Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Brief Review for BBC-Series 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979)' by John le Carré

TV Series (BBC series) = Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979)
Writer = John le Carré
3/5 Stars ***


This 7-part BBC series was based on the John Le Carré novel of the same name, and stars Alec Guinness as main character George Smiley. I have not read the novel itself, but this TV series is quite good. It has its slow areas  but it nevertheless keeps you thinking about all the details and of course all of the names of the players in this complicated game of double agents and internal politics. The main plot is focused around the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) and its highest branch termed 'The Circus.' To cut a long story short, there is a mole in this branch of a few top players leaking information to Moscow-central and George Smiley (Alec Guinness) finds himself in charge of the secret investigation . One of the interesting and revealing points of this story is how all of these high-powered members of 'The Circus' spend a good majority of their time and energy vying for position and playing political games with each other rather than actually doing effective intelligence work (sounds like the C.I.A.). If you are into spy stories then you should check this one out, but note there is not a lot of action in this series and its more about connecting the dots in lieu of all the political games.

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