The more I read of him, the more I consider George Smiley to be a Great Literary Hero. With all reverence to Alec, even he, though impeccable, left room for other actors to swim in: the part is that good. Guinness lent to Smiley his modesty and quietude, and a certain lofty gift for portraying failure in the midst of success. But I look forward to Russell Beale in the part, and respect Oldman (who for a great chewer of scenery has become an exemplary grey little man: witness the tiny masterpiece he made of Jim Gordon.)
I HAVE to watch this series at least every six months. It is absolute perfection. I especially remember that “look” George Smiley gave Ricky Tarr after he cleaned his glasses…😂. So many seminal moments. Thanks to the author and all the skilled performers and backstage crew for creating this timeless masterpiece ♥️
The difference between English -USA interpretation. Personally, I considered Sir Alec Guinness a poor choice to physically play 'Smiley'. How foolish of me. Within minutes Alec Guinness was George Smiley.🎉
Both were brilliant in Their own times and context and format. Old James’s outstanding but let’s face it he’s not Alec Guinness and Guinness was smiley .movie did an excellent job given it’s time constraints .
How interesting that Guinness worried that he was not 'round' enough to be Smiley. That was the first thing I thought when I heard he was playing Smiley. After watching a bit of Tinker, Tailor, I was totally convinced that Smiley really looked much more like Guinness than the image I had put together in my mind while reading the Smiley Trilogy. Guinness did a wonderful job in the role and the two miniseries may well be the best ever done of any books.
John le Carré once said in reference to Alec Guinness' portrayal of George Smiley that Guinness stole the character away from him and made him all his own. Makes me think of Bob Dylan who modelled his own rendition of his very own All Along The Watchtower after Jimi Hendrix' interpretation of it. Once he heard Jimi's version he considered it, basically, canon. Seems le Carré went through a somewhat similar experience with his George Smiley and Sir Alec Guinness.
The Smiley of the book was an Ian Hislop to me; I came to the Guinness portrayal much later. But would you take Toby Jones over Gary Oldman in the remake?
It’s astonishing: The sheer intelligence of the writers and actors who morphed a masterpiece of a novel into a masterpiece of a television series. It’s unsurpassed.
@@eamonnmaccionnaith5761Oldman doesn't even come close. Had you seen the original in both 1979 and 1982 your opinion might be different. Sir Gary Oldman yet? Nah, didn't think so.
@@bruceboatwright7488It's not available digitally anywhere, sadly, but if you can the old cassette version of le Carré reading THE SECRET PILGRIM, it's by far the best of his narrations. He was such a gifted mimic, I love the sound of his voice.
What a treat this is! I suppose someone who doesn't know and appreciate the stories and these excellent adaptations can't possibly understand what all the fuss is about, but I find both productions to be superb adaptations, masterpieces really, and incredibly excellent programs. They were so intelligently, subtly and brilliantly done, so learning what and how these master productions were birthed is an enchanting gift.
If you're interested in George Smiley, this anecdote may be of interest. John le Carré described Ben Macintyre's fact based novel, The Spy and The Traitor, as "the best true spy story I have ever read". It was about Kim Philby's Russian counterpart, a KGB Colonel named Oleg Gordievsky, codename Sunbeam. In 1974 Gordievsky became a double agent working for MI6 in Copenhagen which was when Bill Fairclough aka Edward Burlington unwittingly launched his career as a secret agent for MI6. Fairclough and le Carré knew of each other: le Carré had even rejected Fairclough's suggestion in 2014 that they collaborate on a book. As le Carré said at the time, "Why should I? I've got by so far without collaboration so why bother now?" A realistic response from a famous expert in fiction in his eighties! Gordievsky never met Fairclough, but he did know Fairclough's handler, Colonel Alan McKenzie aka Colonel Alan Pemberton. It is little wonder therefore that in Beyond Enkription, the first fact based novel in The Burlington Files espionage series, genuine double agents, disinformation and deception weave wondrously within the relentless twists and turns of evolving events. Beyond Enkription is set in 1974 in London, Nassau, Port au Prince and the Americas. Edward Burlington, a far from boring accountant, unwittingly started working for Alan McKenzie in MI6 and later worked eyes wide open for the CIA. What happens is so exhilarating and bone chilling it makes one wonder why bother reading espionage fiction when facts are so much more breathtaking. Len Deighton and Mick Herron could be forgiven for thinking they co-wrote the raw noir anti-Bond narrative, Beyond Enkription. Atmospherically it's reminiscent of Ted Lewis' Get Carter of Michael Caine fame. If anyone ever makes a film based on Beyond Enkription they'll only have themselves to blame if it doesn't go down in history as a classic espionage thriller.
We'll never know for sure, but I have always believed that LeCarre wrote his spy novels as a direct refutation of the James Bond phenomenon, insisting that good spys are inconspicuous - even dull, and that the whole business was grubby and full of deceit and treachery, not glamorous and sexy. Alex Leamus (The spy who came out of the cold) and many of the other memorable LeCarre characters where the antithesis of Bond - gritty realism, not fantasy!
