"It’s outrageous that someone else is playing Illya Kuryakin!” chuckles David McCallum over breakfast at an ocean-front coffee negozio near his home in Santa Monica. “When te do something for many years te have a very soft spot in your soul.”
It was as the Mozart concerto on the Televisione was reaching a climax and actor David McCallum stood in front of the screen, accompanying the symphony orchestra on his oboe, that he realised there was a serious problem with his right hand.
This David was The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s Illya Kuryakin, the "blond Beatle", whose dourly handsome face was considered such a threat to public safety that chiefs of police in America's Midwest would warn.