alien, I was already a huge fan of Sir Ian Holm, who passed peacefully away on June 19 at the age of 88. But I also delighted at seeing him in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V, Naked Lunch, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, The Madness of King George, The Sweet Hereafter, The Fifth Element, and finally, the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films.

When Hamlet was released in 1990, I chose to go mainly because Holm was in it, playing the role of Polonius. Mel Gibson, in the lead role, was not a determining factor in me viewing the film (I went in spite of Gibson's appearance).

Last month, I decided to pick up Winter from my book shelves and read it again. Immediately after, I read Berlin Game and am currently halfway through Mexico Set. I have been putting Holm's face on Bernard Samson, and even imagined similar looks to Samson's father, Brian, in Winter.

I'm going to continue to read the entire series, again, only now I will do so with a bit of a heavy heart.

Source: unknown, via Twitter.