The first few books came well before the Bond movies, but part of the attraction of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold was that it was so completely not like James Bond.
Smiley’s dialogue is surgical. He says so much and is never redundant, predictable or inaccurate. He is laconically loquacious. And most importantly, Smiley keeps the pressure and initiative squarely on his opponent. In contrast, Percy’s discourses are wandering and, at his inquisition, give Pete ample time to concoct a plausible deflection.
I have just re-watched the film version and good as it is, it is not in the same league as the TV original with Alec Guinness. I first read the book as a teenager, but it was far too complicated for me at that first reading. But I persevered and in the end read it several times and watched the TV series. It is by far my favourite spy story real or fiction.
Beta Ray, I wish they had done "The Spy that Came in from the Cold," but I suppose that since that had already been produced as a feature film (starring Richard Burton, nonetheless) a dozen years earlier they felt it had already been done.
I don’t believe the BBC has it in them to rise to these standards ever again. Tinker Tailor is a jewel, with a cast which may as well be described as perfect.
The greatest novelist of the last two generations. A reviewer once said, among other things, that Le Carre can "....destroy an ideology in a paragraph." I found this very true. He can simultaneously portray and eviscerate with no apparent effort. I wish my Le Carre addiction would run its course, but it's hopeless thing at this point.
Hardly. He never stepped outside his comfort zone. His novels are full of talking-heads and are often overblown. If you want your addiction to run it's course, read 'The Honourable Schoolboy'.
Yes, indeed. Or "The Naive and Sentimental Lover". That said, I loved Tinker, Tailor and Smiley's People - the books and series. Prefer Alec Guinness as Smiley, but admire Sir Gary.
Some books you read only once. Great books you can read over and over again and still enjoy its contents. The BBC series brought unforgettable life to the books which has me reading and watching both series every year since the TTSS book arrived in 1974 and the BBC TTSS series in 1979. Sadly the later film is in the watching once category, confirming that in visual & sound terms, the production makes all the difference ........
Oh ... I beg to disagree. Smiley’s People is indeed darker but has great watch again and again qualities... to give just a couple of gems: Eileen Atkins as Madam Ostrakova, and Vladek Sheybal’s turn as Otto Liepzig... and Smiley sitting in the nightclub.... all so watchable.
The idea of Guinness, frightened, suggesting the hugely underrated Arthur Lowe as Smiley, is painfully telling. What a good, selfless, modest actor: such integrity and honesty.
The series can be rewatched every few years just as the books can be reread over time. If the movie makes honourable schoolboy and then bring back smiley's people then I would consider it a set worth revisiting
Guinness was also a romantic actor who was also a celibate bisexual Catholic: monkish and pained. None of this detracts from his work: it informs it deeply. If he were not a Le Carre man, he was certainly built for Graham Greene, and Waugh (if Gielgud had passed over the icy plum of Ryder's father in 'Brideshead' Guinness would have been as good or better.
Chazbot A celibate bisexual? What's your source for this? I thought rumors of his bisexuality were iffy at best, and he was married for almost 60 years and had a son, so there was at least some portion of his life when he wasn't celibate. It makes no difference to me either way, just wondering if there's some other source of information on the matter.
+Mariano Paniello When the film Great Expectations was being made - with Guinness as Herbert Pocket - he unfortunately was arrested for 'importuning' men. He had to appear at the magistrate's court the next morning, and was fined. This film was made in 1939 or thereabouts! He was considered gay, full stop, but very closeted. I always think of him as gay. Bear in mind how dangerous it was back in those days to be homosexual. They were sent to prison, their lives destroyed.
Mariano Paniello Yes, it was terrible back then. They were all afraid that their secret would be discovered and made public. It was a source of real shame and humiliation, as well as the danger of imprisonment. It would also mean the end of celebrity life and success. And Guinness really was talented! A lovely, soft-spoken man.
U know that that was John Gielgud, misattributed to Guinness. Great Expectations was 1946, Guinness did the stage version in 1939. Sorry, I used to be a huge David Lean/Alec Guinness fan
I watched the episodes from the CBC and I thought it was excellent I liked the production very much and was spell bound by it..now I have to admit I love this sort of stories of the absolute different world of spies and it sometimes very complex world of intrigue.......
If AG were alive today and I could tell him one thing about George Smiley, it would be that I soon forgot it was AG acting. I think he would have liked that.
I'm massive fan of John Le carre books what a brilliant writer of espinage and spies. He, himself a former MI6 spy during the cold war, a facinating man with lot of secrets. Rest in peace.
