Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (film)
2011 film based on John le Carré's novel
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 Cold War spy film directed by Tomas Alfredson. The screenplay was written by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan, based on John le Carré's 1974 novel of the same name. The film stars an ensemble cast including Gary Oldman as George Smiley, with Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciarán Hinds, David Dencik and Kathy Burke. It is set in London in the early 1970s and follows the hunt for a Soviet double agent at the top of the British secret service.
The film was produced through the British company Working Title Films and financed by France's StudioCanal. It premiered in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. A critical and commercial success, it was the highest-grossing film at the British box office for three consecutive weeks. It won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film. The film also received three Oscar nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and for Oldman, Best Actor.
The novel had previously been adapted into the award-winning 1979 BBC television series of the same name with Alec Guinness playing the lead role of Smiley.
Plot.
In 1973, "Control", head of British intelligence ("The Circus"), sends field agent Jim Prideaux to Budapest to meet a Hungarian general and potential defector, who has offered to identify a mole installed by Soviet spymaster Karla amongst the Circus' senior leadership. Prideaux realises the meeting is a trap, attempts to leave and is shot in the back. Control and his deputy, George Smiley, are forced to retire and Control dies shortly after. Sir Percy Alleline becomes the new Chief, Bill Haydon his deputy, and Roy Bland and Toby Esterhase his lieutenants. In a flashback, we see that despite Control's and Smiley's suspicions, the four had begun handling a high level Soviet source ("Operation Witchcraft"); Alleline later begins sharing Witchcraft intelligence with the Americans.
Alleline and Bland meet with Permanent Undersecretary Oliver Lacon, the senior civil servant responsible for the Circus, to discuss the ongoing cost of a secret safe house to meet the Witchcraft source. After the meeting, field agent Ricki Tarr, currently in hiding due to being connected to several deaths in Istanbul, telephones Lacon to inform him of a mole within the Circus. Aware that Control had a similar theory, Lacon asks Smiley to investigate. Smiley recruits Peter Guillam and retired Special Branch Inspector Mendel to assist him.
After setting up a base in the Hotel Islay, Smiley has Guillam steal personnel records and copies of the Circus' slush fund accounts. He discovers several Control loyalists were ousted after Prideaux's shooting, as well as a record of payment made to "Mr. Ellis", one of Prideaux's identities, "after" the shooting. In Oxford, Smiley interviews analyst Connie Sachs. Sachs had discovered evidence that Soviet cultural attaché Alexei Polyakov was actually a military officer, and suspected his true role was to run a mole in London; Alleline had scoffed at her findings and sacked her.
Back in London, Smiley discovers Tarr in his house. Tarr tells how he was assigned to trail Boris, a Russian trade delegate in Istanbul who was offering to defect, but whom he quickly guessed was actually KGB. After Tarr witnessed Boris assault his wife and fellow agent Irina, he and Irina began an affair. Irina offered to reveal the identity of a top-level mole in exchange for asylum in the UK. Hours after Tarr cabled London about the existence of a double agent the local station chief was murdered and Irina abducted. Smiley sends Guillam to the Circus archive to steal the duty officer's logbook for the night Tarr contacted London. Guillam, who had been Tarr's boss, is unexpectedly brought before Circus leadership and told that Tarr, who has been detected flying into Amsterdam, is a traitor who has been bribed by the Soviets. Guillam returns to Smiley's house and, discovering for the first time that Tarr is there, punches him, but Smiley finds that the logbook pages for the relevant night have been removed, supporting Tarr's story.
That night, Smiley recounts his only meeting with Karla to Guillam. Whilst working under the name "Gerstmann" in 1955, Karla was captured and traded to Russia by the Americans. Believing he would likely be executed upon his return, Smiley travelled to Delhi to recruit him. However, his constant urging for Karla to think of his wife only revealed Smiley's weakness: his love for his wife, Ann. A chainsmoker, Karla listened silently, stole a lighter given to George by Ann, and returned to Russia.
Smiley contacts another sacked loyalist, former duty officer Jerry Westerby, who tells him of how Prideaux's shooting sent Control into shock. Hoping to find George, Westerby had telephoned Ann; Haydon then arrived and took charge. Guillam wonders how Haydon could have learned of the emergency, before Smiley informs him Haydon was having an affair with Ann. Smiley interviews Prideaux, who is working as a French teacher at a prep school. Prideaux explains that his Budapest mission was to identify the mole and relay one of five code-names to Control. Alleline was "Tinker", Haydon "Tailor", Bland "Soldier", Esterhase "Poorman", and Smiley "Beggarman". However, he was captured and tortured by the KGB, during which he witnessed Irina's execution. During his interrogation, Karla personally visited and asked how close Control was to identifying the mole before trading Prideaux back to the Circus.
Smiley realises that Witchcraft is actually a KGB ruse. The four Witchcraft lead officers believe Polyakov is trading sensitive Russian military and political intelligence for trivial British material. In reality Polyakov is trading false or insignificant intelligence and the mole is leaking substantive British intelligence. Smiley informs Lacon and the Minister that the true object of Witchcraft is to lure the CIA into sharing US intelligence, which the mole can then leak to Karla.
To draw out the mole, Smiley and Guillam send Tarr to the Paris Station to cable the Circus. To ensure his compliance, Smiley agrees to Tarr's request to trade the mole for Irina, despite knowing she is dead. Smiley and Guillam surprise Esterhase as he leaves the Circus and drive him to an airstrip where they threaten to deport him until he provides the address of the safe house. Smiley and Guillam wait at the safe house for the mole to alert Polyakov that Tarr is about to blow their cover. The mole is revealed to be Haydon, and Smiley arrests him at gunpoint.
The Circus holds Haydon at its training and debriefing facility, Sarratt. Smiley informs him he will be traded for British operatives held in the Soviet Union, and agrees to settle several of Haydon's sexual relationships with both women and men. Haydon informs him that Karla ordered him to seduce Ann to cloud Smiley's judgement. He also confirms that Prideaux, a long-time friend (and, it is hinted, lover), suspected Haydon was the mole and tipped him off before his Hungary mission. Haydon was able to inform Karla and prevent Prideaux being killed by the KGB. Prideaux, however, blames Haydon for allowing his torture.
Prideaux infiltrates Sarratt with a hunting rifle and shoots his friend underneath his eye, which forms a bloody teardrop that Prideaux watches from a distance before Haydon collapses. Ann returns home, and Smiley returns to the Circus as its Chief.
Cast.
<templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/>* Gary Oldman as George Smiley ("Beggarman")
Production.
Development.
The project was initiated by Peter Morgan when he wrote a draft of the screenplay, which he offered to Working Title Films to produce. Morgan dropped out as the writer for personal reasons but still served as an executive producer. Following Morgan's departure as writer, Working Title hired Peter Straughan and Bridget O'Connor to redraft the script. Park Chan-wook considered directing the film, but ultimately turned it down. Tomas Alfredson was confirmed to direct on 9 July 2009. The production is his first English language film. The film was backed financially by France's StudioCanal and had a budget corresponding to $21 million. The film is dedicated to O'Connor, who died of cancer during production.
Casting.
