I re-watched this after two decades. I have never read the novel so I am not in a position to appraise the adaptation from book to screen.
This was a prestige BBC adaptation and a lot of money was spent on getting Alec Guinness star as Smiley and some location set pieces.
However once you get over such trappings the production values are still very much interior settings. People having discussions in rooms and what not.
Guinness is all stillness, letting others to do the talking and letting them reveal themselves a little too much.
Just as Karla did the same to him some years ago. Only Nigel Stock manages to ruffle his feathers.
This gives other actors such as Hywel Bennett, Ian Richardson, Joss Ackland, Beryl Reid a chance to shine while Guinness looks on.
The drama demands concentration from the viewer, it is dense, it has a lot of chatter regarding the world of spooks. The Circus does look a lot like the old public school network. Even in those days the secret service had enough of the shifters and drifters as shown in other spy novels.
Hywel Bennett as Ricki Tarr, Michael Jayston as Peter Guillam and Ian Bannen as Jim Prideaux show how dangerous, mean and ruthless such spies can be.
Tarr has told so many lies that the truth is so hard to tell without adding some shade.
At the Circus, Ian Richardson punctures the pompous atmosphere as he displays undercurrents of rebellion. Patrick Stewart makes a silent cameo and right at the end Mrs Smiley makes an appearance, a person we hear so much about throughout the series.
This was a prestige BBC adaptation and a lot of money was spent on getting Alec Guinness star as Smiley and some location set pieces.
However once you get over such trappings the production values are still very much interior settings. People having discussions in rooms and what not.
Guinness is all stillness, letting others to do the talking and letting them reveal themselves a little too much.
Just as Karla did the same to him some years ago. Only Nigel Stock manages to ruffle his feathers.
This gives other actors such as Hywel Bennett, Ian Richardson, Joss Ackland, Beryl Reid a chance to shine while Guinness looks on.
The drama demands concentration from the viewer, it is dense, it has a lot of chatter regarding the world of spooks. The Circus does look a lot like the old public school network. Even in those days the secret service had enough of the shifters and drifters as shown in other spy novels.
Hywel Bennett as Ricki Tarr, Michael Jayston as Peter Guillam and Ian Bannen as Jim Prideaux show how dangerous, mean and ruthless such spies can be.
Tarr has told so many lies that the truth is so hard to tell without adding some shade.
At the Circus, Ian Richardson punctures the pompous atmosphere as he displays undercurrents of rebellion. Patrick Stewart makes a silent cameo and right at the end Mrs Smiley makes an appearance, a person we hear so much about throughout the series.