Alec Guinness is a legend. Gary Oldman will become a legend. They both achieved ab admirable job of portraying George Smiley but Simon Russell Beale (who has portrayed Smiley on many radio plays) would be the ultimate George Smiley. Anyone who doubts this must watch the 2013, 90 minute TV film LEGACY, with Charlie Cox, Andrew Scott and Romola Garai. It's set in London during the energy crisis of 1974. The smoke stained offices of spooks create a sense a paranoia that's oppressive. In my opinion it's the most overlooked and underrated espionage dramas ever made. Specially as the remake of THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, with Aidan Gillen as Leamas, never materialized. N.B. IMDB updated to suggest this remake will be broadcast 17th Sept, 2023. Any details would be hugely appreciated.
TTSS was one of the finest things BBC ever produced. Ever. All the performances were underplayed and sublime. Why DC decided/agreed to remake it as a movie is beyond me. The movie was awful - a horror show; the characters were loathsome and exaggerated (and altered from the source material for no good reason) and not worth spending any time with. It was as if they intentionally went out of their way to make it as unappealing to look at as possible. As far as I'm concerned, they should collect the film tins and toss them into the Thames forever, but I'm sure the river would throw them back out. I'm sorry to all those who liked the film-I went in truly hoping I would like it-well, you have my sympathies. The original BBC series is one which I've watched on its original airing on American PBS, and since then, more times than I can remember is the pinnacle. I still have The New York Times Magazine 'primer' for watching the series, with a fun glossary of terms like Lamplighter, Scalphunter, Sarratt, etc. with a lovely illustration of Smiley and a not so subtle Magritte tip of the hat. I've enjoyed DC's work since The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, but none has ever captured the magic like TTSS, with Smiley's People coming in a close second. The rest are good, but not on the same level as those two. Also, the film version with Richard Burton and the always delightful Cyril Cusack as Control is quite well done - but very depressing as well. 'Bleak' is the word I'd use for it. Unlike TTSS and Smiley, it's not something I'd like to watch more than a few times (though, in all honesty I've probably seen it about a few dozen times).
Sir Alec is marvelous because he plays it down. He is able to come off the stage and sit beside you while he performs. The intimacy and (mostly) conversational nature of the screenplay work better in film than Burton’s scene stealing stage method.
This interview sounds like more of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier,Spy then Smiley's People since Tinker started before Smiley's People which the last of the Trilogies.
I think that you are correct because Le Carre refers to the filming of a scene in a house on a canal and the discovery of a mole, neither of which elements are in Smiley's People.
Ralph Richardson to Alec: "Come 'round and have a Spanish omelette, old boy; it'll go well with a sock on the jaw." How weird. And Alec was still polite enough to eat the omelette! Are there still people with those old-fashioned manners? Or are they swept aside by the more crass and vulgar?
Guinness said that he sometimes mimicked Richardson when he acted. And I think one moment of it can be detected in the scene in TTSS where he has lunch with Jerry Westerby, when he says the line, "Are after - or were after?" It looks and sounds like a total Ralph Richardson impression.
The movie all the way. There's was so much fluff and filler in the show. The movie cut it down to how it should have been made to begin with. Moreover, Oliver Cromwell, Winston Churchill, and Sharpe are the best English men to have lived.
Guiness do you mean? Hard to believe any self doubt I agree. But that is often the way with creative people and could even being out their best for our enjoyment.
Alec Guiness' was superb in The Bridge on the River Kwai (and I have been to see that bridge in Thailand; of course, not the one destroyed in the movie which was in Sri Lanka). I haven't yet seen T,T,S,S, so it seems a treat may be in store?
stunning series. Alec Guiness seemed born for this role. Understated, subtle, his delivery of the lines is impeccable, freighted with just enough dramatic seriousness and piercing intellect.
Guinness was a brilliant cast but all the rest was the worst bit of casting ever. Never liked the series. The film version w Oldman had all the right casting.
wow sir alec and daniel day lewis have a lot in common. when I watched Tinker tailor...I thought the glasses were perfect because they made his eyes focal, look larger, sharp and you knew those eyes could see right through you.
I'm not stupid. I can follow a complex plot. I was doing so since I was five. I'm not asking for 007 action/adventure. But somebody tell me WTF was going on? I sat through TTSS (2011) THREE times and the Guinness version just recently. So please tell what super powers of intelligence does everyone else in these comments seem to have and I don't. BTW, I have seen Spy who Came in from the Cold. I followed it quite well and liked it a lot.
A theory of a mole in MI6 starts the action, with Control sending an asset on a mission to confirm the theory, but he is captured and heads roll.. Then, some months later another asset confirms the theory, starting an investigation by Smiley, who is retired and in good position to do so.. He finds that those who succeeded he and control have a source in Soviet intelligence supplying info that he deems to good to be true, and through his investigation he finds the Soviets are really giving dressed up intelligence that looks important but is really “chicken feed,” and that the truth of the scene is it’s a ruse to allow the Soviet mole in British intelligence to pass real info back to the Soviets..
@@jacobjones5269 OOOOOOOOOOK. Someday I will try to run through it again. I saw "Five Fingers" (James Mason) when I was like eight and followed it. Still one of my faves.
