Smiley's People
 
 


Before one can even begin to review the BBC's 1982 BAFTA-winning adaptation of the final novel in John Le Carre's Karla trilogy, Smiley's People, it is first necessary to say a little about the novel which preceded it, The Honourable Schoolboy, if only so that the intricately woven web of complex events which form the basis of Smiley's People the tv adaptation begin to make a little more sense to the viewer and indeed to the newcomer to these superb dramatisations of Le Carre's work.

  The Honourable Schoolboy was published in 1977. Following his success in unmasking the mole Gerald' in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Smiley has become Head of the Circus in succession to Percy Alleline. However, the resources from which he has to work are very limited. The Circus HQ has been stripped bare in an attempt to find the listening devices planted by 'Gerald', funding has been frozen by an unsympathetic Labour government and Smiley's manpower has been reduced to the loyal Peter Guilliam, Toby Esterhase, Connie Sachs, now accompanied by a mongrel called Trot and called back into service by Smiley in the form of a 'Mother' - circus jargon for a secretary and the Circus's expert on China 'Doc' di Sallis.

The book concerns an investigation into funding paid into a Hong Kong bank to fund another Moscow Centre mole. Smiley sends Jerry Westerby the 'Honourable Schoolboy' of the title to investigate. Westerby changes sides and is murdered. As a result of a conspiracy by by the Head of the Intelligence Steering Committee, a career diplomat Sir Saul Enderby, and the Head of US intelligence, Martello, the Circus loses its prey, an agent called Drake Ko and Smiley is forced to resign. The problem with
The Honourable Schoolboy is that it is little more than a 500 page travelogue and would not have made good television without being drastically altered in adaptation.

As
Smiley's People begins, Smiley has been retired for three years. If again, we are to use Le Carre's datings, The Honourable Schoolboy unfolds between 1974-75 and Smiley's People in 1978, although as with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy it remains largely unclear whether the events we see unfold in 1978 or at the time of broadcast in 1982.

The problems with the television adaptation of
Smiley's People are largely the same as those inherent with in the novel itself. The simplicity of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is largely abandoned as Le Carre seems to be looking at a Booker prize win. The TV adaptation also suffers from not using Arthur Hopcraft who made such a superb job of adapting Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Instead Le Carre adapts his novel with the help of former Z CARS writer, John Hopkins whose previous dalliance with the world of espionage came with the 1965 screenplay for the James Bond film Thunderball. The unsatisfying result is a complex web of intrigue, which is baffling to anyone who has not read the novel, and even to some who have! Matters aren't helped with the loss of John Irvin's superb, unobtrusive direction. Irvin is replaced here by Simon Langton, son of the actor, David Langton. It is obvious that Langton is unfamiliar with the world of the Circus and his intense direction leads to characters being either overly complex or uncharismatic and bitter.

As the story begins, the events we see unfolding seem to make little sense whatsoever. A Russian woman, Maria Ostrakova (Eileen Atkins) exiled to France where she works as a warehouse checker is followed by a sinister looking man Oleg Kirov (Dudley Sutton) who appears to know about her past and seemingly offers her the chance to see again her daughter Tatiana who is in a psychiatric institution in Berne, Switzerland. Ostravoka is rightfully suspicious of Kirov's claims and contacts the Riga Group, a Baltic independence movement run by an old Circus agent General Vladimir (Curt Jurgens).

Soon Ostravoka is visited by Vladimir's right-hand man, Otto Leipzig aka 'The Magician' (Vladek Sheybal). Leipzig tells Ostravoka to contact the General in London. The General is very worried by her letter by hitch-hiking along a dual carriageway he contacts his some-time courier, the long-distance lorry driver Willem (or William) Craven (Paul Herzberg) who is also the son of another of Vladimir's former associates. We next see Willem on a riverboat in Hamburg where he watches Leipzig.

Arriving in London, Vladimir phones the Circus and demands an immediate meeting with 'Max', Smiley's codename when liasing with the Riga Group. Vladimir's call is taken by a young rookie, Nigel Mostyn (Stephen Riddle) who identifies 'Gregory' as Vladimir and 'Max' as Smiley. Mostyn is worried when Vladimir speaks of having contacted 'friends and neighbours' which the increasingly nervous Mostyn identifies as Soviet agents. Mostyn's insecurity at Vladimir's revelations and demands almost reach panic when Vladimir insists meeting with Smiley under 'Moscow rules', a by-the-book procedure used in areas of extreme risk, and informs his superior Lauder Strickland (Bill Patterson).

