Harry's Game

Infobox Television Film
name = Harry's Game


caption =
format = Drama
runtime = 180 minutes
creator =
director =
producer =
writer =
starring = Ray Lonnen
Derek Thompson
music = Clannad
country = United Kingdom
language = English
network = ITV
first_aired = 25 October 1982
last_aired =
27 October 1982
num_episodes = 3
imdb_id = 0084053
tv_com_id = 16794

"Harry's Game" is a British television series made by Yorkshire Television for ITV in 1982.

The three-part serial starred Ray Lonnen as Capt. Harry Brown, a British soldier, sent undercover to Northern Ireland to find and kill Billy Downes (Derek Thompson), a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassin. It was based on the Gerald Seymour novel. The series is noted for its haunting theme tune, performed by Clannad.

Plot

The story begins as a Cabinet minister named Henry Danby gets ready for work. An inconspicuous, average-looking man in a long raincoat is seen outside the minister's home but nobody shows any concern about him. Too late, they discover that the man is an IRA assassin sent to kill the minister, his unremarkable looks a disguise. The assassin shoots the minister in front of the man's wife and children. He then makes his way to the Underground in a move to confuse the police. Taking the Underground to a station connecting to a bus line to Heathrow, he goes into the bathroom and ditches his coat and gun in the bathroom, since early witnesses tend to have confused facial descriptions of criminals, the most remembered feature of the gunman was his raincoat. Thus, the assassin has decreased the chances of being identified by throwing it away. Taking a bus to Heathrow (and careful never to talk to avoid anyone recalling his accent), the IRA agent takes a flight to Amsterdam. Taking a connecting flight to Dublin, the IRA assassin has outwitted the British authorities.

Angered politicians make rash decisions in response to the murder. Harry Brown, an agent who had worked in Oman, is set up with a cover identity of sailor Harry McEvoy in Northern Ireland. Seeking to hear the stray piece of gossip that could identify the assassin, Brown lives an isolated sullen life, finding work in a scrapyard. He befriends a woman named Josephine Laverty, who mentions how a female acquaintance named Teresa McCorrigan bragged about hosting the assassin (whose name is actually Billy Downes, though Harry is not told this) at her home, which served as a safe house. Harry tips off his superiors, but the local army heavy-handedly arrest her for a ruthless interrogation by the policeman Rennie that prompts her to kill herself out of fear.

Similarly, a Roman Catholic waiter at a restaurant, paid no heed as a mere lower class worker, overhears two officials indiscreetly discuss the case over lunch. Learning that a special agent has been put in, he reveals this to the IRA, they begin looking for strangers in the community.

Meanwhile, the IRA also seeks revenge on Rennie. Once again, Billy Downes is called in. His unremarkable appearance helps him again as Rennie's careless spouse opens the door for him when he approaches the Rennie home. Downes tells her and her children to remain quiet as they wait for Inspector Rennie to come home. However, the cautious Rennie had, as a routine, had his children always turn the light on in the garage for him; Downes' holding the children hostage prevents them from doing so. Rennie realises something is wrong and sneaks into his home, managing to catch Downes unaware. At one point during the confrontation between policeman and IRA man, one of Rennie's daughters places herself between her father and Downes' gun. Downes, unwilling to shoot a child, flees into the night, with Rennie managing to shoot him in the arm.

The IRA has managed to expose Harry McEvoy as the mole. Downes realises that he came close to disgracing himself when he spared Rennie's daughter. However, the IRA has offered to forgive him should he agree to join the loutish Frankie and the novice Seamus Duffryn, IRA members on a mission to capture Harry McEvoy on the way to work. The mission goes wrong and Harry shoots Seamus and Frankie, with the latter left in the back-seat of a car bleeding. Billy Downes manages to kick out the windshield of the car (cracked when Harry shot Frankie) and gets it moving. He has only two objectives; to get Frankie to the hospital and to get to his home so he can see his spouse one last time before he dies; Downes knows that he has no place to hide.

Going into the street, Harry hijacks a sales representative on his way to the office, ordering him to follow Downes. They lose Downes, who makes it to the hospital. Leaving the car running and the door open so that attention will be drawn to Frankie, Downes flees for his own home. Harry once again picks up the trail and confronts Billy outside of his home, with the latter's wife present. Also observing are two confused soldiers in an observation booth in an abandoned building (who had been given the routine duty of monitoring events in the area, a common task in Northern Ireland). Not aware of Harry's presence and mission in Northern Ireland, as well as unaware of Downes' being the assassin, the soldiers are mystified when Harry shoots Downes dead in front of Mrs. Downes. Apparently thinking that Harry was either a Loyalist paramilitary or a member of the IRA sent to kill Downes as punishment for sparing Rennie earlier, one of the soldiers opens fire on Harry.

Harry manages to crawl a few feet only to be confronted by Mrs. Downes. She retrieved Harry's pistol when it fell out of his hand after the soldiers shot him. She asks him why he killed Downes. Harry responds "He had to die. Don't you understand that?" (no doubt Harry was rather dazed and disoriented after being shot). She then shoots Harry.

The film closes with a narrator reading a part of a poem that the daughter of an IRA victim wrote. (This IRA victim was William Staunton. He died on January 25, 1973 at the age of 46. A Roman Catholic, the IRA had shot him three months earlier. The shooting took place near Saint Dominic's School, Falls Road.) "Don't cry, Mommy said. They've hurt themselves much more. They can walk and run, Daddy can't".

Release history

This serial ran from October 25 to October 27, 1982, and was later edited into a single programme titled "Harry's Game - The Movie". Clannad's theme tune for it became their breakthrough hit, the film itself was not widely seen in the US or widely available on video, though a Canadian release called "Belfast Assassin" came out. Despite not being widely available on American VHS, the film was given entries in reference works and video catalogues. The original, unedited three-part serial was released on DVD in the United Kingdom in 2005.

In 1997, a film called "The Informant" was released with Timothy Dalton as Rennie, and Sean McGinley as Frankie. This film was based on "Field of Blood", also by Seymour. Rennie also appeared in Seymour's book "The Journeyman Tailor".