JOHN LE CARRE

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TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY When first broadcast in September 1979, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was greeted with opposing voices as "turgid, obscure, and pretentious" or as "a great success." It is in keeping with the ambiguous nature of John Le Carré's narratives that one can simultaneously agree with both formulations without contradiction. As Roy Bland, paraphrasing Scott Fitzgerald observes: "An artist is a bloke who can hold two fundamentally opposing views and still function". The obscurity is a consequence of the themes of deception and duplicity at the centre of the narrative: to those who, like Sir Hugh Greene, prefer the moral certainties of Buchan's version of British Intelligence, Le Carré's world will not only be difficult to follow but morally perplexing. On the other hand, the success of the serial was not only demonstrated by good audience ratings but by general critical acclaim for the acting, a judgment ratified by subsequent BAFTA awards for best actor (Alec Guinness) and for the camerawork of Tony Pierce-Roberts. Ambiguity persisted in America where the serial won critical acclaim when shown on PBS but failed to be taken up by the networks. Although Le Carré published his first novel, Call For the Dead, in 1961, and his first major success The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) was turned into a film in 1966, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was his first venture into television. He rejected the project of turning it into a film because of the compression, but felt the space afforded by TV serialization would do justice to his narrative. He was also impressed with the skill of Arthur Hopcraft's screenplay which extensively reordered the structure of the novel to clarify the narrative for a television audience without violating its essential character (Hopcraft for example begins the narrative with the debacle in Czechoslovakia which only begins to be treated in the novel in chapter 27). Le Carré was even more taken by the interpretation of Smiley provided by Alec Guinness, so much so that as he was writing Smiley's People he found himself visualizing Guinness in the role and incorporated some of the insights afforded by the actor in the sequel to the trilogy. A trivial example will stand for many. During the production of Tinker Tailor, Guinness complained that the characterizing idiosyncrasy of Smiley, polishing his glasses with the fat end of his tie, cannot be done naturally because the cold weather in London means that Smiley will be wearing a three piece suit, thus a handkerchief has to be substituted. At the end of Smiley's People Le Carré includes a teasingly oblique rejoinder: From long habit, Smiley had taken off his spectacles and was absently polishing them on the fat end of his tie, even though he had to delve for it among the folds of his tweed coat. (emphasis added) The story of Tinker, Tailor has an archetypal simplicity reminiscent of the Odyssey: the scorned outsider investigates the running of the kingdom, tests the loyalty of his subjects and kin by means of plausible stories before disposing of the usurpers and restoring right rule. In Le Carre's modern story the elements are transposed onto the landscape of conflicted modern Europe in the throes of Cold War. A botched espionage operation in Czechoslovakia ensures that Control (Head of British Intelligence) and his associates are discredited. Shortly after, Control dies, George Smiley his able lieutenant is retired and the two are succeeded by Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Percy Alleline, Bill Haydon, Roy Bland and Toby Esterhaze. Six months later Riki Tarr, a maverick Far Eastern agent, turns up in London with a story suggesting there is a mole (a deeply concealed double agent) in the Circus (intelligence HQ, located at Cambridge Circus). Lacon of the Cabinet Office entices Smiley out of retirement to investigate the story. Smiley gradually pieces together the story by analyzing files, interrogating witnesses and trawling through his own memory and those of other retired Circus personnel, notably Connie Sachs (a brilliant cameo role played by Beryl Reid) until he finally unmasks the mole "Gerald" at the heart of the Circus. The mood of the story, however, is far from simple. Duplicity and betrayal, personal as well as public (Smiley's upperclass wife is sexually promiscuous, betraying him to "Gerald") informs every aspect of the scene. While the traitor is eventually unmasked the