@@calql8er Well, the whole point of the story is piecing the narrative through gleaning tiny bits of info from multiple sources and layers.. The Soviet spy master knows MI6 is onto his mole, so he masterminds a ruse to get rid of Control and Smiley.. Which actually works.. But new information leaves Smiley in the perfect position to uncover the mole and scheme.. And Smiley does so through patient questioning and arithmetic..
@@calql8er Also, this is a story about counter-intelligence.. Which is a delicate and deadly game.. The story is as much about Smiley taking advantage of a situation created by Karla to protect his mole… As anything else..
I guess what he meant was that the sort of people who went to plays at the National Theatre in London would be watching BBC version of “Tinker Taylor” because they respected Guinness. He was really a movie star not a TV actor.
It meant that they would have no trouble at all in getting famous actors for the rest of the cast because every actor in the National Theatre wpuld want to be in the TV series with Guinness. So it proved - pretty well all the characters in the TV series were very well known stage (often Shakespearian) actors.
It's a very personal thing but I thought Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy was boring, unnecessarily complicated and confused. It took me ages to get through the book (I kept falling asleep). The most involving and entertaining spy writer (IMO) is Ian Fleming. Literary snobs probably don't think Fleming is adequately highbrow and to them I say "Please keep reading Le Carré."
Funnily, found the movie better than the book. It's not the usual, but it happens now and then. The novel was a tad boring, now and then. But the movie was great, a very well cared production. Where you could imagine them, when they were young and idealistic. A group of friends fighting for their ideas and then one of them becomes a mole. And they were stingered. I liked the movie with its nostalgic feeling and the clever plot. As it always happens, with Le Carré. A very good writer as smart as his characters, or more. 🙏👍🏻❤️
When John Le Carre (John the Blank) was invited to Moscow Center he was asked, "Vot have you done with Karla?" Good question. Maybe he underwent a sex change operation and now calls himself Hillary Clinton.
RIP John Le Carre, for writing the book and creating one of the most dangerous and unassuming characters ever, George Smiley.
Most DANGEROUS ANTI WORKER propaganda.
@@fuckfannyfiddlefart why was it anti worker propaganda?
The more I read of him, the more I consider George Smiley to be a Great Literary Hero. With all reverence to Alec, even he, though impeccable, left room for other actors to swim in: the part is that good. Guinness lent to Smiley his modesty and quietude, and a certain lofty gift for portraying failure in the midst of success. But I look forward to Russell Beale in the part, and respect Oldman (who for a great chewer of scenery has become an exemplary grey little man: witness the tiny masterpiece he made of Jim Gordon.)
what this marvelous misses is that prideaux warns Haydon
I HAVE to watch this series at least every six months. It is absolute perfection. I especially remember that “look” George Smiley gave Ricky Tarr after he cleaned his glasses…😂. So many seminal moments. Thanks to the author and all the skilled performers and backstage crew for creating this timeless masterpiece ♥️
i thought that i was the only one who saw the subtext that underpinned all of the mildness of Smiley; that he was VERY serious and truly deadly.
The TV series was so much better than the movie. It's night and day. It's not really a story that can be told in a couple of hours.
I think the series has serious pacing issues though. Some of the scenes really drag. There's a lack of suspense.
I watched the movie first and thought it ok. I then watched the series. I will never be able to watch the movie again: over acted rubbish.
The difference between English -USA interpretation. Personally, I considered Sir Alec Guinness a poor choice to physically play 'Smiley'. How foolish of me. Within minutes Alec Guinness was George Smiley.🎉
Both were brilliant in Their own times and context and format. Old James’s outstanding but let’s face it he’s not Alec Guinness and Guinness was smiley .movie did an excellent job given it’s time constraints .
I love the movie. It made me go and buy the book
How interesting that Guinness worried that he was not 'round' enough to be Smiley. That was the first thing I thought when I heard he was playing Smiley. After watching a bit of Tinker, Tailor, I was totally convinced that Smiley really looked much more like Guinness than the image I had put together in my mind while reading the Smiley Trilogy. Guinness did a wonderful job in the role and the two miniseries may well be the best ever done of any books.
John le Carré once said in reference to Alec Guinness' portrayal of George Smiley that Guinness stole the character away from him and made him all his own.
Makes me think of Bob Dylan who modelled his own rendition of his very own All Along The Watchtower after Jimi Hendrix' interpretation of it. Once he heard Jimi's version he considered it, basically, canon. Seems le Carré went through a somewhat similar experience with his George Smiley and Sir Alec Guinness.
The Smiley of the book was an Ian Hislop to me; I came to the Guinness portrayal much later. But would you take Toby Jones over Gary Oldman in the remake?
It’s astonishing: The sheer intelligence of the writers and actors who morphed a masterpiece of a novel into a masterpiece of a television series. It’s unsurpassed.
