Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

1979 • BBC
4.7
62 reviews
Eligible
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Season 1 episodes (7)

1 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - Episode 1
9/10/79
Season-only
Retired espionage veteran George Smiley is called out on a top secret mission: to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6's echelons.
2 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - Episode 2
9/17/79
Season-only
Retired from the 'Circus', George Smiley, former right-hand of the late Control, meets Ricky Tarr, a British agent who went AWOL, believe defected. Tarr tells of how a mission to Portugal led him to learning about the mole in the 'Circus'.
3 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - Episode 3
9/24/79
Season-only
The investigation begins, with Peter Guillam burgling the archives for information, while Smiley visits an old comrade whose past knowledge could prove vital to locating the spy.
4 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - Episode 4
10/1/79
Season-only
While Guillam and Tarr come under pressure, Smiley recounts his one meeting with the Soviet master spy Karla, who is undoubtedly running the spy inside MI6.
5 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - Episode 5
10/8/79
Season-only
Smiley goes to meet Jim Prideaux who is now back in Britain having survived his experience in Czechoslovakia. His testimony and that of others sheds new light on the 'Testify' fiasco and source 'Merlin'.
6 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - Episode 6
10/15/79
Season-only
Smiley confronts one of his suspects and gives him the results of his investigations, which could prove a considerable embarrassment to those concerned.
7 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - Episode 7
10/22/79
Season-only
Smiley springs his trap and catches the spy. He later interrogates the spy and learns about how and why it happened, and the answers he gets rob him of any sense of victory.

About this show

George Smiley has been retired for a year when he finds a friend from the circus, his old outfit in British Intelligence sitting in his living room. He is taken to the home of an advisor to the Prime Minister on intelligence matters where he finds evidence that one of the men in the senior ranks of his old agency is a Russian spy. Smiley is asked to find him, without official access to any of the files in the Circus or letting on that anyone is under suspicion. With only a few old friends, his own powers of deduction, and secrecy as weapons, Smiley must unearth the spy who turned him out of the Circus. Sir Alec Guiness portrays George Smiley, John Le Carre's shy and retiring master of espionage.

Ratings and reviews

4.7
62 reviews
Mark C
January 6, 2016
I generally hate book adaptations, look at Lord Of The Rings, JRR must be spinning in his grave. But this bucks the trend by so much that it's perfection is astonishing. Were it not near blasphemy I'd say it improves the book. At least it enhances it. Utterly absorbing it draws you into the shadowy world of public school espionage. Guinness is spot on, indeed all the cast are. First watched this in 79 and it's just as good now. BBC on top form - oh, where did it all go wrong!
Paddy MacMahon
October 12, 2014
Slow boiling thriller. Alec Guinness at his absolute best.
Stuart White
February 3, 2022
A true classic the does the book proud. Fantastic casting.