Bret Rensselaer has vacated his desk ....

Anthony Bate as Bret Rensselaer

While I was away on holiday, there was sad news that British actor Anthony Bate passed away. I remember him of course from his portrayal of Samson's boss - and antagonist on the battlefield of office politics in London Central in all nine books of the series - Bret Rensselaer, in ITV's 1988 TV series. Check out the Guardian's full obituary.

He is also perhaps more familiar to most fans of spy fiction from his portrayal of civil servant Oliver Lacon in the BBC adaptation of Le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and then the sequel, Smiley's People. However, as an established actor he has a tremendous CV of threatre and film appearances, including in Treasure Island, Crime and Punishment and Les Miserables.

Sadly, it looks like we're not able still to see Anthony's portrayal of Bret due to Len's continued decision not to permit further re-runs of the show or a DVD release. Len had reasonable doubts about some of the casting in the show, which explains his decision, but I do think Anthony Bate got Bret's mid-Atlantic drawl and position as the eminence grise of London Central just right.

Internet flotsam and jetsam ...

(c) Len Deighton

So far in February there have been a number of Deighton-related items of interest which I'm gathering together for readers in this post.

First up, one of Len's contemporaries and close friends Ted Dicks died recently, and Len wrote a moving tribute to his friend in The Guardian on 3 February, describing Dicks (see Len's illustration, right) as having lived 'a life crammed with many separate talents.' The Guardian also carried a full obituary for Dicks, who among many accomplishments composed the classic Bernard Cribbins song, 'Right, said Fred'.

It's also sad to report that British character actor Frederick Treves has also passed on, as reported in The Guardian obituary column. The picture with the obituary (below) reports his role as Head of the Berlin Station Frank Harrington, who plays both political ally and father figure to lead character Bernard Samson. I think that of all the main characters in the TV adaptation - criticised and subsequently pulled by Deighton after one showing - Treves's Frank is closest to what I imagined having read the books first.

(c) ITV/Rex Features

On a different media - the radio - former BBC Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer wrote an excellent review of 70 years of Desert Island Discs in the Financial Times in late January; there is a reference there to the scheduling surprise in 1995 when Bomber was broadcast over a whole day.

With 2012 representing the fiftieth anniversary of The IPCRESS File's publication (more on that in subsequent blogs), I stumbled across an interesting article in the Kensington & Chelsea Today newspaper website about a local author who's written a novel based around the lives of a group of architects. The front covers is, apparently, an homage to the Ray Hawkey book covers for Len Deighton's first novels from the 'sixties. What do you think?