- 24/06/2025
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E5. Retired espionage veteran George Smiley is called out on a top secret mission: to uncover a Soviet agent within top MI6's echelons. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 1979 seven-part drama spy mini-series, directed by John Irvin. Jonathan Powell produced this adaptation of John le Carré's novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974). The mini-series stars Alec Guinness, Michael Jayston, Ian Richardson, Anthony Bate, Ian Bannen, Hywel Bennett, George Sewell, Beryl Reid, Susan Kodicek, Terence Rigby, Alexander Knox, Michael Aldridge and Patrick Stewart.
E5. Retired espionage veteran George Smiley is called out on a top secret mission: to uncover a Soviet agent within top MI6's echelons. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 1979 seven-part drama spy mini-series, directed by John Irvin. Jonathan Powell produced this adaptation of John le Carré's novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974). The mini-series stars Alec Guinness, Michael Jayston, Ian Richardson, Anthony Bate, Ian Bannen, Hywel Bennett, George Sewell, Beryl Reid, Susan Kodicek, Terence Rigby, Alexander Knox, Michael Aldridge and Patrick Stewart.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00The End
00:30ORGAN PLAYS
01:00ORGAN PLAYS
01:30ORGAN PLAYS
01:59ORGAN PLAYS
02:01ORGAN PLAYS
02:03How long, sir? What's my time, sir?
02:05Timekeeper, time, please, Your Honor.
02:07Please, sir, how long?
02:09Well done, Roach.
02:11Knew you would.
02:12Second time round.
02:14Sir, how long?
02:16Now then, Jumbo.
02:19See that man?
02:21Who's he then? Seen him before?
02:23No, sir.
02:24Anybody seen him before?
02:25No, sir.
02:27He's not staff and he's not village.
02:29So who is he? Beggar man?
02:31Thief?
02:32Tinker Tailor, soldier, sailor.
02:35Rich man, poor man, beggar man.
02:38Thief.
02:40Why doesn't he look this way?
02:42Something funny about that.
02:44Here's a bunch of boys burning up a car round a playing field
02:48and he doesn't even give them a glance.
02:50You would, wouldn't you?
02:51Yes, sir.
02:52Doesn't he like boys? Doesn't he like cars?
02:55Doesn't even look at that car.
02:58Best Britain ever made and years out of production.
03:02All right, gather round.
03:08Come on.
03:11All right, now, anybody sees him again,
03:14let me know.
03:15Or any other sinister bodies, understand?
03:18Yes, sir.
03:19I don't want juju men wandering around pretending they don't know we exist.
03:26First glimpse, tell me.
03:29Right?
03:30Yes, sir.
03:31Yes, sir.
03:31You know, Jumbo, don't hold with odd bods wandering around a school.
03:37Last place I was at, we had a whole gang broke in.
03:39Clear the place out.
03:40House cups, money, boys' watches.
03:42Nothing sacred to types like that.
03:45We don't want to swiping the Elvis.
03:48We're irreplaceable!
03:50Thanks to socialism.
03:54Colour of hair, Jumbo?
03:55Sort of light-coloured, sir.
03:57Height?
03:57About the same as you, sir.
03:59Age?
04:00Well, hard to say, really, sir.
04:04Of course it was, at that distance.
04:07You'd know him again, Jumbo, for sure.
04:09Best watcher in the unit, Jumbo Roaches, eh?
04:12As long as he keeps his specs clean.
04:42All right, let's go.
07:42Oh, it's you, Jumbo.
08:00Oh, my legs are...
08:02Oh, dear.
08:07Can you get up?
08:10Slowly.
08:12Slowly.
08:12Fell off the bricks, did you, Jumbo?
08:23Let's have a look.
08:24Ah, nothing broken.
08:27Just a graze.
08:30Matron will soon put that right.
08:32One thing gives you a good excuse for getting in late.
08:35Missing evensong.
08:37Tripped over in the lane.
