Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (novel, miniseries, and forthcoming film to be directed by Tomas Alfredson)

the miniseries is pretty amazing. i haven't read the novel. i just saw this bit of news, which is a little old but hopefully still accurate:

Tomas Alfredson signs on for 'Tinker, Tailor'

July 09, 2009 Fresh from the success of highly acclaimed vampire movie "Let The Right One In," award-winning Swedish director Tomas Alfredson has signed on as director on Working Title upcoming project "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," the company announced Thursday. The new feature film adaptation of John Le Carre's seminal cold war best-seller is being produced by Working Title's co-chairmen Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and marks their next collaboration with Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Peter Morgan ("Frost/Nixon," "The Queen") and will be exec-produced by Debra Hayward, Liza Chasin, John Le Carre and Peter Morgan. A 1970s British television series starred Alec Guinness as George Smiley the retired former British intelligence officer called in to track down the double agent within the spy agency.

this sounds awesome

been musing on the possible cast. i hope it's a similar set of dope brit character actors surrounding an old-school charismatic star.

Yeah both miniseries (including Smiley's People) are stellar. One of my favorite moments is in SP when Smiley finds the film using 'Moscow rules.'

i downloaded a torrent of the series but there are no subtitles during the lengthy bits where theyre speaking russian

ian mcshane for percy? ian mckellen as bill haydon?

love the book, love the miniseries. only problem with it is i cant remember who i lent it to.

interesting project, but i cant really imagine anyone doing better than guinness. that was a truly magnificent performance.

s1ocki otm

I have a hard time imagining that this could touch the miniseries, which was pretty much perfect.

i have a hard time imagining that i can't touch my miniseries as someone has borrowed it and i can't remember who :(

i hope this isn't a horrible travesty that makes me sad - because the original miniseries was so great.

alec guinness' performance is on another level in the miniseries, true. i think it's possible to make a good film of this and get everything into 150-160 minutes without rushing through. i have a good feeling about this one though i'm not expecting it to be a definitive take (that's already been accomplished obv.) i assume the choice of alfredson means they won't try to bourne things up too much.

Mmmf, something just occurred to me -- are they going to try and make this a period piece or are they going the contemporary route?

This could be interesting but I'd be concerned that the slow, twisty procedural of the book, which worked well on TV, mightn't transfer properly to a 2 hour movie.

the opening scene of the 70s 'tinker tailor', where the spies all sit down and smoke, not saying a word but speaking volumes, is prob my fave bit of telly ever, partly cos i used to work very near cambridge circus, seen in the very first shot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyBuUM6BRy0

Absolutely agree. One of my favourite pieces of television ever. I wonder whether the new film will also consist of an awful lot of footage of middle-aged men smoking in dingey rooms.

odd that they're redoing it, but love love love Alfredson and Morgan.

they should have done the middle book The Honourable Schoolboy instead, at least that one hasn't been taken yet :/

That one always was a little out of place, though. Don't get me wrong, it's excellent.

Yeah, I found Honorable Schoolboy to be a little odd and difficult to relate to.

Is it just me or do a disturbing number of his novels end with the protagonist just about to make it to safety when they are suddenly brutally gunned down?

Hahaha yeah

spoilers?

wonder how this is gonna work, really

but it'll be good to have gary oldman starring in a non-shit film for a change

don't count yr chickens etc

the tv show is veeeeerrrryyyy slllooooooowwww but that's part of the charm

michael bay to direct

the tv show is so insanely good

so slow and subtle

so awesome

the opening scene of the 70s 'tinker tailor', where the spies all sit down and smoke, not saying a word but speaking volumes, is prob my fave bit of telly ever, partly cos i used to work very near cambridge circus, seen in the very first shot:

― Ward Fowler, Friday, November 20, 2009 6:52 PM (9 months ago) Bookmark

otm

not mad on guinness's stuff when he was younger, tbh, but he totally shreds in this

yeah i was just thinking about watching this again. "smiley's people" is really good too.

