Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Director: John Irvin
Starring: Alec Guinness | Michael Jayston | Anthony Bate | George Sewell
Released: 1979
Rating: ★★★★★

Wonderfully timeless television, helped by a classic story and the screenplay being written by John le Carré himself. Like the books, you spend at least half the show utterly perplexed, but its secrets slowly unravel, and hammer home the banal futility of the spying game and the slow decline of the British Empire. It’s hard to imagine being able to follow the plot watching via broadcast TV, but also thrilling, leaving the viewer filling in blanks based on merest hints. Alex Guinness is brilliant as George Smiley, his sheen of pure British manners leaving everyone terrified in its wake.