08:39Is that what you tell her?
08:39We've got a secret, haven't we?
08:44We've got a secret, haven't we?
08:47I can trust you, I know that.
08:49We're good at keeping secrets, loners like you and me.
08:52Is it because of that man?
08:55Would you shoot him?
08:57Are you working undercover like Bulldog Drummond in the book?
09:02Some of the boys wanted to call you Bulldog, but we thought Rhino was better.
09:07Bigger than a bulldog.
09:08Well, I, uh, I used to be a soldier, Jumbo.
09:13What you saw just now, that's a souvenir.
09:17You know, it's like this.
09:20How I got it, they're both secrets.
09:23I keep them to myself.
09:26You understand, don't you, Jumbo, eh?
09:28Yes, sir.
09:29Knew you would.
09:30Knew you would.
09:32Good night, Jumbo.
09:33Good night, sir.
09:35Thank you, sir.
09:38Well, well, long time no see.
10:05Hello, sir.
10:06OK, I'll bring it.
10:09Very impressive.
10:14It's better than setting washable things anywhere.
10:18It's a bit odd putting the dinner jacket on at 10 o'clock in the morning, of course.
10:26Reminds me of diplomatic cover, come to think of it.
10:28Believe it or not, it's straight, if you make some change.
10:38You get all the help we need from the arithmetic.
10:45I'm sure you do.
10:46My employers might let me invest a few pennies of my own before too long.
11:00They're tough boys, but very go-ahead, you know.
11:04Rather like we were in the old days.
11:06So, what can I do for you?
11:14I want to talk to you about the night Jim Predo was shot.
11:18The night of Operation Testify, which was what it was called, in case you didn't know.
11:22Oh, writing your memoirs, George?
11:25We are reopening the case.
11:26Who's this we, oh boy?
11:30Lacon called me in, with the Minister's blessing.
11:33I can give you a telephone number to confirm, although I'd prefer not.
11:36All power corrupts, but some must govern,
11:39and in that case, Brother Lacon will reluctantly scramble to the top of the heap.
11:43The record's been filleted.
11:46Of what there is on the file, the most useful piece of information
11:49is that you were duty officer that night.
11:52Yes.
11:53Yes, I'd just come back from Tokyo, a three-year stint.
11:56Nobody seemed to have any plans for me,
11:58so I thought I'd push off to the south of France for a month's leave.
12:01And then old Mendel, Control's mind,
12:03had picked me up in the passage and marched me off to see Control.
12:06The whole place felt weird.
12:07There was nobody about except the radio and code people.
12:10That harridan Molly, somebody or other,
12:12was monitoring a busy little body.
12:14Molly Purcell.
12:16You were in Berlin, Bill Hayden was up country,
12:19and Percy Annerlein was in Scotland.
12:21Control seemed to have cleared the decks.
12:23My God, he was a shock.
12:26I'd heard he wasn't his old self anymore,
12:28but I hadn't been prepared for this.
12:30It was like opening a coffin lid.
12:32He didn't waste time on any pleasantries.
12:34I need somebody good to man the switchboard.
12:37It's got to be an old hand.
12:39I could bring in somebody from one of the outstations,
12:41but you're better,
12:42because you've been away for so long,
12:44away from the infighting and the vendettas around this place.
12:46You don't know what I'm talking about.
12:51That's good.
12:52Just do exactly what I tell you.
12:57There could be a crisis tonight.
12:59I've got a man doing a special job.
13:02It's of the utmost importance to the service.
13:05The service, it's for us.
13:06It could change everything for us.
13:13Your job tonight is to act as cut out.
13:16Cut out between me and whatever goes on in the rest of the building.
13:19If anything comes in,
13:22radio signal, phone call, letter, anything at all,
13:25no matter how trivial it seems,
13:30you want to wait,
13:32wait until the coast is clear,
13:34and then bring it straight to me by hand, Sam.