i remember watching the tv show when i was abt 12 and liked le carré, i wanted to like it but it was too slow for me then

benedict cumberbatch hahaha just fucking cast bill nighy and make it a romantic comedy*

*[placeholder for explanation of how it already is]

wonder if they'll leave in the two female characters

i really love how the tv version kind of starts off on this note of smiley being this totally out-of-the-loop outsider who is "too old for this shit", and then he sits down with the british agents at the estate house to meet with the spy-on-the-run, and he takes off his glasses and puts them back on and gives this dude a look which says in an instant that he's the smartest and toughest dude around and it's like "oh shit."

mark strong just got cast, too. so it's him and oldman, firth, cumberbatch, hinds, ralph fiennes and tom hardy.

Holy shit. It might actually work.

Yeah, I found Honorable Schoolboy to be a little odd and difficult to relate to.

One big problem with that one was the woman character, who is as badly drawn as all Le Carre women characters (with possible exception of Connie). I do wonder sometimes whether Le Carre has ever met any actual women.

But I still totally love TTSS and SP.

he takes off his glasses and puts them back on and gives this dude a look which says in an instant that he's the smartest and toughest dude around and it's like "oh shit."

otfm

Absolutely the best moment of the whole series, I get chills just thinking about it.

not sure if this was mentioned but it's apparently retaining the cold war era for the setting.

Thank god for that.

man i gotta find my dvds of the show so i can watch it again

I have a hard time imagining that this could touch the miniseries, which was pretty much perfect.

― Moodles, Friday, November 20, 2009 11:44 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i have a hard time imagining that i can't touch my miniseries as someone has borrowed it and i can't remember who :(

― 311 is a joek (s1ocki), Friday, November 20, 2009 11:57 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark

it's always in the place where you least expect it, like the amazon marketplace page of your friend or acquaintance.

Unwittingly I've only watched the compressed, US six-episode (instead of seven) version of the series. Apparently they've even jumbled the chronology of some scenes around. Anyone seen both?

oh shit, that's the version i've seen too (via netflix).

Basically I'm going to get and watch the original no matter how trivial the differences might be. Every scene could be longer. Feels like I can still taste the words exchanged between Smiley and Prideaux in the car, at the hotel, walking around the moors.

Kathy Burke as Connie Sachs

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1322727/Kathy-Burke-star-film-version-John-le-Carr-s-Tinker-Tailor-Soldier-Spy.html

gonna be great this i can feel it. god knows how they're going to squelch it all down to 2 hours. if they can nail the Ricky Tarr bit they've got the rest i think.

tom hardy playing ricky tarr fyi

super stoked for this... killer cast

/novel

watched bbc 1979 episode one again and now despite the liveblog above ive decided its chance and weakness that has him lunching with martindale, and he isnt in fact pumping for info at all, and is irritated that he is half interested, and he is very irritated above all to hear that alleline is doing well

if i watched it again id change my mind on some of the above again im sure, isnt that the beauty of it

https://snappishproductions.com/images/gfy/love-to-ann.gif

I think this is mostly true, but he's also never quite out of spy mode, there's always a side that he's hiding. That whole first episode seems to be illustrating the fact that his meek manner is a bit of a put on, and we see him finally transform into the "real" Smiley at the end when he sits down with Ricky Tarr.

thinking about buying a region-free Blu Ray player to get the remaster set w/ TTSS and Smiley's People

You really need a region free for so many great BFI releases

Watching Ralph feinnes in conclave and I keep thinking this guy would have been a better smiley than Gary oldman.

Too striking IMO, even trying to look schlubby he wouldn't fade into the background

same criticism of Oldman tbf and more a directors choice i think

Just rewatched Smiley's People (again.) What stood out to me this time was how Smiley turned into whoever he needed to be for each interaction. For the lovesick German hippies he was all smiles. For Connie he coddled and raged. For Grigoriev, officious. It's only around Guilliam that he drops this, and when he does he's such a demon for work that he exhausts the younger man. Beyond that though I just caught so much more detail this time, easily my most enjoyable viewing of this.

