Tonight at a glance
- Runtime
- ~50 min/episode
- Length
- 1 season · 7 episodes
- Status
- Miniseries
- Age rating
- PG
- Language
- English
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Violence
- Moderate
Why tonight?
- One season, and then it ends — a story with a last episode, not a habit.
The story
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a seven-part BBC2 spy drama written by Arthur Hopcraft, adapted from John le Carré's eponymous 1974 novel. The serial, which stars Alec Guinness, Alexander Knox, Ian Richardson, Michael Jayston, Bernard Hepton, Anthony Bate, Ian Bannen, George Sewell and Michael Aldridge, was broadcast from 10 September to 22 October 1979. George Smiley, the ageing master spy of the Cold War and once heir-apparent to Control, is brought back out of retirement to flush out a top level mole within the Circus. Smiley must travel back through his life and murky workings of the Circus to unravel the net spun by his nemesis Karla 'The Sandman' of the KGB and reveal the identity of the mole before he disappears.
- spy
- based on novel or book
- great britain
- traitor
- cold war
- kgb
- espionage
- miniseries
- mole
The look
A few frames, chosen rather than collected.
The bill
- Bernard Hepton
- Ian Richardson
- Hywel Bennett
- Michael Aldridge
- Ian Bannen
- Terence Rigby
- Alec Sabin
- Beryl Reid
- Alexander Knox
- Duncan Jones
- Daniel Beecher
- Directed
- John Irvin
- Created
- John le Carré, John Irvin
- Written
- Arthur Hopcraft
Production
- Rating
- 7.6 / 10 · 128 ratings
- Network & studio
- BBC Two, BBC, Paramount Pictures
If this stayed with you
Then these are the nearest things Cue holds — chosen for what they share with it, not for what happens to be popular.