13:38You don't use the internal phones.
13:41You don't put anything down on paper for future reference.
13:45Is that understood?
13:46And when it's all over,
13:51you're not to breathe a word about it.
13:55Never.
13:56Not to anybody.
13:57Not to Smiley.
13:59Not to Hayden.
14:00Not to Bland.
14:01Nobody.
14:03What if I have to send out something?
14:05Only what I tell you.
14:06The defensive weaknesses
14:16have, I think, costed in the match,
14:19which could now be sewn up by Paul Mariner.
14:24Or by Woods.
14:26Two are still down.
14:28Or by Murin.
14:31Or by Wark.
14:32And in the end,
14:33by none of them.
14:34Unbelievable.
14:37And Paul Mariner is completely flat.
14:42And he deserves a great deal better than that,
14:44because I think by sure he's my man of the match.
14:47All right.
14:56All right.
15:11I think
15:12I think
16:17Collins?
16:18This is urgent.
16:19Well, it's open.
16:20There's all hell broken out on the Czechoslovak air.
16:23Half of it's coded, but there's enough that isn't.
16:26I've got Brunner.
16:27Brunner?
16:37Yes?
16:38All right, Molly.
16:39Keep listening.
17:02Control.
17:03Oh, Control.
17:05The resident clerk from the Foreign Office came on first with a story from Reuters, head
17:10man in London.
17:11Molly picked the same thing up on the radio.
17:13And Reuters and a couple of Fleet Street papers have already had another go at the Foreign Office.
17:17They're saying that a British spy has been shot in Brunner.
17:23The Czechs are telling the world about an act of gross provocation by a Western power.
17:29They haven't named the dead man yet.
17:35Can I have a brief, please?
17:40Control, I need a brief.
17:43We must say something.
17:49Do you want me to deny it?
17:50A flat denial, just to start with.
17:57Do you want me to get someone else in?
18:04Do you want to come downstairs and handle it yourself?
18:07It's deniable he had foreign documents.
18:12No one could know he was British at this stage.
18:15There hasn't been time.
18:18Even if he's not dead.
18:25Find Smiley.
18:27He's in Berlin.
18:28In Berlin.
18:35Yes.
18:41Well, anyone will do.
18:43It makes no difference.
18:58Tell Mendel to get me a taxi.
19:07You sent Mendel home.
19:28He's been named.
19:29Hello?
19:30Hello.
19:31Hello.
19:32Hello.
19:33Is that Mrs Smiley?
19:34Hello.
19:35Hello.
19:36Hello.
19:37Hello.
19:38Hello.
19:39Is that Mrs Smiley?
19:41Hello.
19:42Hello?
19:43Hello.
19:44Hello.
19:45Is that Mrs Smiley?
19:46he's been named hello hello is that mrs. smiley
19:57you got my message then
20:17where did you leave it i rang george smiley's house just in case his wife happened to know where you
20:24were you are a friend of the family aren't you i saw the ticker tape at the club i gather there's
20:34been some god-awful shooting party tell me czechoslovakia right
20:39jim priddo's been shot the czechs haven't got his real name yet they're using his work name ellis
20:48jim shot dead well we're not sure that was the first flash since then the word used is simply
20:58shot what the czechs are saying that priddo what ellis traveling on false papers and assisted by
21:05czech counter-revolutionaries tried to kidnap a czech general unnamed in a forest near brunner
21:11and smuggle him over the austrian border they say that further arrests are imminent
21:17go on well according to our military there are heavy czech tank movements along the austrian border
21:26laken's been on and so's the minister they want to know what the hell and why
21:31now i have put out emergency calls to smiley alleline bland
21:36i'm glad to see you i'm sorry bill all right sam now first thing we do you call this number
21:50it's toby esterhazy tell him you're speaking from me and he's to pick up the two czech agents we've
21:58had our eyes on at the london school of economics and lock them up now straight away sam jim's worth
22:05a lot more than those two but it's a start i'll have a word with the chief hood at the czech embassy
22:12if they hurt a hair of jim prido's head i'll strip the entire czech network in this country there