Having fed his dog Bobicek, Vladimir sets off for a night-time rendezvous on Hampstead Heath. Vladimir becomes conscious of being followed. Soon after Vladimir is murdered and George Smiley (Alec Guinness) receives a phonecall from the minister's special adviser on intelligence affairs Oliver Lacon (Anthony Bate). Lacon is one of the very few recurring characters in the story whose character does not seem to have been vastly altered from
Tinker, Tailor... other than the fact that the break-up of his marriage has left him almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Smiley, having been appraised of what happened to Vladimir by a Scotland Yard Superintendant (Michael Elphick) and informing him that “he was somebody I worked with”, sets off for a meeting with Lacon, Lauder-Strickland and Mostyn whom it is revealed works in 'Oddbins', an operational pool set up by Enderby.

Back in France, Ostravoka is followed by two Soviet heavies whilst out shopping. As they close in and grab her, she tries to escape but is pushed into the path of an oncoming car. Back in London, Smiley is informed that all he needs do is
“pour oil on troubled water”, Enderby's instructions passed through Lauder-Strickland are to “Bury the case, not to solve it…” As Smiley leaves, Mostyn discreetly gives him Vladimir's final message - “Tell Max, it concerns 'The Sandman'”, the Riga group's codename for Karla.

After this complex opening, things pick up a little in episode 2, albeit not very much. Smiley visits Vladimir's flat where his landlady (a pre-
Eastenders Anna Wing) wonders if Smiley is a burglar. Not finding anything of note, Smiley intercepts a letter sent to the general under the name he used in the UK 'Vladimir Miller', and returns by taxi to Hampstead Heath where he declines an offer of help from a well-meaning Hari Krishna. Close to the murder scene Smiley finds a cigarette packet containing a small negative photo. From here on in, Smiley is followed by a mysterious leather clad figure on a motorbike. Smiley next phones the cab firm, which Vladimir used to take him to Paddington, and speaks to 'Mr Lamb' the driver who tells him of Vladimir's movements, including buying a toy duck on wheels. Smiley then supposedly deposits a gift for his errant wife Ann in a safe at the Savoy Hotel with the day manager, Mr Brownlow, but it is in fact to secure the letter and negative away from the attention of the biker.

Things pick up a little when Smiley visits the Cravens in Battle of the Nile Street, Charlton. Stella Craven (a strong performance by the great Maureen Lipman, again let down by a poor script and lacklustre direction) knowing of her husband's past is far from pleased to see 'Max' and states that 'William' (as she insists on calling him) is out, despite the fact that his lorry parked outside the house. Smiley is all too aware that Willem is at home but gets no response when he knocks on Willem's bedroom door. This is one of the oddest scenes in the serial and in the book as one gets the impression from
Tinker, Tailor... that most wives don't know that their husbands actually work for the security services, but Stella is all too aware of Willem's involvement with the Riga group and is obviously fearful of its re-intrusion into the working class domestic bliss which she enjoys with “William” and their daughter Beckie.

Willem suddenly appears and under gentle pressure from Smiley Stella is not pleased to hear that Willem saw Vladimir as recently as Monday when he brought the toy duck for Beckie whilst Stella was visiting her hospitalised mother. Stella knows something was going on as she tells George the Riga Group kept phoning them at all hours the previous night asking about Vladimir.

Free to be discharged, Maria's wish to spend one more night in hospital is nevertheless granted. Meanwhile Smiley goes to visit Mikhail (Michael Gough) another member of the Riga Group who, along with his rather stern wife Elvira, is also saddened by Vladimir's brutal death. Mikhail states that Vladimir asked him for £50, something which he had never done before ,and made a call to Hamburg (one assumes this was to Leipzig). Mikhail was supposed to meet with Vladimir at 11am, but he never showed up; again one can assume that this was supposedly on the day following the murder.

Mikhail believes that Vladimir was betrayed by his 'postman' (Riga Group terminology for a case officer), in this case 'Hector' aka Toby Esterhase. As Smiley returns home to Chelsea he spots the mysterious rider who has been following him for most of the episode, but he does not let this trouble him and sets about developing the photo negative which he found on the Heath. Smiley discovers that the photo shows Leipzeg and Kirov in bed with two prostitutes, but to his annoyance Smiley's investigation is interrupted by a visit from Lacon, still primarily more concerned over the break-up of his marriage and again asking Smiley out to dinner and for a seminar on the subject. As Smiley and Lacon talk Smiley recalls a meeting years earlier with Vladimir and Leipzeg where Smiley first learned of Karla's daughter Tatiana.