Love Alec Guinness as Smiley. His eyes when he puts his glasses back on are deadly. I rewind it. 👓
I prefer Oldman.
@@eamonnmaccionnaith5761Oldman doesn't even come close. Had you seen the original in both 1979 and 1982 your opinion might be different. Sir Gary Oldman yet? Nah, didn't think so.
It's absolute hilarious John Le Carré makes a perfect Alec Guinness impersonation, even down to mimicking the way he talks.
His lovely voice. You should hear him read his own stories. Mesmerising!
@@bruceboatwright7488It's not available digitally anywhere, sadly, but if you can the old cassette version of le Carré reading THE SECRET PILGRIM, it's by far the best of his narrations. He was such a gifted mimic, I love the sound of his voice.
The book and the series is quite simply a masterpiece.
Nothing even comes close.
THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY is another superb book.
One of the finest pieces of television ever created. It's as simple as that.
I would add The Wire as consideration.
What a treat this is! I suppose someone who doesn't know and appreciate the stories and these excellent adaptations can't possibly understand what all the fuss is about, but I find both productions to be superb adaptations, masterpieces really, and incredibly excellent programs. They were so intelligently, subtly and brilliantly done, so learning what and how these master productions were birthed is an enchanting gift.
well said
If you're interested in George Smiley, this anecdote may be of interest. John le Carré described Ben Macintyre's fact based novel, The Spy and The Traitor, as "the best true spy story I have ever read". It was about Kim Philby's Russian counterpart, a KGB Colonel named Oleg Gordievsky, codename Sunbeam. In 1974 Gordievsky became a double agent working for MI6 in Copenhagen which was when Bill Fairclough aka Edward Burlington unwittingly launched his career as a secret agent for MI6. Fairclough and le Carré knew of each other: le Carré had even rejected Fairclough's suggestion in 2014 that they collaborate on a book. As le Carré said at the time, "Why should I? I've got by so far without collaboration so why bother now?" A realistic response from a famous expert in fiction in his eighties!
Gordievsky never met Fairclough, but he did know Fairclough's handler, Colonel Alan McKenzie aka Colonel Alan Pemberton. It is little wonder therefore that in Beyond Enkription, the first fact based novel in The Burlington Files espionage series, genuine double agents, disinformation and deception weave wondrously within the relentless twists and turns of evolving events. Beyond Enkription is set in 1974 in London, Nassau, Port au Prince and the Americas. Edward Burlington, a far from boring accountant, unwittingly started working for Alan McKenzie in MI6 and later worked eyes wide open for the CIA. What happens is so exhilarating and bone chilling it makes one wonder why bother reading espionage fiction when facts are so much more breathtaking.
Len Deighton and Mick Herron could be forgiven for thinking they co-wrote the raw noir anti-Bond narrative, Beyond Enkription. Atmospherically it's reminiscent of Ted Lewis' Get Carter of Michael Caine fame. If anyone ever makes a film based on Beyond Enkription they'll only have themselves to blame if it doesn't go down in history as a classic espionage thriller.
We'll never know for sure, but I have always believed that LeCarre wrote his spy novels as a direct refutation of the James Bond phenomenon, insisting that good spys are inconspicuous - even dull, and that the whole business was grubby and full of deceit and treachery, not glamorous and sexy. Alex Leamus (The spy who came out of the cold) and many of the other memorable LeCarre characters where the antithesis of Bond - gritty realism, not fantasy!
The first few books came well before the Bond movies, but part of the attraction of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold was that it was so completely not like James Bond.
Smiley’s dialogue is surgical. He says so much and is never redundant, predictable or inaccurate. He is laconically loquacious. And most importantly, Smiley keeps the pressure and initiative squarely on his opponent. In contrast, Percy’s discourses are wandering and, at his inquisition, give Pete ample time to concoct a plausible deflection.
A very astute observation indeed...
Both series to me were stunning masterpieces!
I have just re-watched the film version and good as it is, it is not in the same league as the TV original with Alec Guinness. I first read the book as a teenager, but it was far too complicated for me at that first reading. But I persevered and in the end read it several times and watched the TV series. It is by far my favourite spy story real or fiction.
This series is just poor gold. A brilliant book and remarkable video by the best assembly of actors that I have ever seen. Wow.
Too bad they didn't make _The Honourable Schoolboy_.
Would've cost the BBC too much to film in Hong Kong and Vientiane. The next Smiley film is meant to conflate '... Schoolboy' and 'Smiley's People'.
Beta Ray, I wish they had done "The Spy that Came in from the Cold," but I suppose that since that had already been produced as a feature film (starring Richard Burton, nonetheless) a dozen years earlier they felt it had already been done.
@@inkyguy they are making a tv series now
Its was a problematic book for the BBC to adapt because Jerry Westerby is the main character, not really Smiley.
Why? That book is overblown nonsense.
I've been desperately inadequate for reflectively judgmental on the greatest spy novel, which was terribly introspective, reflective!