corrupt nature of the intelligence service serves as a microcosm of contemporary England: secretive, manipulative, class-ridden, materialistic and emotionally sterile. Thus, if the Augean stables have been cleaned, they will be soon be soiled again. This downbeat tone accounts for the serial not being taken up by the American networks and marks it off from the charismatic spy adventures of James Bond, but it also accounts for its particular appeal to British middle-brow audiences. The spy genre is virtually a British invention: although other countries produce spy writers, the centrality of the genre to British culture is longstanding and inescapable: John Buchan, Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, Frederick Forsyth, Len Deighton as well as John Le Carré have all achieved international success for their spy stories (not to mention television dramas by Dennis Potter (The Blade on the Feather) and Alan Bennett (An Englishman Abroad and A Question of Attribution). To account for this obsession with spies we only have to consider the political circumstances of Britain in the twentieth century: a declining Imperial power, whose overseas possessions have to be ruled and defended more by information than by outright physical force; an offshore island of a divided Europe; seeing itself threatened by German, then Soviet military ambitions. Perhaps even more significant than these external threats are those from within. A ruling class which maintains its grip on power by exclusion--a public school and Oxbridge educated elite hold a disproportionate share of positions of power in Cabinet, Whitehall, the BBC and government institutions--is liable to marginalize or demonize those who openly challenge its assumptions. The result is liable to be subversion from within--a tactic fostered by the duplicitous jockeyings for power of rival gangs in the enclosed masculine world of the public schools. The symbolic and emotional link between the world of the public school and that of the circus is established in Tinker Tailor by Jim Prideaux. The injured and betrayed agent teaches at a prep school after his failed Czech mission and enlists the aid of a hero-worshipping pupil as his watcher. Thus the fictions that Le Carré invented have their counterpart in the real world and tap familiar English fears and obsessions. In the same year, 1979, that saw the serialization of Tinker Tailor, the BBC also produced two documentary series Public School and Spy reinforcing the connections with Le Carré's work. "The Climate of Treason" concerned itself with speculating about the Fourth Man of the Burgess, MacLean, Philby double agents within MI5. On 15 November 1979 Mrs Thatcher identified Sir Anthony Blunt, adviser of the Queen's Pictures and Drawings as the Fourth man who had been recruited by the Russians in the 1930s. Le Carré's novel was read as a fictionalized version of these events. The success of Tinker Tailor lies in the realism, not only of character portrayal--and the acting of Alec Guinness has achieved as definitive a performance as Olivier's Richard III or Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell--but of the way in which intelligence institutions work. But the claim for realism must not be pressed too far: Le Carré has admitted that the vocabulary used was invented: babysitters, lamplighters, the Circus, the nursery, moles--though he was also amused to discover that real agents had begun to appropriate some of his vocabulary once the stories were published. Moreover, much intelligence work is bureaucratic and boring: Smiley's reflections turn the drudgery of reading files into a fascinating intellectual puzzle which, unlike the real experience, always produces significant information. At the symbolic level, however, the portrayal of the workings of bureaucracy is authentic: bureaucracies serve those who govern by gathering, processing and controlling access to information. In a world increasingly governed by means of information, those who control it have power and wealth, so that the resonance of Le Carré's story will carry beyond the cold war setting that is its point of departure. -Brendan Kenny CAST George Smiley ..........................................Alec Guiness Annie Smiley............................................. Sian Phillips Tinker (Percy Alleline) ..........................Michael Aldridge Soldier (Roy Bland).................................. Terence Rigby Poor Man (Toby Esterhase).................... Bernard Hepton Peter Guillam........................................Michael Jayston Lacon ......................................................Anthony