The director cast Gary Oldman in the role of George Smiley, and described the actor as having "a great face" and "the quiet intensity and intelligence that's needed". Many actors were connected to the other roles at various points, but only days before filming started, Oldman was still the only lead actor who officially had been contracted. David Thewlis was in talks for a role early on. Michael Fassbender was in talks at one point to star as Ricki Tarr, but the shooting schedule conflicted with his work on '; Tom Hardy was cast instead. On 17 September 2010, Mark Strong was confirmed to have joined the cast. Jared Harris was cast but had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts with '; he was replaced by Toby Jones. John le Carré appears in a cameo as a guest in a party scene.
Filming.
Principal photography took place between 7 October and 22 December 2010. Most of the film was shot in London. Studio scenes were shot at Inglis Barracks, a former army barracks in Mill Hill. Exterior shots of "The Circus" were at Blythe House in West Kensington. The Merlin safe house scenes were filmed at Empress Coach Works in Cambridge Heath. Some exterior scenes were filmed on Hampstead Heath and in Hampstead Ponds, where Smiley is shown swimming. Some exterior shots were filmed in Kensington Gore, and interior scenes were filmed in Queen Alexandra's House and the physics department of Imperial College London, all in South Kensington.
The production filmed in Budapest for five days. Exterior shots included scenes at Fisherman's Bastion. The café scene in which Jim Prideaux is shot was filmed in the interior hall of "Párizsi Udvar Hotel". The events which take place in Czechoslovakia in the novel were moved to Hungary, because of the country's 20% rebate for film productions.
The production filmed in Istanbul for nine days, shortly before Christmas.
The production reunited Alfredson with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and editor Dino Jonsäter, with whom he had made his previous film "Let the Right One In".
Post-production and music.
The film took six months to edit. The final song in the film, Julio Iglesias' rendition of the French song "La Mer", set against a visual montage of various characters and subplots being resolved as Smiley strides into Circus headquarters to assume command, was chosen because it was something the team thought George Smiley would listen to when he was alone; Alfredson described the song as "everything that the world of MI6 isn't". A scene where Smiley listens to the song was filmed, but eventually cut to avoid giving it too much significance.
Heard at a Circus office party, sung along to by the guests, is "The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World", composed by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, and performed by Sammy Davis Jr., from the British spy spoof "Licensed to Kill" (1965). At the same office Christmas function, the Circus staff sing the official "State Anthem of the USSR", conducted by a figure dressed as Father Christmas but wearing a Lenin mask. "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)", an album featuring Alberto Iglesias's score, was released by Silva Screen Records on 14 October 2011.
Release and reception.
The film premiered in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival on 5 September 2011. StudioCanal UK distributed the film in the United Kingdom, where it was released on 16 September 2011. The US rights were acquired by Universal Pictures, which owns Working Title, and they passed the rights to their subsidiary Focus Features. Focus planned to give the film a wide release in the United States on 9 December 2011 but pushed it to January 2012, when it was given an 800 screen release.
The film was released in France on 8 February 2012 under the title "La Taupe" (meaning "The Mole").
Critical response.
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" received critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 83% based on 229 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The site's critics' consensus states: ""Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is a dense puzzle of anxiety, paranoia, and espionage that director Tomas Alfredson pieces together with utmost skill." Metacritic calculated an average critic score of 85/100 based on 42 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
Jonathan Romney of "The Independent" wrote, "The script is a brilliant feat of condensation and restructuring: writers Peter Straughan and the late Bridget O'Connor realise the novel is overtly about information and its flow, and reshape its daunting complexity to highlight that". David Gritten of "The Daily Telegraph" declared the film "a triumph" and gave it a five star rating, as did his colleague, Sukhdev Sandhu. Stateside, Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" wrote, "As Alfredson directs the expert script by Peter Straughan and Bridget O'Connor, the film emerges as a tale of loneliness and desperation among men who can never disclose their secret hearts, even to themselves. It's easily one of the year's best films." M. Enois Duarte of "High-Def Digest" also praised the film as a "brilliant display of drama, mystery and suspense, one which regards its audience with intelligence".
Writing in "The Atlantic", le Carré admirer James Parker favourably contrasted Smiley with the James Bond franchise but found this "Tinker Tailor" adaptation "problematic" compared with the 1979 BBC mini-series. He wrote: "To strip down or minimalize le Carré, however, is to sacrifice the almost Tolkienesque grain and depth of his created world: the decades-long backstory, the lingo, the arcana, the liturgical repetitions of names and functions".
Keith Uhlich of "Time Out New York" named "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" the fourth-best film of 2011, calling it "a visually stunning adaptation with a stellar cast." In 2020, Uhlich named it the ninth-best film of the 2010s.
Box office.
The film topped the British box office chart for three consecutive weeks and earned $80,630,608 worldwide.
Possible sequel.
While doing press for Working Title's "Les Misérables" film adaptation, producer Eric Fellner stated that fellow producer Tim Bevan was working with writer Straughan and director Alfredson on developing a sequel to "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". Fellner did not specify whether or not the sequel would be based on "The Honourable Schoolboy" or "Smiley's People", the two remaining Smiley novels in Le Carré's Karla trilogy. While doing press for "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" in 2014, Oldman stated that talk of a sequel, an adaptation of "Smiley's People", had since disappeared; while also stressing that he would still like to see the film produced.
In July 2016, Oldman said that a sequel was in its early stages, stating, "There is a script, but I don't know when we will shoot." It was reported at the time that a script based on "Smiley's People" had been "greenlit" by Working Title Films.
In December 2021, Alfredson said that a film sequel to the 2011 film was unlikely; the rights having reverted to Le Carré's estate, who were planning to reboot Smiley on television. Alfredson expressed an interest in directing Oldman in a future TV miniseries adaptation of "Smiley's People" but he thought that the moment had likely passed. In an interview with the "Radio Times" in September 2024, producer Douglas Urbanski said that, "We loved "Tinker" and we started to do prep for Gary to do "Smiley’s People", and suddenly there was an unexpected rights issue. We've reached out, including again recently, to Le Carré’s sons and — the damnedest thing — they have no interest in Gary playing Smiley again. I don’t know why."
However, in March 2025, it was announced that a new TV adaptation of several Le Carré novels entitled "A Legacy of Spies" had begun production, effectively ending hope of a film sequel.
References.
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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (TV series)
1979 BBC programme based on John le Carré's spy novel
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 1979 British seven-part spy drama by the BBC. John Irvin directed and Jonathan Powell produced this adaptation of John le Carré's novel "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (1974). The serial, which stars Alec Guinness, Alexander Knox, Ian Richardson, Michael Jayston, Bernard Hepton, Anthony Bate, Ian Bannen, George Sewell and Michael Aldridge, was shown in the United Kingdom from 10 September to 22 October 1979, and in the United States beginning on 29 September 1980. The US version was re-edited from the original seven episodes to fit into six episodes.
The series, which received widespread acclaim, was followed by "Smiley's People" in 1982.
Plot.
George Smiley, deputy to the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, has been forced into retirement in the wake of Operation Testify, a failed spy mission in Czechoslovakia. The Chief of the Circus, known only as Control, had sent veteran agent Jim Prideaux to meet a Czechoslovak general who supposedly had information identifying a deep-cover Soviet spy planted in the highest echelons of the British Secret Intelligence Service—known as the Circus, because of its headquarters at Cambridge Circus in London.
