Ian Bannen will always be Jim Prideaux from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to me, but he enjoyed a long and varied acting career. Here is one of its more outré moments.

The Deserter was a 1970 Western designed as a vehicle for the Yugoslavian theatre and Film matinee idol Bekim Fehmiu.

He's not in this clip, but it's remarkable who is. Bannen is the languid British officer, while the grizzled old General is the great American film director John Huston and the young officer who serves them both drinks if Brandon deWilde.

deWilde played the little boy Joey in Shane - I have blogged about him and his misfortunes before. This was to be his last Western and almost his last film: he died in a car crash in 1972 at the age of 30.