Tinker Tailor Soldier SpyOne of Britain's master spies is working for the enemy. Can George Smiley beat him at his deadly game?
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a seven-part BBC2 spy drama written by Arthur Hopcraft, adapted from John le Carré's eponymous 1974 novel. The serial, which stars Alec Guinness, Alexander Knox, Ian Richardson, Michael Jayston, Bernard Hepton, Anthony Bate, Ian Bannen, George Sewell and Michael Aldridge, was broadcast from 10 September to 22 October 1979. George Smiley, the ageing master spy of the Cold War and once heir-apparent to Control, is brought back out of retirement to flush out a top level mole within the Circus. Smiley must travel back through his life and murky workings of the Circus to unravel the net spun by his nemesis Karla 'The Sandman' of the KGB and reveal the identity of the mole before he disappears.
WritersJohn le Carré, Betty Willingale
Return to the Circus
Sep 10, 1979
Retired espionage veteran George Smiley is called out on a top-secret mission: to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6's echelons.
Tarr Tells His Story
Sep 17, 1979
British agent Ricki Tarr, believed to have defected, resurfaces with sensational information: confirmation of a Russian mole in the Service.
Smiley Tracks the Mole
Sep 24, 1979
The investigation begins, with Peter Guillam burgling the archives for information, while Smiley visits an old comrade whose past knowledge could prove vital to locating the spy.
How It All Fits Together
Oct 1, 1979
While Guillam and Tarr come under pressure, Smiley recounts his one meeting with Soviet master spy Karla, who is undoubtedly running the mole inside MI6.
Tinker Tailor
Oct 8, 1979
Smiley calls on ex-Circus spy San Collins, who was the duty officer the night Jim Prideaux was shot. Collins confirms the events as Smiley understands them and that Prideaux's good friend Bill Hayden is the senior officer who took charge of the case after all hell broke loose. Smiley subsequently meets with Prideaux to get a firsthand account of the events during the disastrous Operation Testify in Czechoslovakia.
Smiley Sets a Trap
Oct 15, 1979
Smiley confronts one of his suspects and gives him the results of his investigations, which could prove a considerable embarrassment to those concerned.
Flushing Out the Mole
Oct 22, 1979
Smiley springs his trap and catches the mole, who confesses how and why it happened, and the answers ultimately rob Smiley of any sense of victory.
Peter McGinn
@narrator56
I tried to watch this drama series a year or so ago and didn’t get far. It isn’t bad but it has a slow pace, which I am usually fine with, but I am not into spy stories. I gave it a second try recently and had no trouble finishing it this time. There is some action and a small amount of drama, but mostly it is conversation and a slow-burning tension running through it. I confess I occasionally wasn’t sure who was doing what off screen, but i never completely lost the thread. Alec Guinness is very good. He gives what seems like a restrained performance, playing a man who fights emotions that rise up inside him so that he can dispassionately do the work required of him with a clear heard and clear eye. A couple of the subplots, such as the former spy teaching at a private school, seem unnecessary on the face of it, though in the example I used there is a big payoff because of it. I can’t imagine watching the series again., but I still recommend it if you like spy stories without many explosions and violence, especially if you are a fan of John LeCarre.
CinemaSerf
@Geronimo1967
With the Cold War at it's height, the head of the British counter-espionage agency - "Control" (Alexander Knox) is giving a clear impression that he is losing the plot. He is visibly ailing so his subordinates gather like vultures waiting to take his place. His preferred candidate is the redoubtable, semi-retired, "Smiley" (Sir Alec Guinness) and pretty swiftly we discover that is because the old man is not so doting after all, and is suspicious that there is a spy in his midst. Who can he trust to investigate the matter? There were seven parts to this BBC drama and each episode delivers some more pieces in the jigsaw of his search for the truth and the mole. There's a fine assemblage of British character actors like Ian Bannen and Anthony Bate to populate the ranks of the helpful or the suspected - as well as the slightly odious "Esterhase" (Bernard Hepton), or the slimy "Haydon" (Ian Richardson) or the ambitious "Percy" (Michael Aldridge)! Indeed with such a breadth of promotion-hungry luminaries to chose from, "Smiley" and his right hand man "Guillam" (Michael Jayston) have no idea whom to trust as this cleverly crafted, internecine, story of betrayal and duplicity unravels before us. John Irwin and Arthur Hopcraft have developed John Le Carré's original novel thoroughly, with plenty attention to the detail. There are clues a-plenty, red herrings likewise, and the slow but punctilious process in which the traitor is sought is expertly delivered by a Guinness performance that, like the whole thing really, is engagingly short on extended pieces of dialogue concentrating more on immersing us in a perilous world of lies and deceit - peppered with the occasional trace of honour. This is BBC drama at it's best - slowly paced, certainly, but intimately photographed avoiding graphic imagery, contemplative and illustrative of just how wheels turned within wheels; or maybe dolls lived within dolls.