The mission proved to be a trap, and Prideaux was shot in the back, captured and tortured by the Soviets. Control was disgraced by Testify and replaced by his rival Percy Alleline. Control's obsession with the possibility of a Soviet mole at the Circus was not shared by others in the organisation, who insist that any leaks and failures at the Circus were due to Control's incompetence. On the contrary, Alleline and the rest of the new leadership team at the Circus believe that "they" have a mole, code-named Merlin, working for them in Moscow Centre, the KGB headquarters, passing them secrets in an operation code-named Witchcraft. Others in the British and American intelligence communities have been impressed with the information produced by Witchcraft, and Alleline and his team are regarded as a refreshing change from Control.
More than a year after Testify and the shake-up at the Circus, Ricki Tarr, a British agent gone missing in Lisbon, turns up in England with new evidence backing up Control's theory of a mole at the Circus. While on a routine mission Tarr had been approached by Irina, a low-level Soviet agent who claimed to know the identity of the mole and wanted to trade it for permission to defect. As soon as Tarr informed the Circus of Irina's offer, she was abducted by the KGB and spirited back to Russia. Tarr, convinced he had been betrayed by the mole Irina was going to identify, believed that he would also be targeted and murdered. Returning to London secretly, Tarr contacts Oliver Lacon, a senior civil servant who is the liaison between the Circus and the British Cabinet.
Before his ousting, Control had narrowed his list of suspects to five men – Roy Bland, Toby Esterhase, Bill Haydon, Percy Alleline, and George Smiley – all of whom occupied high positions in the Circus. Knowing the Soviet spy is highly placed in the Circus, Lacon cannot trust the Circus to uncover the mole or even allow its personnel to know of the investigation. Smiley, who had been fired along with Control while Control's other four suspects were promoted, is recalled by Lacon and given instructions to expose the mole. With the help of his protégé, Peter Guillam, who is still in the Circus, Smiley begins a secret investigation into the events surrounding Operation Testify, believing it will lead him to the identity of the mole, whom Moscow Centre has given the cover name "Gerald".
Smiley learns that Operation Witchcraft uses a safehouse to meet with Aleksey Aleksandrovich Polyakov, a Soviet agent. Polyakov appears to hand over valuable intelligence material but this is actually "chickenfeed", and the operation is a cover by which Gerald passes valuable material to Polyakov. Smiley forces Toby Esterhase to reveal the location of the safe house. Tarr is sent to Paris, where he sends a coded message to Alleline about "information crucial to the wellbeing of the Service". This triggers an emergency meeting between Gerald and Polyakov at the safehouse, where Smiley and Guillam lie in wait.
The mole is revealed to be Bill Haydon. Haydon is debriefed by Smiley, but is killed by Jim Prideaux before he can be exchanged with the Soviets.
Production.
Shortly before filming began, Alec Guinness asked author John le Carré to introduce him to a real spy to aid him in preparing for his role. Le Carré invited Guinness to lunch with Sir Maurice Oldfield, who served as Chief of the British Intelligence Service from 1973 to 1978. During their meal, Guinness intently studied Oldfield for any mannerisms or quirks that he could use in his performance. When he saw Oldfield run his finger around the rim of his wine glass, he asked whether Oldfield was checking for poison—much to Oldfield's astonishment, as he was only checking how clean the glass was.
The series was shot on location in London, including some of the intelligence agency scenes which were shot in the BBC offices; in Glasgow for scenes in Czechoslovakia, at Oxford University, at Bredon School in Gloucestershire where the character Jim Prideaux was a master, and elsewhere.
Music.
The end credits music, a setting of "Nunc dimittis" ("Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace") from the "Book of Common Prayer "(1662), was composed by Geoffrey Burgon for organ, strings, trumpet, and treble; the score earned Burgon the Ivor Novello Award for 1979 and reached 56 on the UK Singles Chart. The treble on the original recording, Paul Phoenix, was a tenor in the King's Singers later in his career.
Broadcast.
The series was shown in the United Kingdom from 10 September to 22 October 1979, and in the United States beginning on 29 September 1980. In the US. it was broadcast on PBS as part of its Great Performances series, and included commentary from Robert MacNeil and le Carré.
In the US, the syndicated broadcasts were re-edited from the seven original episodes broadcast in the UK to fit into six episodes. The overall running time is about the same.
Reception.
At the time of its release in the United States in 1980, "Washington Post", television critic Tom Shales called the series "intricate and fascinating", and described its episodes as "six scintillating and delectable hours."
"New York Times" television critic John J. O'Connor called Guinness's performance "uncommonly brilliant." Guinness, he said, could "say more with a slight parting of his lips than most actors can say while shouting from the rafters. He pointed out that Guinness was superb in the role even though he was older and not as heavy as Smiley was described in the novel. O'Connor praised the supporting cast and said that Hopcrofts's script was "tenaciously faithful to the spirit of the novel."
Legacy.
Writing in 2011, "Guardian" critic Toby Manning wrote that the series "is still unmatched in its evocation of the chilly, cynical cold war era".
In a retrospective review in "The New York Times", Mike Hale lauded Guinness's performance, and cited the production's pacing versus current techniques, stating: "Audiences used to the pace of the modern TV crime or espionage drama will need to reorientate themselves." Retrospective reviewers favourably compared the series with the 2011 film version, also citing le Carré's praise of the original and referring to Guinness's performance.
Le Carré cited the series as his favourite filmed adaptation of his work, attributing this to his experience collaborating with Guinness.
Home video.
"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" was released on VHS in 1991 (BBCV 4605) and 1999 (BBCV 6788). It was released on Region 2 DVD in 2003 (BBCDVD 1180), and in 2011 bundled with "Smiley's People" (BBCDVD 3535). A remastered Blu-ray edition was released in 2019 (BBCBD0465).
References.
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Smiley's People (TV series)
British television miniseries
Smiley’s People is a 1982 British six-part spy drama by the BBC. Directed by Simon Langton and produced by Jonathan Powell, it is the television adaptation of the 1979 spy novel "Smiley's People" by John le Carré, and a sequel to "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (missing out the second book in the trilogy, "The Honourable Schoolboy", which was not filmed for cost reasons). Starring Alec Guinness, Michael Byrne, Anthony Bate and Bernard Hepton, it was first shown in the United Kingdom from 20 September to 25 October 1982, and in the United States beginning on 25 October 1982.
Plot.
George Smiley is called out of retirement when one of his former assets, an émigré general, is found murdered. In tidying up loose ends for the "Circus", his former employer, he discovers a clandestine operation run by his nemesis, Karla, for his own personal benefit. Smiley is able to use this irregularity against Karla, forcing him to defect to the West.
Cast.
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Production.
The series was produced in partnership with the BBC and Paramount Pictures with a budget of $3 million. Due to the success of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", director John Irvin had begun making movies and was unavailable. Later in pre-production, Simon Langton replaced John MacKenzie, Irvin's initial successor as director of the series. According to Michael Jayston (who himself could not reprise his role from "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" for various reasons), this was at the behest of Guinness, who was unhappy with MacKenzie. During filming, Guinness was not satisfied with Langton either, writing; "I felt dubious about Simon's work... I greatly miss John Irvin's grip and inner tension." Arthur Hopcraft declined the offer to write the screenplay and was replaced by John Hopkins. Author le Carré was called in to help resolve technical difficulties within the script. In contrast to the public television broadcast of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "Smiley's People" was telecast in the U.S. in November 1982 as an Operation Prime Time presentation on some 100 independent commercial stations across the country.