Bate Control .................................................Alexander Knox PRODUCER Jonathan Powell PROGRAMMING HISTORY 7 50-minute episodes BBC 10 September 1979-22 October 1979 FURTHER READING Bloom, Harold. John Le Carré. New York: Chelsea, 1987. Bold, Alan Norman. The Quest for Le Carré. New York: St. Martin's, 1988. Lewis, Peter. John le Carré. New York: Ungar, 1985. Monaghan, David John. "Le Carré and England: A Spy's?Eye View." Modern Fiction Studies (West Lafayette, Indiana), Autumn 1983. SMILEY'S PEOPLE The bespectacled spymaster is once more called from retirement to come to the aid of the 'Circus' - and he returns with a vengeance. The muder of an emigre Soviet General, who was also a British agent, sends him digging into the past on a twister trail across Europe that moves, inexorably, towards a final showdown with his old adversary, Karla of Moscow Centre. BBC2 / 6x60m-e / 1982 Writers: John Le Carre, John Hopkins / Music: Patrick Gowers / Producer: Johnathon Powell / Director: Simon Langton Spy drama serial. A sequel to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in which elderly spy George Smiley tackles a Soviet spy master. With:- ALEC GUINESS as George Smiley / PATRICK STEWART as Karla / EILEEN ATKINS / BILL PATERSON / ROSALIE CRUTCHLEY / BERNARD HEPTON / MICHAEL GOUGH / ANTHONY BATE / MARIO ADORF / MICHAEL BYRNE / MICHAEL ELPHICK / BARRY FOSTER / CURT JURGENS / MAUREEN LIPMAN / MICHAEL LONSDALE / VLADEK SHEYBAL Rumpled, stodgy, and unassuming, George Smiley is literature’s unlikeliest master spy. He is also--as written by John le Carré and portrayed by Alec Guinness--the most thoughtful, fascinating, and human figure ever to practice the dark arts of espionage. This brilliant sequel to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy finds Smiley emerging from retirement to engage his lifelong nemesis, the Soviet spymaster Karla, in a final test of wits, nerves, and loyalties. "Marvelously riveting"--The New York Times. CC, approx. 324 min. on 3 DVDs. TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY BBC2 / 7x50m-e / 1979 10 September - 22 October Writer: Arthur Hopcraft / Novel: John Le Carre / Producer: Jonathon Powell / Music: Geoffrey Burgon / Script Editor: Betty Willingale / Design: Austen Spriggs / Camera: Tony Pierce-Roberts / Costume: Joyce Mortlock Spy drama serial. Ageing spy George Smiley is called out of retirement to track down a deadly double agent. See also Smiley's People and A Murder of Quality. With:- ALEC GUINESS as George Smiley / ALEXANDER KNOX as Controller / BERNARD HEPTON as Toby Esterhase / MICHAEL ALDRIDGE as Percy Alleline / HYWEL BENNETT as Ricki Tarr / SIAN PHILLIPS as Ann Smiley / TERENCE RIGBY as Roy Bland / IAN RICHARDSON as Bill Hayden / BERYL REID as Connie Sachs / GEORGE SEWELL as Mendel / IAN BANNEN as Jim Prideaux / MICHAEL JAYSTON as Peter Guillam / NIGEL STOCK as Roddy Martindale / ANTHONY BATE as Lacon / THORLEY WALTERS as Tufty Thessiger / WARREN CLARKE as Alwyn / PATRICK STEWART as Karla / JOHN STANDING as Sam Collins / JOSS ACKLAND as Jerry Westerby / JOHN WELLS as Headmaster No doubt remains; a mole has infiltrated the highest level of the Circus, code name for British Secret Intelligence Service. Sidelined agent George Smiley is covertly tapped to root out the traitor--a task that requires an intensive dig through the labyrinths of Cold War espionage and his own past. As Smiley, the incomparable Alec Guinness brilliantly captures the weary heart and steely soul of John le Carré's master spy. "One of the most madly atmospheric and enjoyably literate films ever done for television"--Washington Post. Digitally remastered presentation. DVD special features include exclusive interview with John le Carré. Approx. 324 min. on 3 DVDs. A PERFECT SPY BBC / 6x50m-e / 1988 Director: Peter Smith / Novel: John Le Carre Spy drama serial. The third part of the George Smiley trilogy, see also Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley's People. With:- ALEC GUINESS as George Smiley / PEGGY ASHCROFT / PETER EGAN / RAY McANALLY / SARAH BADEL / SARAH NEVILLE / TIM HEALY / JANE BOOKER / ALAN HOWARD / BENEDICT TAYLOR / RUDIGER WEIGANG / MICHAEL McSTAY / ANDY DE LA TOUR / JANE DOONER / JACK ELLIS A MURDER OF QUALITY Thames / 1x120m-e / 1991 Writer: John Le Carre /Director: Gavin Millar Period spy drama. During the 1950's George Smiley turns amateur detective to investigate the murder of a school-master's wife. With:- DENHOLM ELLIOTT as George Smiley / GLENDA JACKSON as Ailsa Brimley / JOSS ACKLAND / SAMANTHA JANUS / RONALD PICKUP / DAVID THRELLFALL

