Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (TV series)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is 1979 television miniseries in which, in the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced out of semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet Agent within MI6's echelons.

Directed by John Irvin. Written by Arthur Hopcraft, based on John le Carré's 1974 novel of the same name.
Who can spy on the spies?

George Smiley

  • [on his enforced retirement from the Secret Service] Reason as motive, or reason as logic, or reason as a way of life? They don't have to give me reasons—I can write my own damn reasons, and that is not the same as the half-baked tolerance that comes from no longer caring!
  • [to Peter Guillam] I'm surprised they didn't throw you out with the rest of us. You had all the qualifications for losing your job: good at your work, loyal, discreet...
  • [responding to a rumor about the Circus's deceased chief] Control died of a heart attack, after a long illness, throughout most of which he continued to work. Besides he hated South Africa. He hated everywhere except Surrey, the Circus, and Lord's Cricket Ground.
  • You featherhead, Martindale! You pompous, bogus, gossiping old featherhead!
  • Roy Bland is not "red brick." He was at St Antony's College, Oxford.

Roy Bland

  • As a good socialist, I'm going where the money is, and as a good capitalist, I'm sticking with the revolution, because if you can't beat it spy on it.
  • Don't look like that, George; it's the name of the game these days—you scratch my conscience, I'll drive your Jag.

Miscellaneous

Control: [repeated line] There are three of them and Alleline.

Dialogue

George Smiley: I'm so out of touch, Peter—does Lacon have any particular titles these days?
Peter Guilliam: Just Sir Oliver of the Cabinet office. You know how he loves being one of nature's prefects.
George Smiley: Why did Lacon send you for me, Peter?
Peter Guilliam: Do you mean, "why did he send me for you"? Or "why did he send me for you"?
George Smiley: Quite right, Peter. I should have known better than to have asked.
Percy Alleline: I hear you've been hobnobbing with the late lamented Rikki Tarr. Formerly of your section, dispatched by you to Lisbon, and since then listed by the service as a defector. How is he?
Peter Guilliam: That's right, Chief. Rikki and I have tea at Fortnum's every afternoon. Jasmine.
Percy Alleline: Peter Guilliam! You may not be aware of this, but I am possessed of an extremely forgiving nature. I positively seethe with good will. All I require of you is the matter of your discussion with Tarr. I do not ask for his head, or any other part of his offensive anatomy, and I will restrain my impulse personally to strangle him. Or you. I would even go so far as to consider bringing you back into the palace from hateful Brixton, where presently you linger in well-earned obscurity.
Peter Guilliam: In that case, I can't wait for him to turn up.
Percy Alleline: I'm very disappointed in you, young Peter. I pay you honest money, and you stab me in the back! I consider that extremely poor reward for keeping you alive. Against the entreaties of my advisors, I may tell you. Let us begin again. If you won't give me a straight answer, perhaps you'll unburden to somebody more...persuasive.
[Alleline looks around the table]
Percy Alleline: [gesturing at Roy Bland] Roy.
[Bland begins coughing before taking a drag off the cigarette he is holding]
Roy Bland: Rikki Tarr's got a daughter, hasn't he?
Peter Guilliam: Yes. Calls her Danni.
Roy Bland: Talk about her a lot?
Peter Guilliam: He told me he was fond of her. [shrugging his shoulders] That's all I know.
Percy Alleline: [shouting] What the hell are you shrugging at us like that for?! I'm accusing you of playing hooky behind my back, with a damn defector from your own damn section, of playing damn fool parlour games when you don't know the stakes! And all you do is shrug at me?! There's a law, Guilliam, against consorting with enemy agents!
[Alleline rises from his chair, looking down at Guilliam]
Percy Alleline: Do you want me to throw the book at you?
Peter Guilliam: [loudly] I haven't seen him! [in a quieter tone of voice] Who's playing games? Not me, you are, so get off my back!
Percy Alleline: Who's Danni's mother?
Peter Guilliam: A Eurasian girl. But Tarr likes to think she passes for full European. And the child.
Bill Haydon: Twelve years old, long blonde hair, brown eyes. Slim. Is that Danni?
Peter Guilliam: Could be.
[Haydon nods and smiles]
Percy Alleline: So, if I told you that Danni and her mother were due to arrive in London, three days ago, on a direct flight from Tunis, I take it you would share our perplexity?
Peter Guilliam: [looking somewhat surprised] Yes, I would.
Percy Alleline: And you'd keep your mouth shut when we let you out of here?
Roy Bland: It isn't ordinary flight information, Peter. The source is very private.
Toby Esterhase: Ultra, ultra sensitive, in fact, Peter. [makes an "OK" sign with his thumb and forefinger]
Peter Guilliam: In that case, Toby, I'll try and keep my mouth ultra, ultra shut.
Percy Alleline: Now, listen, just you remember this: at the first peep--the first whisper--of Tarr, or his lady, or his wee bairn, young Peter Guilliam, you come to one of us grownups. Anyone you see at this table, but not another damn soul!
[Alleline returns to his side of the table, takes his pipe, and lights it]
Percy Alleline: The name on the passport is Poole. P-double-O-L-E. For all three of them. Tarr told his woman--so we understand--that in case of difficulties, she should come to you.
[Alleline leaves the conference table and returns to his desk, silently adjourning the meeting as most of the other attendees get up and leave]
Roy Bland: [placing a form in front of Guilliam] Ah, sign that, Peter, will you?
[as Guilliam signs the form, Bill Haydon leans down between him and Bland]
Bill Haydon: Stupid bloody cabaret. Percy gets more insufferable every day.
Peter Guilliam: I wouldn't know, Bill, would I?
[Haydon smiles and gives Guilliam a playful nudge]
Roy Bland: Who was the bloke who said an intellectual is someone who can hold two completely opposing viewpoints and still function?
George Smiley: Scott Fitzgerald.
Roy Bland: Well, Fitzgerald knew a thing or two.
Bill Haydon: What do you want to know?
George Smiley: Oh... why? How? When?
Bill Haydon: [incredulous] "Why?" You ask that? [laughing and crying at the same time] Because it was necessary! That's why! Someone had to! [pauses] We were bluffed, George. You, me, even Control. Those Circus talent spotters, all those years ago. They plucked us when we were golden with hope, told us we were on our way to the Holy Grail... freedom's protectors... [laughing and crying] My God, what a question... "why?"

Cast

See also

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