The bridge leading from East to West Berlin for the defection scene was found in the Midlands city of Nottingham. Other location shooting was done in Berne, Hamburg, Paris, and London.
Reception.
The initial reviews were good, but the enthusiasm decreased as the series progressed. A contemporary review in "The New York Times" described the production as a "marvelously riveting television film" and referred to Guinness's performance as stunning and the supporting company as outstanding. The review summarized the series as "the best show you are likely to see on television for the time being." In a retrospective review, Neal Justin of the "Star Tribune" called Guinness's portrayal of Smiley as "a master class in subtle acting." Mark Lawson of "The Guardian" called the adaptation, "among the most beautiful and enduring achievements of TV drama."
Awards.
In 1983 "Smiley's People" won four BAFTA awards, including Best Actor (for Alec Guinness) and Best Actress (for Beryl Reid), and was nominated for six others. The series also won a Peabody Award. In 2010, "The Guardian" ranked the series at number 17 in their list of "The Top 50 TV Dramas of All Time".
Commercial releases.
"Smiley's People" was released on VHS in 1991 (BBCV 4606) and 1999 (BBCV 6767). It was released on Region 2 DVD in 2004 (BBCDVD 1183), and in 2011 bundled with "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (BBCDVD 3535). A remastered Blu-ray edition was released in 2020 (BBCBD0502).
Patrick Gowers' soundtrack was released by BBC Records in 1982 (REP 439, vinyl and ZCH439, cassette), and re-released on blue vinyl (DEMREC710) and as MP3 in 2020 by Demon Records.
References.
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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
1974 spy novel by John le Carré
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 1974 spy novel by the author and former spy John le Carré. It follows the endeavours of the taciturn, ageing spymaster George Smiley to uncover a Soviet mole in the British Secret Intelligence Service. The novel has received critical acclaim for its complex social commentary—and, at the time, relevance, following the defection of Kim Philby. It was followed by "The Honourable Schoolboy" in 1977 and "Smiley's People" in 1979. The three novels together make up the "Karla Trilogy", named after Smiley's long-time nemesis Karla, the head of Soviet foreign intelligence and the trilogy's overarching antagonist.
The novel has been adapted into both a television series and a film, and remains a staple of the spy fiction genre. In 2022, the novel was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
Plot.
Background.
As the tension of the Cold War is peaking in 1973, George Smiley, former senior official in Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (known as "the Circus" because its London office is at Cambridge Circus), is living unhappily in forced retirement, following the failure of an operation codenamed Testify in Czechoslovakia which ended in the capture and torture of agent Jim Prideaux. Control, chief of the Circus, had suspected that one of the five senior intelligence officers at the Circus was a Soviet mole, and had assigned them code names for Prideaux to relay back to the Circus, derived from the English children's rhyme "Tinker, Tailor":<poem>Tinker, tailor,
soldier, sailor,
rich man, poor man,
beggarman, thief.</poem>
The failure resulted in the dismissal of Control, Smiley, and allies such as Connie Sachs and Jerry Westerby, and their replacement by a new guard consisting of Percy Alleline, Toby Esterhase, Bill Haydon, and Roy Bland. Control has since died, and Smiley's former protégé, Peter Guillam, has been demoted to the "scalphunters".
Guillam unexpectedly approaches Smiley and takes him to the house of Under-Secretary Oliver Lacon, the civil servant who oversees the Circus. There they meet Ricki Tarr, an agent recently declared "persona non grata" due to suspicion of having defected. Tarr defends himself by explaining that he was informed of a Soviet mole at the highest level of the Circus – codenamed Gerald – by Irina, the wife of a trade delegate, while in Hong Kong. Irina claimed that the mole, Gerald, reports to a Soviet official stationed at the embassy in London called Polyakov. Shortly after Tarr relayed this to the Circus, Irina was forcibly returned to the Soviet Union, leading Tarr to suspect that the mole was real, and now knew his identity. Tarr went into hiding, resurfacing to contact Guillam.
Lacon reasons that neither Smiley nor Guillam can be the mole, due to their respective dismissal and demotion, and so requests that Smiley investigate the presence of the mole in total secrecy to avoid another PR scandal for both the Government and the Circus. Smiley cautiously agrees, and forms a team consisting of himself, Guillam, Tarr, and retired Scotland Yard Inspector Mendel. Smiley is also given access to Circus documents, and begins by examining Alleline's restructuring, discovering the ousting of Jerry Westerby and Connie Sachs, as well as slush fund payments to Jim Prideaux.
Smiley begins the hunt.
Smiley visits Sachs, discovering that she confronted Alleline about her discovery that Polyakov was actually a Soviet Colonel called Gregor Viktorov, but he ordered her to drop the subject. She also mentions rumours of a secret Soviet facility for training moles, and makes allusions to Prideaux and Bill Haydon's relationship being more than just platonic friendship.
Smiley examines Operation Witchcraft, an operation in which Soviet intelligence was obtained through a key source known as "Merlin", which was treated with suspicion by both Smiley and Control. Alleline obtained ministerial support to circumvent Control's authority, and his post-Testify promotion supporters Haydon, Esterhase, and Bland have sponsored it. Smiley also learns that this "Magic Circle" has obtained a safe house somewhere in London where they obtain information from a Merlin emissary posted in London under a diplomatic cover, who – Smiley concludes – is Polyakov himself.
Smiley suspects that the Circus does not realise the flow of information is going the other way, with the mole "Gerald" passing important British secrets ("gold dust") in return for low-grade Soviet material ("chicken feed"), which would make "Witchcraft" simply a cover for the mole.
Karla.
Smiley also discovers that the log from the night Tarr reported in from Hong Kong has been removed, and Guillam starts to suffer from paranoia as a result of their operation. Smiley tells Guillam that he suspects a Soviet intelligence officer named Karla is linked in some way to the operation, and reveals what he knows about him. Karla is believed to have followed his father into espionage, getting his start during the Spanish Civil War posing as a White Russian émigré in the forces of General Francisco Franco, recruiting foreign, mainly German, operatives. After this the Circus lost track of Karla, but he resurfaced during Operation Barbarossa, directing partisan operations behind German lines. Smiley explains his belief that somewhere in the gap between these two conflicts, Karla travelled to England and recruited Gerald.
Smiley points out that Karla is fiercely loyal to both the Soviet Union and communism, highlighting Karla's current rank despite his internment in a gulag by the Stalinist regime, and reveals that Karla turned down an offer from Smiley in India to defect, even though his return to the USSR in 1955 was to face a likely execution. During his attempt to obtain Karla's defection, Smiley plied him with cigarettes and promises that they could get Karla's family out to the West safely. Smiley suspects that this only revealed his own weakness, his love for his unfaithful wife, Ann. Smiley offered Karla his lighter, a present from Ann, to light a cigarette, but Karla rose and left with it.
Merlin and Testify.
