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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Ashleigh Rainbird

Peaky Blinders' Joe Cole went to great lengths to look like Michael Caine for new role

My frames are not Michael Caine ’s….

There was one essential item the wardrobe department needed to get spot on for ITV ’s remake of the Ipcress File: Harry Palmer’s iconic square glasses.

Peaky Blinders star Joe Cole originally wanted to wear the actual frames Michael wore in the 1965 spy film, but sadly, had to concede: "They just did not work."

Instead, he tried out every pair of frames made by Cutler and Gross to find the perfect replacement.

"The glasses were massive in getting into the character," he says.

"I remember going into Cutler and Gross in Knightsbridge. I tried on every pair in the shop and there was only one pair that worked.

Joe Cole was committed to looking the part in his new ITV role (Future Publishing via Getty Imag)

"As soon as I put them on, I said, 'These are the ones.' Then our costume designer Keith Madden turned up and he said, 'Yeah, they’re the ones.'

"The ones we used still have the very hard black, strong frames and they just worked. For me, as soon as I put them on it was job done."

The costume department had another tricky job in the adaptation of Len Deighton’s novel: arranging fitted crisp Sixties tailoring with fittings over Zoom...

Joe in character for his new role in ITV's The Icpress File (ITV)

The new series, starring Bohemian Rhapsody’s Lucy Boynton and The Night Manager’s Tom Hollander, starts on ITV next month.

Announcing the the six-part series last year, Polly Hill, ITV's Head of Drama said in a statement: "I'm thrilled to be bringing John Hodge’s brilliant adaptation of such an iconic novel to ITV.

"Harry Palmer is an incredible part and this would have been impossible without the right actor, so we are all delighted that Joe Cole will take on the role.

"The talent on and off-screen means this will be a treat for audiences when it comes to ITV."

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