22:20i'm bound to say hayden was a treat to watch
22:46i used to think of him as a pretty erratic sort of devil not that night believe me he virtually
22:54dictated a press statement for the foreign office to put out and there it was the following morning
23:00in the sunday papers prague radio's sensational revelations dismissed with dignified scorn
23:07i find it good like reading over breakfast at the savoy and then you went to the south of france
23:14two lovely months did anyone question you again percy alleline well he was acting chief by then
23:24you were out on your ear and control was in hospital percy wants to know how i'd come to be doing duty
23:29officer on the fateful night that chap masterman was down for it well i told him what i'd put to
23:35masterman that i'd know at a kip and a quiet weekend in the circus would save me a bit of
23:38spending money for the south of france percy said i was a liar and that's why they sacked you
23:44for fibbing alcoholism there were five empty beer cans in the duty officer's waste paper basket
23:49well there's a standing order against booze on the premises so what was your offense george
23:53oh i couldn't convince them that i wasn't involved oh well if you want anyone's throat cut give me a buzz
23:59sam listen it was too late for hayden's club to be still running ticker tape wasn't it
24:07he was making love to anne that night you made a guess of that and you were right
24:12you telephoned her she told you he wasn't there and then as soon as you'd rung off she pushed him out
24:19of bed and bill turned up an hour later knowing about checo
24:25but you didn't tell anne about checo
24:32i'll find my own way down
24:38mind how you go george
24:42you
25:42It's mine.
25:56Jim.
25:58If you're not on your own, I swear I'll break your neck.
26:03Quiet alone, Jim.
26:12I swear I'll break your neck.
26:42Jim, but I have to know what happened.
26:45I'm finished, man.
26:47They told me to draw the line.
26:49I've drawn it.
26:51How do you like schoolmastering?
26:53I think you had a spell of it after the war, didn't you?
26:56Was that at a prep school?
26:58Don't come round here playing cat and mouse with me, George Smalley.
27:02Look at the file.
27:03Circus file?
27:04Not available to me, Jim.
27:05I'm blackballed.
27:07Hard luck.
27:08I've had access to a few papers, which Lakon borrowed for me.
27:20Pretty old stuff.
27:22Part of it went right back to your undergraduate days, when you and Bill Hayden met at Oxford.
27:27There's a letter Bill wrote about you to his tutor, Fanshawe, circus talent spotter, in which Bill named you a suitable material for British intelligence.
27:38I can quote the odd line from memory.
27:43He has that heavy quiet that commands.
27:48He's my other half.
27:50Between us, we'd make one marvellous man.
27:53He asks nothing better than to be in my company or that of my wicked divine friends.
27:58And I'm vastly tickled by the compliment.
28:02He's virgin, about eight foot tall, and built by the same firm that did Stonehenge.
28:09Christ.
28:11Oh, Christ, man, we were children.
28:14Yes, of course.
28:17What do you want to know?
28:20I thought we could at least be comfortable while we talk.
28:24It doesn't matter.
28:28I thought we could at least be comfortable while we talk.
28:58I came round in a prison hospital, barred windows, high up.
29:03They operated after a fashion.
29:05Next time I came round, I was in a prison cell, no windows at all.
29:12I tried to work out a plan of a campaign to meet the interrogation.
29:15I knew I'd never be able to keep quiet.
29:17No chance of that.
29:19If I was to stay sane and possibly even survive, there'd have to be dialogue.
29:24At the end, they'd have to believe I'd told them all I knew.
29:27I decided I'd give them my version of Operation Testify First, the one control spelled out for me.
29:36I was head of scalp hunters.
29:38I mounted my own campaign without the knowledge of my superiors because I wanted to prove I was worth promotion.
