Above: Joe Cole as Harry Palmer in ITV's The Ipcress File. Photograph: ITV

When ITV Drama decided to reboot The IPCRESS File, a much loved spy movie based on a best-selling book and starring Michael Caine, writers and producers had no idea that world events would conspire to make its 1960s setting horribly relevant to a contemporary audience.

But here we are, witnessing an invasion by a superpower that inevitably conjures up the spectre of nuclear warfare.

Published in 1962, The IPCRESS File was Len Deighton's first spy novel. The Cold War had been on for 15 years, and nuclear bombers were always in the air and long range ballistic missiles on perpetual standby.

The citizens of West and East sheltered under the umbrella known as Mutually Assured Destruction, believing no one would ever push the button because the prospect of the end of the world would keep the peace. Every now and again air raid sirens were tested, and Britons were told they would have four minutes to find cover if an attack was launched.

Also beneath that umbrella and either side of the Iron Curtain were the spooks. Here in Britain the Cambridge Five were the most surprising and notorious, highly educated agents of the Soviet Union, and a far cry from fictional working class hero, Harry Palmer, played in the remake by Joe Cole of Peaky Blinders fame.

The IPCRESS File has no shortage of double agents, brainwashing, cyphers and codenames, but given that '62 was also the year in which James Bond put an end to Dr No's plan to destroy the American space programme, the thriller was praised for its more realistic portrayal of the smoke and mirrors world of espionage.

The Cuban Missile Crisis, of October 1962, will probably have boosted sales, for The IPCRESS File is a novel underpinned by the early nuclear arms race. When a British scientist capable of designing a neutron bomb goes missing, it's clear…well, you'll have to watch The IPCRESS File on Sundays on ITV, or all in one bingey go if you prefer on ITV Hub.

The first episode aired last Sunday and was good and gripping, and bold too inasmuch as the original movie and Caine's performance are both deemed to be classics of their kind and potentially hard to reinvent with aplomb.

Which brings me to the really important reason why I am writing about the show.

Some of it was shot round here...

In addition to trying to navigate the complex plot, see if you can spot how the British Legion on Pensby Road doubled as somewhere in Berlin 60 years ago, and how Burton village also played its part in seeing off the Russian bear.