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Who can spy on the spies? Some say George Smiley is in innocent
retirement. Others say he was sacked after a Czech scandal.
But all agree that nobody ever leaves the "circus" without
some unfinished business. Brought out of retirement to trace
an enemy infiltrator in the department where he was once the
prize employee, the shy and retiring master of espionage moves
forwards to investigate and finds himself going backwards
over very old ground...
After
years of work in movies,
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
sees Sir Alec Guiness in his first major TV role. Guiness
is perfect as the shy, almost innocent (although he is anything
but) ex-Secret Intelligence Service member.
The
first four episodes, while entertaining enough, are rather
slow paced and the story drags considerably because of this.
It is only during the fifth episode that things start to get
exciting. The final instalment will have you glued to the
TV for the duration.
Patrick
Stewart, better known these days as portraying Captain Picard
in Star Trek: The Next Generation, turns up in a short,
non-speaking role - although the new packaging for this DVD
release has his name boldly displayed on the back cover. There
are plenty of other familiar faces amongst the cast (including
Beryl Reid and Joss Ackland)
No
attempt has been made to scrub up the original print - plenty
of scratches and dropout still remain. This is a shame as
a cleaned up print would have added so much more to this collection.
While
this series is extraordinarily well shot and acted, it is
unlikely to appeal to anyone who is not already a John Le
Carré fan, or at the very least a fan of spy thrillers.
The
only extra is a one hour documentary on Le Carré's (AKA David
Cornwell) life, although how much of this is true remains
to be seen. Le Carré claims that he has forgotten how to lie
(surely a lie if ever there was one) and this documentary
helps to add more mystery to the man of mystery.
At
£15 for two discs this is another fine BBC release.
Nick
Smithson
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