I enjoyed Tinker Tailor and found the mini series riveting as they try to unearth a Soviet mole deep in the inner bowels of the circus.I caught up with the recent repeat showing of Smiley's People and during the first episode I thought we are in for a treat here as we had intrigue and plot development. By the second episode I started to feel bored as it comprised of long conversations, long stares, cars being driven. The third episode felt even more padded as we had more long stares, more cars being driven, more long conversations and the foreign location shooting did not enliven things much. The series just meanderedIts only the final episode that regained my interest but by then I knew this was a sandwich with no filling.So Smiley comes out of retirement to investigate the death of one of his agents, a Soviet General who discovered information about the infamous Karla.The series has two actors famous for portraying James Bond villains in Roger Moore movies. We have brief cameos from Patrick Stewart, Sian Phillips and Beryl Reid.The most interesting aspect is that the character of Toby Esterhase, one of the people in charge of the Circus in Tinker Tailor. Ever so English, uptight and humourless. Here unveiled as being Austro- Hungarian complete with some kind of Italian/German/European accent and unrecognisable as a character from the first serial. Now Esterhase is a dodgy art dealer drawn back in by Smiley and loving it.We see a more nastier side of Smiley here. We guessed a skilled spy who ran a set of agents would be tough, cunning and ruthless and this was heavily hinted in the first series. Here he is called a sexist fascist after he visited Connie and we see an unlikeable, temperamental Smiley as well as someone who by the end is just tired and run out of energy.I can imagine BBC producer Jonathan Powell congratulating himself at another prestige production. The series was a severe disappointment. Its slow and boring, it should had just been a three parter.

A word here first: I didn't see this on television the first time around, so I wasn't aware that portions were cut from the Acorn DVDs, which are the ones I saw. A little over an hour, I believe, was cut from the six-part series.George Smiley is brought out of retirement again, this time to find out who killed his friend, The General, and why. The General had been contacted by Madame Ostrakova (Eileen Atkins), asking for help in working out a strange situation in which she found herself involved. The General winds up dead.Smiley retraces The General's steps and his investigation leads to someone high in the Russian secret service, someone who seems to be killing everyone in his wake in his quest to hide a big secret.I will admit that I have always found anything connected with George Smiley, be it books, TV mini-series, or films, very hard to follow. The stories contain a lot of subtleties and often assume knowledge that you may have had twenty years earlier when you read a Smiley story or saw a movie, but which one has now lost.Nevertheless, thanks to the wonderful performances and interesting story, even with cuts, this is a marvelous psychological study of two men: Smiley and his long-time adversary on the other side, Karla (Patrick Stewart) who are not so far apart as might be imagined.In the spy game, there appear to be no winners and no losers, so anything seen as a "success" is empty. Guinness is incredible as the world-weary Smiley, considered a relic by the Circus. He underplays so beautifully, creating an exhausted man whose life is in tatters but who still has the genius to analyze the enemy and beat them at their own game.Smiley goes at things like an old pro -- it's detached, it's automatic, and then, suddenly, on a one to one basis, you see his great humanity, the thing that sets him apart. He has a wonderful scene toward the end of the film with a young woman that is a great example of it.Recommended, but see if you can get the full version, as I intend to, so I can see it in its entirety.

I have read the books and seen the films countless times, and I am always held captive by the tales themselves. Guiness is incredibly subtle, showing pain, disgust, sadness, and finally determination with a mere eyebrow raised, a pinch of his lips, and a furrowed brow.All the actors play their roles extremely well. I am particularly impressed by Eileen Atkins and Bernard Hepton. Even though, I assume due to time constraints, certain scenes from the book have been abbreviated, the general feel of the book - the increasing pressure and passion as we creep to the conclusion - is heart stopping.I believe this is one of the great classic films of the 20th century.

This cold war spy story is now rather dated, but the terrific performances hold up well. I watched it twice through, however, and the story still didn't add up. Wanting to find out what the "real" story was, I read the book and was quite surprised at what was done with the story. Movies often reduce thoughtful novels to little else than plot, due to time constraints, but this mini-series is six hours long, which should be time enough to get the plot right at least. Nevertheless, unless you have read the book you won't understand much of what happens, or rather is alluded to in elliptical references to the back-story. On the other hand, if you have read the book, you'll be left wondering why the story was changed at all, let alone in the absurd ways it was. The changes to the story would be understandable if they added clarity to a reduced plot, or if they condensed characters for brevity. These changes add nothing: Saul Enderby as sexist jerk with female historian in burn-tape sequence. Ostrakova rescued in fantastic fashion from under the noses of creeps. Tension between Toby Esterhase and Peter Guillam. Drama between Smiley and his estranged wife Ann. Plus many others. These things aren't in the book and merely detract from an excellent original story. at the same time many things are left out that are crucial to the story and though alluded to make no sense. For instance the object dropped in the final scene is a lighter stolen by the hitherto unseen antagonist from Smiley in their first meeting twenty years earlier. This, and all that goes with it, are untouched story that clarifies a great deal of left-in nonsense. The DVD has no extra scenes or information or anything at all that might explain these lapses in judgment.