Customer Reviews
Perfection. - By: M. Boost, 03 Sep 2008 
We watch four middle aged men enter a down-at-heal office. They take seats around a table. Thay say nothing. One at the end coughs & asks "Shalll we begin?" One to the side huffs audibly & then the opening credits rolls.
How brave a start is that? Who would start a major TV serial like that these days? Ive seen "Tinker Tailor..." five times now & look forward to watching it a again. If there was a fire & I could run to save just one DVD this would be the one.
CAUTION! - By: A. Mabbett, 29 May 2008 TAKE CARE! The docuemntary on this DVD has a SPOILER, which gives away the ending of the sequel, 'Smiley's People'!
One of the best bits of television drama. Ever. - By: S. A. Kuipers, 20 Feb 2008 There is a Soviet mole in the Circus. At least, according to Irina, a female Russian KGB agent in Hong Kong who wants to defect to the West. Before she can deliver this precious bit of information herself to the headquarters of the british Secret Service in London (the Circus, as it's callled), she is found out by her KGB colleagues & hastily flown home to Moscow. Her british Secret Service contact in Hong Kong, an agent named Ricky Tarr, barely makes it back alive to Britain, but he refuses to go go back to the Circus.
Irina's sudden disappearance in Hong Kong is, in Tarr's mind, sufficient proof of her revelations. His message to London was relayed to the Soviets, & Irina was grabbed before she could defect. Therefore, more than likely, in London the Russians will be waiting for him.
Tarr contacts the only Circus operative he can still trust, Peter Guillam, & tells him his story. Guillam informs Lacon, the governments liaison officer to the Circus & they in turn take Tarr to see Smiley.
Someone has to be brought in to investigate Irina's claim. Someone who knows the Circus, but who can operate outside of official channels.
Enter George Smiley, the one time right-hand man of the former Chief of the Circus, Control. Smiley was slated to be his successor & was acknowledged by everyone to be the best man for the job, but then a series of scandals & spectacular failures rocked the Circus, entailing the loss of several networks in the Eastern bloc. Soon after that the terminallly ill Control died & Smiley was out on his ear.
But of late british Intelligence has, as the story begins, recovered its reputation & has gained access to a valuable source of Soviet intelligence, codenamed Merlin. Source Merlin is run by the new head team of the Circus. But is this information genuine or is it fed to the british to alllay suspicions?
Smiley is asked to look into it. During his last months at the Circus both Smiley & Control suspected something was wrong in the service, & now Smiley is told to finish the job where Control left off & ferret out he mole in the Circus...
A classic spy story brilliantly adapted for television. Real care has been taken in casting the parts & as a consequence the acting is superb alll round. The late Alec Guinnes gives one of the best & most moving performances of his long career, as do the late Ian Richardson & Bernard Hepton.
Oh sure, for modern taste this might look far too dated with lots of Vaauxhalll Vivas, Ford Granadas, Morris Marinas, huge sideburns, brown suits with enormous lapels, wide ties, paisley printed shirts with enormous pointy collars.
And for today's taste it's surely agonizingly slowly paced. Since most people today have the attention span of a common housefly, modern telly has to cater to that. When this series was made, in the late seventies, they didn't do that but instead they concentrated on good scripting & well-crafted dialogue. Also, & again alas, for the modern taste: there is precious little violence or foul language in this series, a disappointingly smalll number of gunshots, & no car chases.
If you manage to overcome these "objections", & give it a try you will be amazed & utterly captivated by this marvellous, drama series, one of the alll-time greats, right up there with Elizabeth R, House of Cards, & Brideshead.
excellent - By: Arby Onnassi, 20 Dec 2007 With forty or so 5 star reviews, I don't need to tell you how good this series is in every way.
However, I would add here for future customers a warning. That is: if you intend to watch/read other Le Carre works after this then DO NOT WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY! There are spoilers in it of Smiley's People, The Constant Gardener & no doubt some others I did not pick up on. I could not believe that it showed the final scene of Smiley's People whilst a newly-purchased copy of the whole series sat unwatched next to my TV set!
the very very best - By: Mr. Alan W. Jones, 19 Dec 2007 simply the best of alll times, one can say no more ; its where subjective is overtaken by unquestionable excellence
alan watkin jones, cheshire