I swear at one point in this (TTSS) Alec Guinness emotes more with the back of his head than he ever does with his face.

listening to the jayston-read audiobook again because of a few long car journeys

few things that idnr being covered upthread but which may have been

i. its not not a movie about class but i feel its still a movie where a lot of the snobbery is about different ideals of craft (army, whitehall, circus, their lot vs our lot, why tarr isn't ever getting ahead of where we find him). herself disagreed violently on this by merely listing out class indicators evident which led to a spirited tiff from tulsk through to beyond swinford bypass.

ii. because he doesn't necessarily come back very quickly on whatsapp it is worth noting that fizzles raised how arthurian motifs raise their head again and again and yes ofc ofc but he noted in particular ageing arthur, guinevere, lancelot and i went oh

iii. this time around, it struck me very strongly that Anne's distress at George's inability or unwillingness to fight his corner after the ellis affair is a main driver in the estrangement during the book. she loves smiley as the best of them and notes his pride in it but she seems a lot more alarmed at the damage laying that sword down will do to him/them than the effects of any actual extramaritals she may and will engage in (leaving out haydon ofc)

watched the movie as well

butchering the ricky tarr timeline unnecessarily is the great sin. what they turned esterhase into is the other. smiley being a bill nighy turn is the other. finishing shitcool and triumphant is the other.

none of these are fatal sins tbh its still very good.

i. its not not a movie about class but i feel its still a movie where a lot of the snobbery is about different ideals of craft (army, whitehall, circus, their lot vs our lot, why tarr isn't ever getting ahead of where we find him). herself disagreed violently on this by merely listing out class indicators evident which led to a spirited tiff from tulsk through to beyond swinford bypass.

ii. because he doesn't necessarily come back very quickly on whatsapp it is worth noting that fizzles raised how arthurian motifs raise their head again and again and yes ofc ofc but he noted in particular ageing arthur, guinevere, lancelot and i went oh

iii. this time around, it struck me very strongly that Anne's distress at George's inability or unwillingness to fight his corner after the ellis affair is a main driver in the estrangement during the book. she loves smiley as the best of them and notes his pride in it but she seems a lot more alarmed at the damage laying that sword down will do to him/them than the effects of any actual extramaritals she may and will engage in (leaving out haydon ofc)

listening to the jayston-read audiobook again because of a few long car journeys

come back quickly or *at all*. i’ll leave the arthurian bit until a moment when i feel fresher, but i’m curious about the class argument in a bit more detail - class being the water in which they swim in a sense, so my curiosity is… what were the lines of the argument - was it that craft is more important than class? or…? .

and agreed on anne - haydon’s affair is outside the others as you say and is in a sense *most* damaging to her, partly because she allowed herself to break the rules - set, circus, family (that can’t have been the third lol but i can’t remember what it is). the central mystery is *what happened* there - no one can bring themselves to confront it, but it was karla directed and a masterly piece of psychology. anne’s misery is her awareness- tacit or explicit - that she had been used to get at George.

but the main reason for posting is that while th jayston audiobook is v good it is a source of mildly astonished irritation that he pronounces or is directed to pronounce hajek with a hard j. michael yayston.

she contended it was about class i was more saying that yes class is inextricable but ttss is more about other variegations within the world and that these are more important to the story and to the world being drawn, and imo craft is much more key- and not in (say, at a grab) in a fincher way of showing it as the point, lecarre showing how each different component of this world *works* (not as in operates successfully, as in *i am telling you about the genus when i am showing you the methods)- from the obviousness of whitehall in dealing only in avoidance of scandal and management of budget sheets through the threat of the army's ferocious simplicity tearing things up through tarr's impatience for craft through guillams competence but not yet mastery through percy being an easy setup because of his mediocrity (but never quite stupidity) through connie's fractured genius (lecarre would have even this female character work on "intuition", you'd have to lament) through to control's divide-to-rule paranoia but cunning almost enough, through haydon's dashing devastation from a headstart he isnt afraid to drive home through karla's genius through to smiley's.....inevitability

so… it’s complicated isn’t it. one thing le carré is interested in is the fake and the fraud (the honourable schoolboy). they are players in class and its codes but do not embody it. SPYING is *very interested* in such talents.