I don’t believe the BBC has it in them to rise to these standards ever again. Tinker Tailor is a jewel, with a cast which may as well be described as perfect.
Stunning insights into yet another, definitive, portrayal by the exquisite Alec Guinness and a solid gold ensemble cast and crew.
The greatest novelist of the last two generations. A reviewer once said, among other things, that Le Carre can "....destroy an ideology in a paragraph." I found this very true. He can simultaneously portray and eviscerate with no apparent effort. I wish my Le Carre addiction would run its course, but it's hopeless thing at this point.
Hardly. He never stepped outside his comfort zone. His novels are full of talking-heads and are often overblown.
If you want your addiction to run it's course, read 'The Honourable Schoolboy'.
Yes, indeed. Or "The Naive and Sentimental Lover". That said, I loved Tinker, Tailor and Smiley's People - the books and series. Prefer Alec Guinness as Smiley, but admire Sir Gary.
I like how David Cornwell and John Irving have two completely different memories of what happened to get Alec Guinness as Smiley.
Some books you read only once.
Great books you can read over and over again and still enjoy its contents.
The BBC series brought unforgettable life to the books which has me reading and watching both series every year since the TTSS book arrived in 1974 and the BBC TTSS series in 1979.
Sadly the later film is in the watching once category, confirming that in visual & sound terms, the production makes all the difference ........
Oh ... I beg to disagree. Smiley’s People is indeed darker but has great watch again and again qualities... to give just a couple of gems: Eileen Atkins as Madam Ostrakova, and Vladek Sheybal’s turn as Otto Liepzig... and Smiley sitting in the nightclub.... all so watchable.
@@paulklee5790 I think he's talking about the movie with Gary Oldman.
@@aalexjohna ... your right!
it's so so genteel, relaxed, and sociable. no doubt a very difficult world to break into. they all seem to know each other. elite of England.
The idea of Guinness, frightened, suggesting the hugely underrated Arthur Lowe as Smiley, is painfully telling. What a good, selfless, modest actor: such integrity and honesty.
In the book Smiley is short and fat......
That would have been very strange had Arthur Lowe lived!
The series can be rewatched every few years just as the books can be reread over time. If the movie makes honourable schoolboy and then bring back smiley's people then I would consider it a set worth revisiting
Guinness was also a romantic actor who was also a celibate bisexual Catholic: monkish and pained. None of this detracts from his work: it informs it deeply. If he were not a Le Carre man, he was certainly built for Graham Greene, and Waugh (if Gielgud had passed over the icy plum of Ryder's father in 'Brideshead' Guinness would have been as good or better.
Chazbot
A celibate bisexual? What's your source for this? I thought rumors of his bisexuality were iffy at best, and he was married for almost 60 years and had a son, so there was at least some portion of his life when he wasn't celibate. It makes no difference to me either way, just wondering if there's some other source of information on the matter.
+Mariano Paniello When the film Great Expectations was being made - with Guinness as Herbert Pocket - he unfortunately was arrested for 'importuning' men. He had to appear at the magistrate's court the next morning, and was fined. This film was made in 1939 or thereabouts! He was considered gay, full stop, but very closeted. I always think of him as gay. Bear in mind how dangerous it was back in those days to be homosexual. They were sent to prison, their lives destroyed.
+Paula cunningham shennan
Thanks for the information. It's sad to read that another brilliant man was a victim of such repressive laws.
Mariano Paniello
Yes, it was terrible back then. They were all afraid that their secret would be discovered and made public. It was a source of real shame and humiliation, as well as the danger of imprisonment. It would also mean the end of celebrity life and success. And Guinness really was talented! A lovely, soft-spoken man.
U know that that was John Gielgud, misattributed to Guinness. Great Expectations was 1946, Guinness did the stage version in 1939. Sorry, I used to be a huge David Lean/Alec Guinness fan
Guinness was perfect for the part. Born for it.
Could you upload the unknown gem by John Le Carre, "Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn" please. Le Carre at his best!
This is clearly about Tinker, Tailor
Bill Haydon was a bit like Kim Philby
You are absolutely right! I think the resemblance is probably intentional.
Le Carre knew and worked with Philby. Haydon is undoubtedly modelled on him.
I watched the episodes from the CBC and I thought it was excellent I liked the production very much and was spell bound by it..now I have to admit I love this sort of stories of the absolute different world of spies and it sometimes very complex world of intrigue.......
This is mislabeled. It's about Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, not Smiley's People.
It's not mislabelled, the title is the clue...
Also, it's categorised as a Comedy, which it clearly is not.
Thank you so much to 'TheVerke' for sharing this interview with John le Carre. This great novelist is always worth listening and watching.
If AG were alive today and I could tell him one thing about George Smiley, it would be that I soon forgot it was AG acting. I think he would have liked that.