Smiley suspects a link between Merlin and the botched Operation Testify. Sam Collins, who was duty officer that night, tells Smiley that Control ordered him to relay the report of the Czech operation only to him, but that when he did so, Control froze up, and that Bill Haydon's sudden arrival was the only reason the hierarchy didn't fall apart that night. Smiley then visits Max, a Czech operative who served as a legman for Prideaux on the operation, who tells Smiley that Prideaux gave him instructions to leave Czechoslovakia any way he could if Prideaux didn't surface at the rendezvous at the appointed time. Smiley next visits Jerry Westerby, who tells Smiley about the trip to Prague when a young army conscript insisted that the Russians were in the woods waiting for Prideaux a full day before he was ambushed.
Finally, Smiley tracks down Prideaux. Prideaux tells him Control believed there was a mole in the Circus, and had whittled it down to five men, Alleline (Tinker), Haydon (Tailor), Bland (Soldier), Esterhase (Poorman), and Smiley himself (Beggarman), and that his orders were to obtain the identity from a defector in Czech intelligence who knew. He tells Smiley he almost didn't make the rendezvous with Max because he noticed he was being tailed, and that when he arrived to meet the defector, he was ambushed, taking two bullets to his right shoulder. During his captivity, both Polyakov and Karla interrogated him, focusing solely on the extent and status of Control's investigation. Prideaux suggests that the Czech defector was a plant, contrived by Karla to engineer Control's downfall through Testify's failure, all conceived to protect the mole.
Catching the mole.
Smiley confronts Toby Esterhase, stating that he is aware that Esterhase has been posing as a Russian mole, with Polyakov as his handler, in order to provide cover for Merlin's emissary Polyakov. Smiley compels Esterhase into revealing the location of the safe house, through making him realise that not only is there a real Soviet mole embedded in the SIS, but also that Polyakov has not been "turned" to work in British interest pretending to run the "mole" Esterhase, and in fact remains Karla's agent. Tarr is sent to Paris, where he passes a coded message to Alleline about "information crucial to the well-being of the Service". This triggers an emergency meeting between Gerald and Polyakov at the safe house, where Smiley and Guillam are lying in wait.
Haydon is revealed to be the mole, and his interrogation reveals that he had been recruited several decades ago by Karla and became a full-fledged Soviet spy partly for political reasons, partly in frustration at Britain's rapidly declining influence on the world stage, particularly on account of the failings at Suez. He is expected to be exchanged with the Soviet Union for several of the agents he betrayed, but is killed shortly before he is due to leave England. Although the identity of his killer is not explicitly revealed, it is strongly implied to be Prideaux, due to the method of execution echoing the way he euthanises an injured owl earlier in the book, Prideaux's implied threat to execute a driver in Czechoslovakia in the same way that Haydon is killed, and a sense Smiley has of someone with Prideaux's background observing some of his later interrogations. Smiley is appointed temporary head of the Circus to deal with the fallout, and is still head at the start of the second book of "The Karla Trilogy", "The Honourable Schoolboy".
Background.
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is the fifth of le Carré's spy novels to feature the character of George Smiley (the first four being: "Call for the Dead", "A Murder of Quality", "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", and "The Looking Glass War") and the fictionalised intelligence agency of "the Circus." Two of the characters, Peter Guillam and Inspector Mendel, first appeared in "Call for the Dead", while Control appeared in "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold." With "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", le Carré returned to the world of spy fiction after his non-espionage novel, "The Naïve and Sentimental Lover", was panned by critics.
When "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" was published in 1974, revelations exposing the presence of Soviet double agents in Britain were still fresh in public memory. Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, and Kim Philby, later known as members of the Cambridge Five, had been exposed as KGB spies. The five had risen to very senior positions in the British diplomatic service.
John le Carré, whose real name was David Cornwell, worked as an intelligence officer for MI5 and MI6 (SIS) in the 1950s and early 1960s. Senior SIS officer Kim Philby's defection to the USSR in 1963, and the consequent compromising of British agents, was a factor in the 1964 termination of Cornwell's intelligence career. Le Carré also drew from the paranoid atmosphere created by CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton, who after Philby's defection became convinced that there were other moles operating at the highest levels of Western intelligence agencies.
The title alludes to the nursery rhyme and counting game Tinker Tailor.
Themes.
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"It's scarce wonder that Smiley has become almost as legendary a figure as [Kim] Philby, for "Tinker, Tailor" with all its outward verisimilitude, constructs a potent and appealing myth for the class-ridden and post-imperial "angst" of Britain in the 1970s."
David Stafford
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is set against a theme of decline in British influence on the world stage after the Second World War, with the USSR and the USA emerging as the dominant superpowers during the Cold War. Mark Fisher said the notion of "postcolonial melancholia" hangs over the novel, arguing that both the protagonists and antagonists are motivated by what they see as Britain's "irreversible decline." These themes are particularly found in the character of Bill Haydon, who is modelled off the upper-class double agent Kim Philby. After his unmasking and capture, Haydon voices both a latent hostility towards the United States and a mourning of Britain's lack of "relevance or moral viability in world affairs." The novel is emblematic of a British "rottenness," according to critic David Monaghan, and le Carré locates it with a failure of the British ruling class itself, which has become directionless and self-seeking.
Central to the novel is the theme of betrayal. Melvyn Bragg wrote that le Carré sought to illustrate that "the public or institutional default is always more excusable than the personal betrayal of faith." Haydon's betrayal of the Circus to Karla comes as a reaction to a postwar world that "[deprived] him of the Empire he was trained to rule." Monaghan notes that le Carré (in "Smiley's People") refers to Haydon as a "born deceiver," who betrays his colleague (Smiley), his lover (Ann and/or Prideaux) and his country. Nevertheless, Haydon's exact motivations are left vague – unlike Philby, who espoused a deep ideological commitment to communism."
Historian David A.T. Stafford considered Haydon's eventual capture to be a mythologised reimagining of the Philby affair. He noted that, "far from receiving his just desserts," the real-life mole ended up alive and well in Moscow, thanks to the incompetence of his superiors and the wilful ignorance of his colleagues. "That Philby was protected by a conspiracy of class is true enough, but that he was unmasked by a Smiley is not... "Tinker Tailor" is a fantasy; George Smiley a myth." In this sense, Stafford considers Smiley and Haydon to exist as classic foils to each other:
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Tom Maddox wrote that Smiley's conflict with the Circus, past and present, represents the idealistic virtues of the Second World War that are "at odds" with the inhumanity, sophistry, and careerism of the spying profession. "The secret service seeks to dispense with that humanity, the consensus on high being that humane virtues have outlasted whatever limited usefulness they might have had. So Smiley comes and goes, comes and goes." Fisher noted Smiley's characterisation as an outsider to the affairs the Circus, representing an archetypical Englishness that is both "stolid" and "voyeuristic". Fisher likens Smiley in the novel to both King Arthur — a "perpetually cuckolded" figure "returning to save his ailing kingdom" — as well as T. S. Eliot's figure of J. Alfred Prufrock, who is at once self-conscious and "pathologically self-blinding" to his weaknesses.
Jargon.
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" employs spy jargon that is presented as the authentic insider-speak of British Intelligence. Le Carré noted that, with the exception of a few terms like "mole" and "legend", this jargon was his own invention. In some cases, terms used in the novel have subsequently entered espionage parlance. For example, the terms "mole", implying a long-term spy, and "honey trap", implying a ploy in which an attractive person lures another into revealing information, were first introduced in this novel, and have only subsequently entered general usage.
