The more mature amongst us (ahem) may well recall two superlative series on the BBC some 25+ years ago, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People, both based on the stories of John le Carre. His take on the seedy twilight world of espionage is far closer to reality than that of Ian Fleming and, while on the surface of it both these dramatisations appear slow and wordy, they contain an underlying simmering tension that is still effective on recent rewatching.
BBC4 showed both these series again recently, but I was unable to see all the episodes so was delighted to find them both on DVD on Amazon, special offer and have snapped them up and they arrived today in a lovely parcel. It is impossible to watch either of these series without putting the phone on voice mail, sitting quietly and concentrating else the intricacies of the dialogue and story line will defeat the watcher otherwise.
I well remember watching Tinker, Tailor when it was first on and discussing it with then husband and trying to work out what was going on. We then watched the repeat the night before the next episode so we could keep abreast of it all. It had a dark quality about it and the final episode was nail biting. I remember Alec Guinness and Michael Jayston driving along in the rain with headlights flashing as they went past them and waiting for something awful to happen. it didn't but you felt any minute it would and that was more unnerving than an actual incident.
Smiley's People is more leisurely, but again this feeling of being out of kilter, something waiting around the corner,
lingers. There is one scene when George Smiley is on Hampstead Heath in the area where a colleague has been shot, sifting through the autumn leaves with his umbrella looking for anything left behind. It is a scene with no dialogue and nothing happening and yet full of menace. I was trying to work out why and realised after a while that there was no background music, it was screened in total silence. How wonderfully effective and what a relief from the usual cacophony in the background on all dramas currently being shown.
Both dramatisations star Alec Guinness as George Smiley, taking the art of under playing to another level. With his heavy glasses, Homburg hat and dead eyes which have seen the manipulations and trickery of the world, including his wife's unfaithfulness, he is quite wonderful and his voice, so mellifluous and unmistakable.
I am going to save these up for the Christmas holidays when I have plenty of time to sit and watch and relish and enjoy.
