bbc

I saw the Gary Oldman film adaptation of this classic John Le Carré novel last winter, which made me curious about this BBC series of produced in 1979.  Even though I knew “the story” from the film, I found this series riveting.  The basic set-up of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is that a mole has infiltrated the Circus, which is the code name for the British Secret Intelligence Service, and it is Smiley’s job to ferret him out.  This is a good, old-fashioned spy story reeking of Cold-War era paranoia.  The stunning cast is uniformly excellent, but it is Alec Guinness as George Smiley who

The narrative follows the lives of fourteen British children of various economic backgrounds from the 1960s to the present, posing the question of whether socioeconomic background predetermines our future. The children are questioned on their present beliefs, past accomplishments and future plans, with each child revisited every seven years. It is interesting to listen to the opinions of small children, who more or less repeat what they hear from their parents, versus opinions shaped by rebellious teenage years and later real life experiences. We see their views change over time from when they