The television adaptation of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" also uses the term "burrower" for a researcher recruited from a university, a term taken from the novel's immediate sequel "The Honourable Schoolboy".
Moscow Centre.
Moscow Centre is a nickname used by John le Carré for the Moscow central headquarters of the KGB, especially those departments concerned with foreign espionage and counterintelligence. It arises from use by Soviet officers themselves, and Le Carré likely just used the nickname to gain greater credibility for his books.
The part of Moscow Centre most often referred to in Le Carré's novels is the fictional Thirteenth Directorate headed by Karla, the code name for a case officer who has risen and fallen from political favour several times and was at one point "blown" by the British in the 1950s. Karla and George Smiley meet while Karla is in prison in Delhi, with Smiley trying to persuade Karla to defect during an interrogation in which Karla gives nothing away. Karla refuses these advances and eventually returns to favour in the USSR, masterminding the Witchcraft/Source Merlin operations supporting the mole Gerald in the Circus. Karla possesses a cigarette lighter given to Smiley by his wife, which he took during Smiley's interrogation of him.
Critical response.
In a review for "The New York Times" written upon the novel's release in 1974, critic Richard Locke called "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" "fluently written," noting that "it is full of vivid character sketches of secret agents and bureaucrats from all levels of British society, and the dialogue catches their voices well." He praised the novel's realism, calling the detailing of "the day to day activities of the intelligence service at home and abroad" convincing. He noted that the "scale and complexity of this novel are much greater than in any of Le Carré's previous books," while the "characterisation too has become much richer."
An article published in in-house Central Intelligence Agency journal "Studies in Intelligence", presumably written by agents under pseudonyms, called it "one of the most enduring renderings of the profession". It does question the "organisational compression" involved in the form of a large organisation, which the SIS would be, being reduced to a handful of senior operatives playing operational roles, but admits that this "works very well at moving the story along in print." However, the idea that a major counter-intelligence operation could be run without the knowledge of counter-intelligence professionals, an allusion to Smiley's investigation progressing in an undetected manner, is deemed an "intellectual stretch."
John Powers of NPR has called it the greatest spy story ever told, noting that it "offers the seductive fantasy of entering a secret world, one imagined with alluring richness." Le Carré himself considered the novel to be among his best works.
In other media.
Television.
A TV adaptation of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" was made by the BBC in 1979. It is a seven-part serial and was released in September of that year. The series was directed by John Irvin, produced by Jonathan Powell, and stars Alec Guinness as George Smiley, with Ian Richardson as Bill Haydon. Ricki Tarr was played by Hywel Bennett. In the US, syndicated broadcasts and DVD releases compressed the seven-part UK episodes into six, by shortening scenes and altering the narrative sequence.
Radio.
In 1988, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a dramatisation, by Rene Basilico, of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" in seven weekly half-hour episodes, produced by John Fawcett-Wilson. It is available as a BBC audiobook in CD and audio cassette formats. Notably, Bernard Hepton portrays George Smiley. Nine years earlier, he had portrayed Toby Esterhase in the television adaptation.
In 2009, BBC Radio 4 also broadcast new dramatisations, by Shaun McKenna, of the eight George Smiley novels by John le Carré, featuring Simon Russell Beale as Smiley. "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" was broadcast as three one-hour episodes, from Sunday 29 November to Sunday 13 December 2009, in BBC Radio 4's Classic Serial slot. The producer was Steven Canny. The series was repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra in June and July 2016, and has since been released as a boxed set by the BBC.
Film.
Swedish director Tomas Alfredson made a film adaptation in 2011, based on a screenplay by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan. The film was released in the UK and Ireland on 16 September 2011, and in the United States on 9 December 2011. It includes a cameo appearance by Le Carré in the Christmas party scene as the older man in the grey suit who stands suddenly to sing the Soviet anthem. The film received numerous Academy Award nominations, including a nomination for Best Actor for Gary Oldman for his role as George Smiley. The film also stars Colin Firth as Bill Haydon, Benedict Cumberbatch as Peter Guillam, Tom Hardy as Ricki Tarr, and Mark Strong as Jim Prideaux.
Novel.
Karen Abbott's 2015 novel, a fictionalised account of the amateur spy work of four women, including Elizabeth Van Lew, during the American Civil War, is named "Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War," after le Carré's Cold War thriller.
Notes.
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References.
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Michael Smiley
Northern Irish comedian and actor (born 1963)
Michael Smiley (born 1963) is a Northern Irish comedian and actor. He is well known for his roles in the films "Kill List" (2011) and "The Lobster" (2015). He has also made appearances in British television series such as "Spaced", "Luther", "Utopia", "Black Mirror" and "Doctor Who".
Early life.
Smiley was born in 1963 in Belfast and grew up in Holywood with an older brother and sister. He was raised Catholic.
He moved to London with his first wife in 1983. He began doing stand-up in 1993, after accepting a bet at an open-mic night. He had worked as a cycle courier, like his character in "Spaced," and as an acid house DJ.
Career.
He became well known for his role as Tyres O'Flaherty, the bicycle riding raver, in two episodes of the Channel 4 sitcom "Spaced", and for his appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Melbourne Comedy Festival. He played Mac, a former member of the British Army's Parachute Regiment in the 2008 horror film "Outpost" and as a zombie in "Shaun of the Dead".
In 2003, he guest starred in the "Doctor Who" audio drama "Creatures of Beauty". In 2004 he appeared in season 2, episode 4 of "Hustle" as Max the forger. He also was a small character in episode 2 "The Model" of "15 Storeys High".
He has appeared in all three series of "The Maltby Collection" on Radio 4 as Des Wainwright, an eccentric security guard who keeps repeating himself and reminding people he was in the SAS. He plays the part of Benny "Deadhead" Silver in the BBC drama series "Luther". In 2010, he had a major role in the film "Burke & Hare" alongside his "Spaced" co-stars Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes.
In 2011, he starred in British horror film "Kill List". The film received critical acclaim, and earned him the "Best Supporting Actor" Award at the 2011 British Independent Film Awards.
In 2013, he has appeared in an episode of BBC One's "Ripper Street" as George Lusk, and the critically acclaimed Channel 4 shows "Utopia" as Detective Reynolds and "Black Mirror" in the episode "White Bear" as Baxter. He also starred in "A Field in England" as the main antagonist, the alchemist O'Neill. He also played Roddy in "Father Figure". In November 2013 he appeared in the third episode of the BBC Two Mitchell and Webb comedy "Ambassadors" as Mr Jackson. In 2014, he played Micky Murray in BBC Four's "The Life of Rock with Brian Pern".
To coincide with the opening stages of the Giro d'Italia in May 2014, "Michael Smiley: Something to Ride Home About" was a travelog programme for BBC Northern Ireland, directed by George Kane, featuring Smiley cycling around Northern Ireland and meeting local people. A second series was commissioned for 2015.
In 2014 Smiley played Colonel Morgan Blue in the "Doctor Who" episode "Into the Dalek".
He also had a major role in British crime series "Luther" acting as “Deadhead” Benny Silver from 2010 until 2019.
In 2019, Smiley co-starred with Elijah Wood and Martin Donovan in the film "Come to Daddy" directed by Ant Timpson.