As the third episode begins, Maria Ostrakova is returned home. Meanwhile Smiley visits Benatti's art emporium. Benatti is of course Toby Esterhase (Bernard Hepton). It is here that director Simon Langton commits the most cardinal sin of the entire production. It is obvious that he has never taken the trouble to watch
Tinker, Tailor... as no longer is Esterhase the smooth talking but sinister figure whose very elusiveness made him odds on favourite to be Gerald. Langton has Bernard Hepton made up into a pasty faced camp figure, almost Hungarian Danny La Rue in a cream coloured suit with coiffurred grey/white hair. The elusive manner is replaced by a bonhomie that suits neither the character or Hepton. The whole façade is so utterly false that it ruins one of Le Carre's best creations and has the viewer crying out for John Irvin!

Esterhase denies any quarrel with Vladimir but says that Vladimir wanted him to courier something to Hamburg, to a strip club owned by Klaus Kretzschamar (Mario Adorf). Esterhase informs Smiley that the Sandman 'Karla' is so called because he has a habit of putting to sleep whoever comes near him and that the Sandman was looking for 'a legend for a girl'. Returning from London, Smiley finally meets the mysterious rider who has been following him. It is Ferguson, a man who worried in the 'Travel' department of the Circus when Smiley was chief. He is merely conveying instructions from Enderby to end the operation. This makes very little sense at all in respect of the fact, why has Ferguson been so elusive? Why didn't he knock on Smileys door, or Stella Craven's come to that. For one and a half episodes this elusive figure has conveyed a delightful air of very sinister mystery and the revelation that he is no more than a messenger boy is a bit of a damp squib.

However, Smiley refuses to lay off and heads for the Merilee Boarding Kennels in Oxfordshire where a clapboard cabin is now home to Connie Sachs (Beryl Reid) and a former clerk in the Circus cipher room, Hilary (Norma West), a still neurotic ex-Circus employee who wrecked the Cipher Room during a nervous breakdown in 1975. Hilary is not pleased to see Smiley as Connie is now dying of cancer
“Death that's what I'm suffering from” she informs Smiley. Connie's next statement is rather puzzling “I've discovered love since we last met”. Remember that this is the Connie Sachs who proclaimed in
Tinker, Tailor... “Oh George if only I'd seen you first” and “I miss the Circus and all my lovely boys…” - could it be at the age of 68, that Connie has become a lesbian, or is it a pseudo mother/daugther relationship? The issue is not expanded upon, thus leaving the viewer to make up his or her own mind.

Although she is on screen for a good length of time and won a BAFTA for
Smiley's People, Beryl Reid falls victim, as do so many, to the lacklustre screenplay and Langton's uninspired direction. Here there are few of the memorable lines of Tinker, Tailor... and Connie seems to change her mind every two seconds, one minute seeming bitter about her state, the next once again full of enthusiasm for the world of espionage which was her life. She refers to Kirov as 'the ginger pig' and tells how he got together Estonian dissidents at university and then shopped them to the Russian secret police. Connie's next revelation finally makes sense of the events which have baffled the viewer for a fortnight when she informs Smiley that Karla had a mistress, an Estonian girl who gave birth to an insane daughter. We now know that Ostravoka was Karla's mistress and that Tatiana is his daughter who was born on 12th October 1953. Finally Connie names the courier as Smiley leaves.

Other than to provide the viewer with answers to the questions which have been baffling us for the previous two episodes, Beryl Reid's performance is uninspired There are few of the quotable lines that Reid had in
Tinker Tailor... other than her admission that she “...wouldn't trust Saul Enderby as far as she could throw Oliver Lacon…”

Tabs are still being kept on Ostravoka. She notices a car as her landlady brings her shopping and tells the visiting Sergei, whom we can only assume is another member of the Riga Group, that her husband died from cancer and her lover was a Jew. After he leaves she prepares to defend herself by securely bolting her apartment door and loading an old service revolver; after her attempted abduction, she is taking no chances.

Meanwhile, Smiley travels to Hamburg in the guise of a businessman and visits The Blue Diamond, Claus Kretzchmar's strip club. Kretzchmar is an amiable figure and one of the few really likeable people in the entire six episode run. Gradually he thaws towards Smiley and provides George with various insights that may prove helpful, speaks of his sadness at Vladimir's death and finally refunds him such money as he has spent as he gives him Leipzeg's address, with the warning that Otto will be angry once he hears of the General's death.
 


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article copyright PPS / G. Phillips 2006