And to cap it all , went on to say “ these aren’t the droids you are looking for “
I'm massive fan of John Le carre books what a brilliant writer of espinage and spies. He, himself a former MI6 spy during the cold war, a facinating man with lot of secrets.
Rest in peace.
Readers may be interested in checking out Guinness Is Smiley, a website set up concerning Tinker Tailor and Smiley's People.
Adore everything about this sublime production
Alec Guinness is a legend. Gary Oldman will become a legend. They both achieved ab admirable job of portraying George Smiley but Simon Russell Beale (who has portrayed Smiley on many radio plays) would be the ultimate George Smiley. Anyone who doubts this must watch the 2013, 90 minute TV film LEGACY, with Charlie Cox, Andrew Scott and Romola Garai.
It's set in London during the energy crisis of 1974. The smoke stained offices of spooks create a sense a paranoia that's oppressive.
In my opinion it's the most overlooked and underrated espionage dramas ever made. Specially as the remake of THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, with
Aidan Gillen as Leamas, never materialized.
N.B. IMDB updated to suggest this remake will be broadcast 17th Sept, 2023. Any details would be hugely appreciated.
Incredible stuff.
TTSS was one of the finest things BBC ever produced. Ever. All the performances were underplayed and sublime. Why DC decided/agreed to remake it as a movie is beyond me. The movie was awful - a horror show; the characters were loathsome and exaggerated (and altered from the source material for no good reason) and not worth spending any time with. It was as if they intentionally went out of their way to make it as unappealing to look at as possible. As far as I'm concerned, they should collect the film tins and toss them into the Thames forever, but I'm sure the river would throw them back out. I'm sorry to all those who liked the film-I went in truly hoping I would like it-well, you have my sympathies.
The original BBC series is one which I've watched on its original airing on American PBS, and since then, more times than I can remember is the pinnacle. I still have The New York Times Magazine 'primer' for watching the series, with a fun glossary of terms like Lamplighter, Scalphunter, Sarratt, etc. with a lovely illustration of Smiley and a not so subtle Magritte tip of the hat.
I've enjoyed DC's work since The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, but none has ever captured the magic like TTSS, with Smiley's People coming in a close second. The rest are good, but not on the same level as those two. Also, the film version with Richard Burton and the always delightful Cyril Cusack as Control is quite well done - but very depressing as well. 'Bleak' is the word I'd use for it. Unlike TTSS and Smiley, it's not something I'd like to watch more than a few times (though, in all honesty I've probably seen it about a few dozen times).
Robbie R. Esq. it’s not possible to improve on the perfect my friend,,the film was truly awful,!
Sir Alec is marvelous because he plays it down. He is able to come off the stage and sit beside you while he performs. The intimacy and (mostly) conversational nature of the screenplay work better in film than Burton’s scene stealing stage method.
Just watched Smiley’s People. Free on You tube
I understand that Arthur Lowe was the original pick for Smiley.....
So interesting having an insight in the filming of this awesome series. And all those famous actors ( some still young and not thát famous 😅
This interview sounds like more of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier,Spy then Smiley's People since Tinker started before Smiley's People which the last of the Trilogies.
I think that you are correct because Le Carre refers to the filming of a scene in a house on a canal and the discovery of a mole, neither of which elements are in Smiley's People.
More then hurr durr durrrrr! It's "more than", dumbass.
John, Alex, played you, voice and mannerisms.
Ralph Richardson to Alec: "Come 'round and have a Spanish omelette, old boy; it'll go well with a sock on the jaw."
How weird. And Alec was still polite enough to eat the omelette!
Are there still people with those old-fashioned manners? Or are they swept aside by the more crass and vulgar?
Richardson was so eccentric ha ha. And a very fine actor x
Guinness said that he sometimes mimicked Richardson when he acted. And I think one moment of it can be detected in the scene in TTSS where he has lunch with Jerry Westerby, when he says the line, "Are after - or were after?" It looks and sounds like a total Ralph Richardson impression.
What's that opening music?
Its the Nunc dimittis (also known as the Song of Simeon) from the English book of common prayer.
Composed by Geoffrey Burgon (Brideshead)
Comment avoir une traduction en Français ?
Merci
I had no idea this was first a series
The movie all the way. There's was so much fluff and filler in the show. The movie cut it down to how it should have been made to begin with. Moreover, Oliver Cromwell, Winston Churchill, and Sharpe are the best English men to have lived.
The brilliant John le Carre appears at the start of this footage and then at 3:32 ,
Guiness do you mean?
Hard to believe any self doubt I agree.
But that is often the way with creative people and could even being out their best for our enjoyment.
Alec Guiness' was superb in The Bridge on the River Kwai (and I have been to see that bridge in Thailand; of course, not the one destroyed in the movie which was in Sri Lanka). I haven't yet seen T,T,S,S, so it seems a treat may be in store?
Great series.
stunning series. Alec Guiness seemed born for this role. Understated, subtle, his delivery of the lines is impeccable, freighted with just enough dramatic seriousness and piercing intellect.