In 2020, he starred in "Dead Still", a six-part Irish-Canadian television drama series, alongside Eileen O'Higgins & Kerr Logan. It premiered on May 18, 2020 on Acorn TV and May 15, 2020 Citytv. The series is a co-production between Ireland's Deadpan Pictures and Canada's Shaftesbury Films and is written by John Morton, and directed by Imogen Murphy and Craig David Wallace.
In 2021, Smiley appeared in the lead role in "The Toll", a Welsh black comedy film later released in the United States with the title "Tollbooth".
Personal life.
Smiley has been married twice and has four children: two with his first wife and childhood sweetheart Merilees, and two with his second wife, journalist/broadcaster Miranda Sawyer. He resides near Brockwell Park in Herne Hill, London.
He shared a flat with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the 1990s. He is an avid cyclist.
References.
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George Smiley
Fictional British intelligence officer
George Smiley OBE is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is a career intelligence officer with "The Circus", the British overseas intelligence agency. He is a central character in the novels "Call for the Dead", "A Murder of Quality", "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "The Honourable Schoolboy", "Smiley's People" and "Karla's Choice", and a supporting character in "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", "The Looking Glass War", "The Secret Pilgrim" and "A Legacy of Spies". The character has also appeared in a number of film, television, and radio adaptations of le Carré's books.
Le Carré created Smiley as an intentional contrast to James Bond, a character who he believed depicted an inaccurate and damaging version of espionage. Short, overweight, balding, and bespectacled, Smiley is polite and and frequently allows others to mistreat him, including his serially unfaithful wife; these traits mask his inner cunning, excellent memory, mastery of tradecraft, and occasional ruthlessness. His genius, coupled with other characters' willingness to underestimate him, allows Smiley to achieve his goals and ultimately become one of the most powerful spies in Britain.
"The Guardian" has called him "the sort of spy [Britain] believes it ought to have: a bit shabby, academic, basically loyal, and sceptical of the enthusiasms of his political masters."
Description.
In contrast to other fictional spies of the era, Smiley is described as being short, overweight, balding, and middle aged, and he is frequently compared to either a toad or a mole. While cinematic adaptations tend to depict him in dark, three piece suits, the novels describe his clothing as being "really bad", with other characters remarking that he "dresses like a bookie"; characters and narration clarify that this refers to his clothes being very loose and baggy, the result of his tailor taking advantage of Smiley's ignorance of men's fashion to charge him more money for the extra fabric. He wears thick, round glasses and tends to clean the lenses on the 'fat' end of his tie while contemplating something of great significance; the gesture is ubiquitous enough that other characters consider it to be something of a trademark.
The American scholars Norman Polmar and Thomas Allen described Smiley as the fictional spy most likely to be successful as a real spy, citing le Carré's description of him in "A Murder of Quality":
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />Obscurity was his nature, as well as his profession. The byways of espionage are not populated by the brash and colorful adventurers of fiction. A man who, like Smiley, has lived and worked for years among his country's enemies learns only one prayer: that he may never, never be noticed. Assimilation is his highest aim, he learns to love the crowds who pass him in the street without a glance; he clings to them for his anonymity and his safety. His fear makes him servile—he could embrace the shoppers who jostle him in their impatience and force him from the pavement. He could adore the officials, the police, the bus conductors, for the terse indifference of their attitudes.
But this fear, this servility, this dependence had developed in Smiley a perception for the colour of human beings: a swift, feminine sensitivity to their characters and motives. He knew mankind as a huntsman knows his cover, as a fox the woods. For a spy must hunt while he is hunted, and the crowd is his estate. He could collect their gestures, record the interplay of glance and movement, as a huntsman can record the twisted bracken and broken twig, or as a fox detects the signs of danger
Polmar and Allen wrote that Smiley's banal qualities together with his intelligence and a talent for intrigue made him ideal as a spy even though he was very far from the popular stereotype of what a spy should be like. Smiley's wife Ann calls him "breathtakingly ordinary", which Polmar and Allen wrote was an advantage for a spy, the very nature of their profession which requires them to be as inconspicuous as possible. In 1980, le Carré defined Smiley's politics: "I think he stands where I stand; he feels that to pit yourself against any 'ism' is to strike a posture which is itself ideological and therefore offensive in terms of practical decency. In practice almost any political ideology invites you to set aside your humanitarian instincts". The world of espionage presented by le Carré in his novels was a world where lies, betrayal, intrigue and paranoia were the norm for both sides, and much of the appeal of Smiley was that of a moral man trying his best to stay decent in a profoundly amoral world.
Age.
Although Smiley ages through his appearances over a half-century, Le Carré has frequently retconned elements of his backstory so that he exists on something of a floating timeline. In his initial appearance in 1961's "Call for the Dead", Smiley is somewhere around 55 years of age; changes to his birth year in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", set between 1973 and 1974, make him about 58 during the events of that story. He ages into his sixties during the subsequent two novels, "The Honourable Schoolboy" and "Smiley's People", the latter of which depicts him in declining physical health as he grows older and heavier. However, although no reference is made to his age in 2017's "A Legacy of Spies", set in 2017, he does not appear to be substantially older than he was in his last appearance, although he should be at minimum 102 years old during the events of the book (or 111 if the "Call for the Dead" chronology is in effect). This has led Dwight Garner of "The New York Times" to observe that Smiley is "one of those ashen Englishmen, like the poet Philip Larkin, who seem to be permanently 60 years old."
Early life.
Although Smiley has no concrete biography beyond that offered briefly at the beginning of "Call for the Dead", le Carré does leave clues in his novels.
Smiley was born to middle-class parents in the South of England in the early part of the 20th century (his birth date is retconned from 1906 to 1915 in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"), and spent at least part of his childhood in Germany near the Black Forest. He attended a minor public school and an antiquated Oxford college of no real distinction (in the 1982 BBC television adaptation of "Smiley's People", he refers to himself as a fellow of Lincoln College, le Carré's alma mater in real life), studying modern languages with a particular focus on Baroque German literature. One July, while considering post-graduate study in that field, he was recruited into the Circus by his tutor, Jebedee.
Smiley underwent training and probation in Central Europe and South America, and spent the period from 1935 until approximately 1938 in Germany recruiting networks under cover as a lecturer. In 1939, with the commencement of World War II, he saw active service not only in Germany, but also in Switzerland and Sweden. Smiley's wartime superiors described him as having "the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin". During this time, he met and recruited Dieter Frey, who would go on to become an East German intelligence operative running the intelligence circle that was the main plot point of Le Carré's first novel, "Call for the Dead".
In 1943, he was recalled to England to work at Circus headquarters, and in 1945 successfully proposed marriage to Lady Ann Sercomb, a beautiful, aristocratic, and libidinous young lady working as a secretary there. Ann would soon prove herself chronically unfaithful, engaging in numerous affairs and occasionally leaving Smiley entirely, though she always returned to him after the initial excitement of the separation ended. In the same year, Smiley left the Service and returned to Oxford. However, in 1947, with the onset of the Cold War, Smiley was asked to return to the Service, and in early 1951 moved into counter-intelligence work, where he would remain for the next decade. It is reported with a reference to the real life Gouzenko affair that "the revelations of a young cipher clerk in Ottawa had created a new demand for men of Smiley's experience". In 1945, Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet cipher clerk at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, defected and revealed a widespread Soviet spying network in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada that came as a considerable shock to the leaders of western nations. During that period, Smiley first met his Soviet , Karla, in a Delhi prison. Karla proved impossible to crack, though an increasingly desperate Smiley inadvertently revealed his own weakness – his affection for his wife, Ann – during the interrogation. After he offered Karla the use of his cigarette lighter – a gift from his wife – Karla stole it, keeping it as a symbol of his victory over Smiley. The incident would continue to haunt Smiley for the remainder of his career.
