The Sunday Telegraph - 01.09.2019

The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 1 September 2019 S *** 27

the nuances. Guinness, for example,

might do nothing for five minutes save

polish his spectacles. We saw a lot of

blue cigarette smoke, artfully swirling

towards the ceiling. What was being

conveyed was people thinking, people

coming to terms with the shock of

crimes committed long ago, which

were only just coming to light, as

THE WEEK IN ARTS

ROGER LEWIS

Arts

I

was a child when Tinker Tailor

Soldier Spy was first broadcast,

starting on September 10 1979.

It wasn’t something I had

wanted to watch (I would have

preferred Up Pompeii! with

Frankie Howerd), but it was clear that

this seven-part series, based on John

le Carré’s novel, was a very superior

work.

For a start, it was shot on film

rather than blotchy videotape, with

an Oscar-winning knight of the realm,

Alec Guinness, in the star role of

intelligence officer George Smiley.

Television, up until this point, had

always been rather disposable, with

jerky acting, ropy plots, everything

hurried and badly lit. People who

remember I, Claudius respectfully

should take another look. The

make-up is terrible (Derek Jacobi’s

false nose keeps dropping off ), and

a beardless Brian Blessed seemed to

think he was in The Godfather.

Tinker Tailor was also leisurely.

Compared to the frantic pace and

choppy editing of many dramas

today, it took its time to explore

The Cold War drama that changed TV

Smiley pieces together clues about the

spy concealed within their ranks.

I have now seen the series many

times, of course. It is wonderful. I am

always finding new things, new slants.

The world of double agents and news

of communist infiltration at the top

of MI5, while thrillingly set forth by

le Carré, were only a pretext for the

deeper themes, brought out by John

Irvin (director) and Arthur Hopcraft

(script) of danger and thwarted love;

of betrayal lurking under the polite

surface of English life. What makes

le Carré unique is his delineation of

the Cold War: the frozen attitudes

and emotions, the ossifying morality,

the awareness that good and evil are

intertwined – that good and evil can

even change places.

When first broadcast, the series

would have been set in the present day,

the drab Seventies of orange furniture

and avocado bathroom suites. It is a

museum piece now, particularly the

Circus (Security Services headquarters),

stocked with the manila folders,

Bakelite telephones and carbon copies

in triplicate of office memoranda. But

CRITICS’ CHOICES

WHAT TO SEE

THIS WEEK

Theatre

The Son

First seen at the Kiln

theatre, Florian Zeller’s

harrowing portrait of a

depressed teenage boy

unravelling following his

parents’ divorce – with his

nearest and dearest

struggling to cope with his

depression – features

strong performances,

impeccable direction from

Michael Longhurst, and a

fine translation from

Christopher Hampton.

Dominic Cavendish

Duke of York’s Theatre,

London WC2 (0844 871

7623), tomorrow-Nov 2

Comedy

Jordan Brookes:

I’ve Got Nothing

Jordan Brookes won the

Edinburgh Fringe’s top

award for this weird,

rubber-limbed hour of

faffing about. The premise

is that he hasn’t written a

show and is desperately

trying to fill the time.

Brookes is a bit of an

acquired taste, but if you

can get on board with his

oddball style this show is

uproariously funny.

Tristram Fane Saunders

Soho Theatre, London W1

(020 7478 0100), tomorrow,

Fri and Sat

Film

The Souvenir

Writer-director Joanna

Hogg’s mysterious,

seductive, thrillingly

controlled new film stars

Honor Swinton-Byrne

(daughter of Tilda

Swinton) as Julie, an

aspiring filmmaker

searching for her voice in

Eighties London. She

forms an intense and

ravaging – and ultimately

dangerous – romantic

bond with an urbane,

pinstriped civil servant

(Strike’s Tom Burke).

Robbie Collin

15 cert, 119 min

Dance

Alvin Ailey

Alvin Ailey American

Dance Theatre, a fantastic

New York-based troupe,

returns to London with a

full three programmes,

including works by Rennie

Harris, Robert Battle and

Jamar Roberts, set to

music ranging from Nina

Simone and John Coltrane

to Bach. On past form, this

10-day season is likely to

prove a treat.

Mark Monahan

Sadler’s Wells, London EC1

(020 7863 8000), Weds-

Sept 14

BBC

for the Seventies’ viewer, there was the

queasy thrill of seeing how the West was

being kept safe with brain power, rather

than computers – and how shabby these

boffins are, wearing cardigans or jackets

with leather elbow patches, drinking

cold tea. That immediacy is one of the

reasons why the series compares so

favourably to the numerous le Carré

adaptations that have followed.

The performances are first class.

Guinness, of course, was never better.

His inexpressiveness managed to

speak volumes – his glares, high

intelligence and watchfulness. I also

relish George Sewell as Mendel, the

loyal Special Branch policeman, who

guarded Smiley when he set up a

secret operational base in a Paddington

hotel. Then there was Terence Rigby,

as Roy Bland, Smiley’s colleague,

and a suspect, who over-enunciated

deliberately, to camouflage his

Wolverhampton accent.

When I last watched Tinker Tailor,

what struck me was how much of it is

played comically. Smiley’s little shrugs

and blinks – Guinness was never far

from being camp, or anyway a bit like

Stan Laurel. Ian Richardson’s Haydon

is outrageous – a queen. Nigel Stock, an

ex-spy, creeping about Pall Mall clubs,

could be in a Restoration drama, an

absurd fop.

The television Tinker Tailor is

rivalled only by the Richard Burton

version of The Spy Who Came in from the

Cold. There is something of le Carré’s

noble despair etched in Burton’s face

• the melancholy romanticism which
  Guinness, too, manages to get across.
  In other adaptations, this key
  quality is lost. The Little Drummer
  Girl seemed chiefly to be about the
  art department’s diligent discovery of
  orange hotel rooms and retro luggage.
  The Night Manager was a James Bond
  audition tape for Tom Hiddleston,
  with Hugh Laurie demonstrating how
  comedians can paradoxically make the
  best villains. And then there was the
  feature film remake of Tinker Tailor,
  where a thin Gary Oldman played the
  owlish and rotund George Smiley. But
  don’t get me started on how bad and
  misplaced I found that project.

Alec Guinness in Tinker Tailor, top, and

Florence Pugh in The Little Drummer Girl

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is released on

Blu-ray tomorrow

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