29:43If I could believe that, I could bury deep inside myself all thoughts of a traitor inside the circus.
29:52No mole.
29:53No meeting with control.
29:56No Tinker Tailor.
29:57I was there to turn General Stefchek and just that.
30:00Then I thought I could throw them the names of one or two other Soviet and satellite officials who'd been turned recently.
30:10I might even give them the rundown of my entire Brixton stable, anything, so long as I forgot the mole and Tinker Tailor and kept myself our Czech networks.
30:22You know, I recruited the founder members.
30:28Yes, a fine piece of work.
30:29That's the joke.
30:31I couldn't care less about the networks.
30:32Knew it all.
30:33Rolled them up, haven't they?
30:35I knew damn well that Testify was my private brainchild.
30:38Well, it began exactly where I wanted to end, with the briefing in St. James'.
30:46All they wanted to talk about was control's rotten apple theory, Tinker Tailor, the circus spy.
30:54Did they actually know the address of the St. James' flat?
30:57No, they knew the brand of the sherry.
31:02What about the charts?
31:05Control's charts on General Stefchek's career, did they know about those?
31:08No.
31:12Not at first.
31:20Tell me about the networks.
31:23Did anyone get out?
31:24No.
31:27It seems they were shot.
31:30The story is you blew them to save your own skin.
31:33I know that isn't true, of course.
31:38Oh, for Christ's sake, let's go somewhere where I can breathe.
32:07I know that I can breathe.
32:09I know that I can't breathe.
32:10They moved me about a lot.
32:37Different rooms, different prisons.
32:40Depending on who was doing the interrogating and what methods they wanted to use.
32:47It's quite a lot of muscle.
32:51Electrical, most of it.
32:56Yes, movement.
32:58Cars, lorries.
33:01Corridors, cells.
33:04Once in a plane, I was hooded for it and passed out soon after takeoff.
33:09Punished for that.
33:10I think I was in Russia part of the time.
33:19Would you like to stretch your legs?
33:21Might help.
33:22It went straight to the heart of it.
33:35Why did Control go out alone?
33:37What did he hope to achieve?
33:39His comeback, I said.
33:41His comeback, I said.
33:41They went straight to the heart of it.
33:47Why did Control go out alone?
33:51What did he hope to achieve?
33:52His comeback, I said.
33:54They got a laugh.
33:56The tin-pot information about Czech military emplacements.
34:00Wouldn't get him a square meal at his club.
34:02So, I said, maybe poor old Control was losing his grip.
34:09That bored them.
34:10Back to the cooler.
34:12Punished again.
34:14You know, I hoped I'd go mad.
34:35And now, they knew how to stop that.
34:38They left me alone for a couple of days.
34:42Got me ready for the long run.
34:45That was when I gave them what they wanted.
34:56It's a matter of health as much as anything.
34:59Yes, you don't break exactly.
35:00You just run out of stories to tell.
35:03I'd reached the point where the things I'd locked away deep down
35:07were the only things coming into my brain.
35:11That was when I told them about Control's charts on Step Check.
35:14And also about Control's rotten apple theory.
35:17Yes, the mole.
35:19The codenomes we'd worked out for Control's suspects.
35:23Tinker, Percy Alolan.
35:25Taylor, Bill Hayden.
35:27Soldier, Roy Bland.
35:29Poor man, Toby Estehazy.
35:32Beggar man, George Smiley.
35:35What was the reaction?
35:37He thought for a bit.
35:39Then he offered me a cigarette.
35:41Who did?
35:43What?
35:45Oh, sorry.
35:47By this stage, there was some frosty, bearded fellow left.
35:53Seemed to be a head boy.
35:55Just him and a couple of guards standing back a bit while he made his kill.
36:00I hated that damn cigarette.
36:02Why?
36:04It was a foul American thing, Cameron, actually.
36:06I remember the packet.
36:08Did he smoke them?
36:10Never stopped.
36:12And was that the end of it?