i’m thinking about the phrase walter benjamin (sorry to do this) created from Daniel Schreber’s Diary of a Neuropath - “flüchtig hingemachte Männer” - hastily put-up men

(“Schreber, who at the height of his paranoia believed for a time that the world had been destroyed by “rays” hostile to him, gave this as an anaswer when it was pointed out to him that the doctors, patients, and employees of the insane asylum obviously existed.” - this is early Zionist Gershom Scholem)

i often think of it as a phrase because it often seems so apt. but it seems particularly apt for the indentities and covers required for spying (“Ellis isn’t broken is it?”)

It fits with class questions of new “imitatory” wealth - nabobs, nouveau riche, arrivistes etc. who is red brick who is sandstone. it matters. it’s non trivial. but it’s also a matter of craft because craft means back tunnels and behind-the-walls movement in the class terrain.

another thing

i never buy that lecarre wants us to buy or fully sympathise with the characters whose tragedy is the lost woman, its almost always the payoff to "slipped, didn't you?"

the only loss that really seems to ring true is the burned network, and more often than not this doesn't come back to a failing on the haunted's behalf

Great posts - i wish i would understand more than 50% of Le Carré's writing (I'm a non-native speaker reading mostly in english, yet his books are some kind of linguistic glass ceiling that leaves me frustrated)

just began a rewatch with the whole family, per the kid's request, perhaps due to his interest in spy stories after picking out Alan Furst's novel The Polish Officer to read for his English class.

one thing I noticed this time around was just how many people seem to be watching Prideaux as he makes his way towards the initial meeting with his contact. There are a number of people beyond the black-gloved hand taking a peek through the blinds at the checkpoint. They're on him the whole way.

that all may be fairly obvious to those who have seen it more times, i had in my memory not been aware of some of those casual not casual people loitering by cars, in the toy shop, etc.

this is the movie?

no ofc its not sorry

ill watch for that next week (annual Christmas lead in activity in our house is whiskeys and bbc smiley)

i may be merely engaging in a bit of paranoia on behalf of the unknowing Jim, but what i saw *if intended as such* strikes me as particularly sharp depictions of those who might be following him, just barely noticeable even to the viewer, unless you're primed to look for them. vs the usual Hollywood method of the camera centering someone who gives a dark, furrowed brow, meaningful look at their quarry, followed by a phone call to another party saying "I just saw him."

ok

its time for the rewatch

episode one flew by

no notes

ricky tarr's recollection is the best version that exists that I've found

irina is as cute as a button but foxy sly, lovely turn by the actress.

hywel is shockingly shocked looking, like an appallingly hungover luke skywalker dressed by roger moores bond wardrobe assistant, and is played beautifully for a different cad than in the book or the movie (which by necessity is much more sympathetic to our lad)

"I want to tell you a story..."

The meeting with Guillaum, it’s just a beautiful bit of set up. He’s on the phone with Mendel, who knows that he overplayed it a bit, smiley makes a mention of his troubled state of mind after losing his agents on a previous mission, so we are primed for him to break when he’s pulled in by Esterhase. And just how he’s approached by each of the four possible moles in this meeting. Bill’s easy humor only slightly covering his watchfulness, reading for signs. Richardson is perfect in this part. And ultimately Guillaum more than ably covering his uncertainty with rebellious disrespect and zings which are very appreciated by Bill, who seemingly buys what he’s selling in the end. And in retrospect, it is a bit of a life or death moment for young Peter.

bbc4 showing this at xmas so I'll no doubt watch it again.

