Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I tried to watch this drama series a year or so ago and didnt get far. It isnt bad but it has a slow pace, which I am usually fine with, but I am not into spy stories. I gave it a second try recently and had no trouble finishing it this time.

There is some action and a small amount of drama, but mostly it is conversation and a slow-burning tension running through it. I confess I occasionally wasnt sure who was doing what off screen, but i never completely lost the thread.

Alec Guinness is very good. He gives what seems like a restrained performance, playing a man who fights emotions that rise up inside him so that he can dispassionately do the work required of him with a clear heard and clear eye. A couple of the subplots, such as the...

With the Cold War at it's height, the head of the British counter-espionage agency - "Control" (Alexander Knox) is giving a clear impression that he is losing the plot. He is visibly ailing so his subordinates gather like vultures waiting to take his place. His preferred candidate is the redoubtable, semi-retired, "Smiley" (Sir Alec Guinness) and pretty swiftly we discover that is because the old man is not so doting after all, and is suspicious that there is a spy in his midst. Who can he trust to investigate the matter? There were seven parts to this BBC drama and each episode delivers some more pieces in the jigsaw of his search for the truth and the mole. There's a fine assemblage of British character actors like Ian Bannen and Anthony ...