Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ***** (1979, Alec Guinness, Michael Jayston, Anthony Bate, George Sewell, Beryl Reid) – Classic Movie Review 9606

Director John Irvin’s 1979 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the beautifully acted, meticulously organised TV version of the John le Carré novel about retired espionage agent George Smiley’s search for a mole at the heart of MI5.

In probably the best thing he did for TV, Alec Guinness is terrific in the star role, giving a mesmerising performance of exquisite subtlety and intensity. And the long seven-episode running time gives some of Britain’s favourite character actors space for showy displays of scene stealing (especially Beryl Reid in her two episodes as Connie Sachs).

The labyrinthine complicated plot unfolds at a steady but relentless pace, and the script is full of wise comments on the foibles of mankind. Impeccably done, it is great, good old-fashioned middle-brow entertainment, quietly dazzling.

Also in the cast are Bernard Hepton, Terence Rigby, Michael Aldridge, Ian Richardson, Alexander Knox, George Sewell, Ian Bannen, Michael Jayston, Nigel Stock, Anthony Bate, Hywel Bennett, Siân Phillips, John Standing, Joss Ackland, Warren Clarke, John Wells, Pauline Letts, Patrick Stewart, and George Pravda.

Home video version runs 290 minutes.

Sequel: Smiley’s People (1982), also with Alec Guinness.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is directed by John Irvin, runs 350 minutes, is made by BBC and Paramount Pictures, is distributed by BBC and Public Broadcasting Service (1980) (US), is written by Arthur Hopcraft, based on the John le Carré novel, is shot by Tony Pierce-Roberts, is produced by Jonathan Powell and is scored by Geoffrey Burgon.

It was remade as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in 2011.

John le Carré was the pen name of David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 1931 – 12 December 2020). His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), became an international bestseller, is one of his best-known works and was adapted into the 1965 classic film The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9606

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