xp its one of those moments where you really buy the explanation at the end....bill just wanted to have fun, if they weren't playing for empire and glory then he was going for the solo run and what he responds to most as the all knowing surveyor of the breached circus is panache and spirit, which lord knows isnt coming from percy, bland or esterhase

A general topic on Bluesky about six months ago was the running of a good meeting, and Tom Ewing, formerly of this parish, pointed out that no-one runs a good meeting, and all of the tips are just revealing what kind of meetings arsehole everyone is. He then reposted the opening of episode 1 as "The four kinds of people you encounter in a meeting"

1. Meeting Pervert (Esterhase): Actually likes meetings, hopes to impress
2. Meeting Hater (Bland): There on sufferance, got out of bed for this, blatantly unprepared
3. Meeting Fascist (Alleline): set the agenda, pre-decided all outcomes, will kill any useful convos
4. Meeting Joker (Haydon): the lowest form of life

smiley, gwillam have any number of excellent meetings throughout

smiley's house: irascibly surprised vs coolly certain about getting what is wanted

gwillams car: meeting is not about what the meeting is about, all enjoying it

smiley's room at the guest house as barraclough: lecturing affectionately and overinstructing a cherished protege who is bearing it with grace while still picking up info of some use

control meeting prideaux obv a v excellent meeting

perhaps meetings must be two ppl only idk

etc

i have, on this watch, enjoyed the specific type of awful in Percy's overworked performance of banter in his climbing of the ladder

everyone's age is wrong, as far as casting goes, ive noticed.

paul herzberg's accent in smiley's people is... something else

(he's the guy who receives the negatives on the boat and drives a truck?)

He then reposted the opening of episode 1 as "The four kinds of people you encounter in a meeting"

1. Meeting Pervert (Esterhase): Actually likes meetings, hopes to impress
2. Meeting Hater (Bland): There on sufferance, got out of bed for this, blatantly unprepared
3. Meeting Fascist (Alleline): set the agenda, pre-decided all outcomes, will kill any useful convos
4. Meeting Joker (Haydon): the lowest form of life

lol, please dig up the link to this if you can

Sure: https://bsky.app/profile/tomewing.bsky.social/post/3lq5km4iwkc2h

TY

xps is that max?

im just getting through the audiobook section where max features in TTSS and the accent is lamentable (even tho this segement didnt make it to the screen in bbc adaptation)

this guy https://moviedude.co.uk/Paul%20Herzberg%20%20

sure george what the hell

otm; toby improved immeasurably from ttss to smiley's people

i just can't imagine being scene partner to sir alec guinness, one of the most distinguished actors of all time, and having to put on that accent

watching toby work is a pleasure in SP

bbc4 programme on now with a lecarre biography

and now michael jayston recalls his involvement with lecarre adaptations

and now

tinker tailor

thoughts on night manager season 2 yet?

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/arts/television/night-manager-john-le-carre-season-two.html

Watched the first episode. Feels more Mick Herron than le Carré so far.

That's a bit of a cheap comparison really. I guess I just mean to say not as good.

i mean it’s something but it’s hardly le carré. first episode a backroom domestic spy, with a face no doubt well remembered by those who encountered him before, crashes into a double agent source’s restaurant meal. a source who at the v least is in an equivocal position and has been delicately cultivated, throws her into a cheap hotel room, leaves her there, buggers off to spain with a load of untrained civilians more or less and unsurprisingly gets them killed.

he is then rightly bollocked (in his supposed mortal absence) for this, but in a tone the programme somehow suggests is more to do with high up cover up and conspiracy. so yes - that’s pretty slow horses really but without the humour and implying incompetence isn’t actually.

tbf an awful lot of the first series tension was created by the necessity of caution and constraint, which is to a degree relevant to le carré. not exactly the delicate and anxiety ridden web of contact and source management but it worked. this is just running around blowing things up and playing tennis in exotic locations. wealth porn. it’s done well enough i suppose but it’s silly and embarrassing to watch.