36:14More or less.
36:15More or less, yes.
36:16I have to know everything, Jim.
36:20The rest was just gossip.
36:22You wanted to know a lot of circus tittle-tittle, who was going up, who was going down, a lot of tripe.
36:26About what?
36:27Who?
36:28Bland.
36:29How much was he drinking?
36:31Esterhazy.
36:32How could anybody trust a man who dressed like that?
36:35Not a tripe.
36:37What did he say about me?
36:40He showed me a cigarette lighter.
36:43Said it was yours.
36:45Present from Anne, with all my love, her signature engraved.
36:49Did he tell you how he came by it?
36:54Some confrontation years ago, said you'd remember.
36:57Anything else?
36:58Oh, come on, Jim.
37:01I'm not going to weaken at the knees just because some Russian hood's made a bad joke about
37:05me.
37:06He reckoned that after Bill Hayden's fling with her, she might care to redraft the inscription.
37:13I told him to his face he could go to bloody hell.
37:16You can't judge Bill by things like that.
37:18He's got different standards.
37:21He was certainly never one for regulations.
37:23And you were never one to see him straight.
37:30That's it.
37:32Everything.
37:48Bill made a huge fuss about your repatriation.
38:04He said any price was fair to get one loyal Englishman home.
38:08I remember his verdict on Control's handling of Testify, the most incompetent operation ever
38:16launched by an old man for his dying glory.
38:20And Jim Fredo paid the cost of it.
38:23Proud of your memory, aren't you?
38:25Did you see Bill at all after you got back?
38:28Your oldest, closest friend.
38:33I was in quarantine, wasn't I?
38:35Well, yes, but never mind.
38:39Let's just go over your debriefing at Sarat to wrap it up.
38:44Were the Inquisitors sympathetic or not?
38:47Never appeared, no questions at all.
38:50I was in limbo, ate a lot, drank a lot, slept a lot.
38:54Then Toby Esterhazy turns up, new suit, full of himself, tells me the circus had nearly
39:00gone under because of Operation Testify and I'm currently number one leper.
39:05There's a lot of controls out of the game and there's a reorganization going on to appease
39:10Whitehall.
39:11They sent Toby?
39:13Yes, the little charmer.
39:15He told me not to worry.
39:18About what?
39:19My special brief, whatever control had told me.
39:24Did Toby spell it all out?
39:26He said a few people knew the real story and I needn't worry because it was being taken
39:31care of.
39:32All the facts were known.
39:34Were they indeed?
39:35And then he gave me a thousand quid in cash to add to my gratuity.
39:41Who from?
39:42Didn't say.
39:44Didn't all this strike you as a bit odd?
39:48No Inquisition.
39:50Toby throwing loose money around.
39:53After all, through you the Russians had discovered the exact reach of controlled suspicions about
39:59a traitor in the circus.
40:01He'd narrowed the field to five.
40:04And no one's asking you anything.
40:11Facts were known, man.
40:16Toby ordered me not to approach anyone or to try and make my story heard.
40:22The circus was back in the road.
40:23The circus was back in the road.
40:24I could forget Tinker Tailor and the whole damn game.
40:27Moles, everything.
40:28Moles, everything.
40:30Drop out, he said.
40:31You're a lucky man, Jim.
40:35Forget it, eh?
40:37Forget it.
40:41So Toby actually mentioned Tinker Tailor for you.
40:49How ever did he get hold of that?
41:02And that's what I've been doing.
41:06Obeying orders and forgetting.
41:09Obeying orders and forgetting.
41:13What is it?
41:28No.
41:30Lord, now lettest thou thy servants depart in peace.
42:00According to thy word.
42:16For my eyes have seen thy salvation.
42:32Which now has breathed me for the face of all people.
42:50To be a light, to lighten thy chances.
43:06And to be the glory of thy people, Israel.
43:20Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
43:41As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.
43:54One will not end. Amen.
44:11Amen.
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