Guinness was a brilliant cast but all the rest was the worst bit of casting ever. Never liked the series. The film version w Oldman had all the right casting.
wow sir alec and daniel day lewis have a lot in common. when I watched Tinker tailor...I thought the glasses were perfect because they made his eyes focal, look larger, sharp and you knew those eyes could see right through you.
The best
Raised to empire. Ended up as America's streetwalkers. Long march to melancholic irrelevance.
I think it's an extra on the Smiley's People DVD
Superb stuff
Such an understatement of his own person. Incredible man.
A great program....
What do I say, other than I'm proud of Mr le carre being Irish
How can this be a years work? They don't know they are born...
I always wondered if he wanted to capture the mood of the organization prior to the discovery of the Cambridge 5.
BBC four tv are re-showing this classic series start 29/05/21
this is the prequel from Star Wars where OWK shows his jedi skills in reading people minds.
I want to be as handsome as JLC when I’m in my 60s.
Make a lot of money. I think that helps
England's finest actors.
Rshole
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy/Smileys People is the best !! All other spy movies suck.
Have you seen The Spy Who Came In From the Cold?
Brilliant! Thank you!
Brilliant! Thank you!
the Approachings
What date was this interview? Please put it in the description section of the video. Thanks. 🙂
Does anyone know from which DVD or TV show this footage comes?
I'm not stupid. I can follow a complex plot. I was doing so since I was five. I'm not asking for 007 action/adventure. But somebody tell me WTF was going on? I sat through TTSS (2011) THREE times and the Guinness version just recently. So please tell what super powers of intelligence does everyone else in these comments seem to have and I don't.
BTW, I have seen Spy who Came in from the Cold. I followed it quite well and liked it a lot.
A theory of a mole in MI6 starts the action, with Control sending an asset on a mission to confirm the theory, but he is captured and heads roll.. Then, some months later another asset confirms the theory, starting an investigation by Smiley, who is retired and in good position to do so..
He finds that those who succeeded he and control have a source in Soviet intelligence supplying info that he deems to good to be true, and through his investigation he finds the Soviets are really giving dressed up intelligence that looks important but is really “chicken feed,” and that the truth of the scene is it’s a ruse to allow the Soviet mole in British intelligence to pass real info back to the Soviets..
@@jacobjones5269 OOOOOOOOOOK. Someday I will try to run through it again. I saw "Five Fingers" (James Mason) when I was like eight and followed it. Still one of my faves.
@@calql8er
Well, the whole point of the story is piecing the narrative through gleaning tiny bits of info from multiple sources and layers..
The Soviet spy master knows MI6 is onto his mole, so he masterminds a ruse to get rid of Control and Smiley.. Which actually works.. But new information leaves Smiley in the perfect position to uncover the mole and scheme.. And Smiley does so through patient questioning and arithmetic..
@@calql8er
Also, this is a story about counter-intelligence.. Which is a delicate and deadly game.. The story is as much about Smiley taking advantage of a situation created by Karla to protect his mole… As anything else..
What does this mean: "the moment we had Alec we could empty the National Theatre'. 3:40
I guess what he meant was that the sort of people who went to plays at the National Theatre in London would be watching BBC version of “Tinker Taylor” because they respected Guinness. He was really a movie star not a TV actor.
It meant that they would have no trouble at all in getting famous actors for the rest of the cast because every actor in the National Theatre wpuld want to be in the TV series with Guinness. So it proved - pretty well all the characters in the TV series were very well known stage (often Shakespearian) actors.
Spook !
Thanks
RIP, Sir....
It's a very personal thing but I thought Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy was boring, unnecessarily complicated and confused. It took me ages to get through the book (I kept falling asleep). The most involving and entertaining spy writer (IMO) is Ian Fleming. Literary snobs probably don't think Fleming is adequately highbrow and to them I say "Please keep reading Le Carré."
Funnily, found the movie better than the book. It's not the usual, but it happens now and then. The novel was a tad boring, now and then. But the movie was great, a very well cared production. Where you could imagine them, when they were young and idealistic. A group of friends fighting for their ideas and then one of them becomes a mole. And they were stingered. I liked the movie with its nostalgic feeling and the clever plot. As it always happens, with Le Carré. A very good writer as smart as his characters, or more. 🙏👍🏻❤️
Z
Weird. Alec Guinness has played a spy in movies before. what was different?
PHOTO FILM JOHN LE CARRE FROM LEFT TO RIGHT TV3 999
christ, alec guiness sounds like such a fucking luvvie. not endearing at all frankly. i'd love to have seen arthur lowe as smiley!! hahaha brilliant
When John Le Carre (John the Blank) was invited to Moscow Center he was asked, "Vot have you done with Karla?" Good question. Maybe he underwent a sex change operation and now calls himself Hillary Clinton.
He translates it as ‘square’ like on a roulette betting pitch.