In the novels.
The early novels.
Smiley first appears in "Call for the Dead", le Carré's debut novel. After an introductory chapter documenting Smiley's wartime bravery, the narrative moves to 1960, which finds the formerly heroic Smiley working a menial intelligence job, security-clearing civil servants. After a man he interviewed apparently commits suicide in despair over being a suspected communist, Smiley resigns from the Circus in disgust; the revelation that the man's death may in fact have been a murder spurs Smiley to launch an independent investigation with the help of his protege, Peter Guillam, and police detective Oliver Mendel. Smiley's investigation uncovers that the "suicide" was in fact a murder perpetrated by an East German spy ring operating in the UK and being operated by one of his own former agents, whom he accidentally kills in a physical altercation. Although the Circus offers him his job back as a reward, Smiley declines, instead leaving England for a tentative reunion with Ann, who had earlier left him for a racing car driver. Smiley spends much of the story bemoaning the loss of the talented agents who were his mentors prior to the war, and their replacement by such talentless bureaucrats as the current head of service, Maston, who is widely, if secretly, mocked.
It is while pursuing a sedate life of scholastic research in German literature at a university in the West Country (probably Exeter) that he is called upon to investigate a murder at a fictional public school in le Carré's next novel, "A Murder of Quality".
Smiley next reappears as a minor but pivotal character in "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", his third novel. Smiley is revealed to have come back into the service of the Circus as the top aide to Control, Maston's mysterious successor as the Circus' chief. It's revealed that, following the events of "Call for the Dead," Smiley and Guillam succeeded in turning Mundt, the sole survivor of the spy ring, into a British double agent, and sent him back to East Germany. Fearing that Mundt's cover is about to be blown, Smiley and Control manipulate agent Alec Leamas into posing as a defector and sending him to Germany under the assumption that he is going to orchestrate Mundt's death. Along the way, Smiley learns that Leamas blew his own cover to his girlfriend, a nineteen-year-old communist sympathiser named Liz Gold, and arranges to incorporate her into the plot. Although Liz's unwitting role ultimately ensures the mission's success, it also results in her death, prompting a grief-stricken Leamas to give up and let himself be shot dead at the Berlin Wall as Smiley attempts to extricate him.
Smiley plays a small but pivotal role in "The Looking Glass War", le Carré's fourth novel, occupying the "North European desk" at the Circus. He appears sporadically throughout the book as a liaison to "The Department," a military intelligence agency, which attempts to surreptitiously conduct a dangerous and unnecessary operation without the Circus' knowledge. Smiley's appearance here is notable in that "War" is the only book of the series to depict his and Control's personal relationship in great detail. The climax of the novel bears witness to Smiley's ruthlessness, as he is dispatched by the Circus to end the Department's operation and force the abandonment of a Department employee to ameliorate the damage they have caused.
Smiley does not appear in either of le Carré's next two works, only one of which dealt with espionage.
Prior to the Karla trilogy.
Several years pass between Smiley's appearance in "The Looking Glass War", set circa 1964, and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", which takes place in 1973. During this period, Smiley's position in the Circus comes to be threatened by his contemporary Bill Haydon, proteges Toby Esterhase and Roy Bland, and ambitious newcomer Percy Alleline. Alleline develops a personal feud with Control due to the latter's class and ethnic prejudice against Percy's Scottish heritage, prompting factions to form within the Circus, with Control, Smiley, and Peter Guillam on one side and Alleline, Haydon, Esterhase, and Bland on the other. When Control is eased out of the Circus in late 1972 after the capture of agent Jim Prideaux in Czechoslovakia, Smiley too is forced out. The Circus is taken over by Alleline, with Haydon running "London Station", a branch overseeing all of the service's spy networks. Guillam remains in the Circus as Smiley's sole resource/ally, albeit in a greatly diminished position.
The Karla trilogy.
In September or October 1973, the events of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" take place, with Smiley successfully managing to expose Haydon as the long-term Soviet agent, or "mole", codenamed "Gerald" and reporting directly to Smiley's nemesis, Karla, head of Moscow Centre. Following the revelation, Alleline is drummed out of the Circus for his failure to identify Haydon himself and for permitting such a breach of national security to occur on his watch. Smiley is installed by Whitehall as the new head of the Circus and tasked with both tying up loose ends left by Haydon's treachery and launching a successful espionage mission to prove the organisation's viability.
"The Honourable Schoolboy", set in 1974, finds Smiley having assembled a new team, made up of former colleague Connie Sachs; Doc di Salis, a Jesuit priest who is an expert on communist China; Guillam; and a rehabilitated Esterhase. After learning that Karla has been making exorbitant payments to a heretofore unknown Chinese source, Smiley tasks agent Jerry Westerby with going to Hong Kong disguised as a reporter and identifying the spy. Westerby identifies the man as Nelson Ko, the brother of prominent Triad member Drake Ko. However, he also falls in love with Drake's mistress Lizzie and attempts to betray the Circus as a result. Smiley's bodyguard, Fawn, assassinates Westerby, and then disappears from the Circus, presumably fired by Smiley. Concurrently, the CIA takes Nelson into custody, cutting off Circus access to him. The incident prompts Smiley's dismissal as Circus boss, with Guillam contemplating the possibility that Smiley permitted the CIA to succeed to get himself removed from the position.
"Smiley's People", set in late 1977, finds a retired Smiley launching an investigation into the death of an elderly Estonian general, nationalist activist, and former Circus agent. A convoluted trail leads Smiley to discover that Karla has an illegitimate daughter whose existence he has gone to great lengths to hide, and who Karla smuggled through France and into Switzerland to receive desperately needed treatment for a severe case of schizophrenia. Smiley uses his knowledge of Karla's daughter to blackmail him into defecting, and in December 1977 Smiley greets Karla at the Berlin Wall as part of a contingent of Circus agents including Guillam and Esterhase. Karla is taken into British custody, with Esterhase congratulating Smiley on the accomplishment of a lifetime, though Smiley appears to reproach himself for the methods he used to achieve it.
In November of 2023, it was announced that Nick Harkaway would be writing a new George Smiley novel that takes place between the events of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy".
Smiley in retirement.
Smiley was absent in the three le Carré novels of the 1980s. He re-surfaced for a penultimate time in 1990 when he appeared in "The Secret Pilgrim", enjoying a happy retirement and in better spirits than his protege, the novel's narrator Ned, has ever seen him. Ned reveals that, shortly before the events of the book, he temporarily returned to the Circus to chair the "Fishing Rights Committee", a body set up to explore possible areas of co-operation between British and Russian intelligence services. The end of the book finds Smiley politely requesting that he never be brought out of retirement again, and departing for a vacation in Oceania.
Smiley appears in le Carré's 2017 novel "A Legacy of Spies", set after 2010. At the end of the novel, which explores fallout from the events depicted in "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold", Smiley meets with the novel's central character, Peter