The Russia House

Tom Baker stars as Barley Blair in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Le Carre's highly acclaimed thriller, which is both a gripping spy saga and a poignant love story. In the third year of perestroika, London publisher Barley Blair is sent a manuscript from Moscow. Exposing soviet nuclear threats as a sham, the information could shatter East-West relations if genuine. Jazz-loving, hard-drinking, Blair is hardly the spymasters' idea of the perfect agent, yet they are forced to send him to Moscow to make contact.

But the Cold War thaws when Barley meets Katya, the beautiful Russian intermediary who is equally sceptical of state ideology. Mere pawns in a deadly game of international espionage, they nevertheless represent the breakdown of hostilities and a future which poses a huge threat to the entrenched professionals on both sides. Tome Baker turns in a masterful performance and running to over 3 hours, this is great value for money. My only gripe, that applies to all this range, is the fact that the opening and closing credits from the original radio broadcasts have been edited out. That said, the story flows wonderfully and is certainly great for when in traffic jams (which I have been every morning for the last few weeks!!!). Priced £9.99, the ISBN is 0563 39473 0.

A Small Town In Germany

'You're not to disturb, annoy or offend. They're walking on a knife edge out there, anything could tilt the balance.'

Kenneth Haigh stars as Alan Turner and Bernard Hepton as Rawley Bradfield in this explosive full-cast dramatisation of Le Carre's gripping tale of espionage and double dealing. Missing; one junior diplomat and forty-three of the British Embassy's most confidential files. The timing is alarmingly significant, with neo-Nazi riots and radical student demonstrations, the threat to Germany's security is all too apparent.

Britain's own Alan Turner is sent in with instructions to tread carefully at all costs. But will he find the missing man and the files before the political situation erupts? Priced at £9.99 with an ISBN 0563 40994 0, this is another great story from the pen of John Le Carre and not to be missed.

Smiley's People

'John Le Carre is the premier British Spy novelist of his time.' - Time Magazine

Bernard Hepton stars as George Smiley in another BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of this spy thriller. There are old scores to settle when softly-spoken spycatcher Smiley is once more called from retirement to come to the aid of the 'Circus': those faceless bureaucrats int he corridors of power. The murder of an emigre Soviet General, who was also a British agent, sends Smiley burrowing back into the past on a tortuous trail that leads, breathtakingly, towards a final showdown with his old adversary, the wily Karla of Moscow Centre.

Another great volume in this range, priced at the standard £9.99.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

Colin Blakely stars as Alec Leamas in a further full-cast radio dramatisation from BBC Radio 4. This classic Cold War novel changed the world of espionage fictions and follows Alec Leamas, a long standing member or the Circus, maybe too long. Since the Berlin station was blown, and every field agent caught or killed, Leamus, as head of the Berlin section is at a professional loose end, but the Circus does not take defeat lightly, and he must stay out in the cold a little longer.

With no back up and months of deep cover behind him, Leamus suddenly finds himself in the hands of a man whose reputation he knows only too well. And even though things seem to be going according to plan, he hasn't anticipated the one card they have left to play against him. Priced at £9.99 with ISBN 0563 38192 2.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

George Smiley, 'by appearance one of London's meek who do not inherit the earth', is once more called from retirement to the aid of the Circus the shadowy ureaucracy of British Intelligence. His mission this time is to help dig out a Russian 'mole' - a spy who has been operating for nearly thirty years inside the Circus itself. Can Smiley work his was through the tangles of bluff and double bluff and expose the agent?

One of John Le Carre's best-known works, marking the welcome return of spycatcher George Smiley, this brilliantly complex thriller will keep you guessing to the very end. Another 3 hour epic story with undoubtedly the best known British agent after Bond, this volume is £9.99 with an ISBN of 0563 22642 0.