- 2 days ago
E6 "Smiley Sets a Trap", HD, English subtitles. The legendary series based on John le Carre's novel, with an all-star cast. Retired espionage veteran George Smiley is called out on a top secret mission: to uncover a Soviet agent within top MI6's echelons. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 1979 seven-part drama spy mini-series, directed by John Irvin. Jonathan Powell produced this adaptation of John le Carré's novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974). The mini-series stars Alec Guinness, Michael Jayston, Ian Richardson, Anthony Bate, Ian Bannen, Hywel Bennett, George Sewell, Beryl Reid, Susan Kodicek, Terence Rigby, Alexander Knox, Michael Aldridge and Patrick Stewart.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00The facts were known, man.
00:09Toby ordered me not to approach anyone or to try and make my story heard.
00:14The circus was back in the road.
00:16I could forget Tinker, Taylor, the whole damn game, moles, everything.
00:21Drop out, he said.
00:24You're a lucky man, Jim.
00:27Forget it, right?
00:29Forget it.
00:32So Toby actually mentioned Tinker, Taylor, to you.
00:39However, did he get hold of that?
00:51And that's what I've been doing.
00:54Obeying orders and forgetting.
00:59Obeying orders and
04:18I'm a divorce addict, a hopeless case.
04:20Not lucky like you, George.
04:23But there's only one Anne.
04:25Now, I'll do a deal with you, an offer you can't refuse.
04:28I'll shack up with Anne and be the envy of London, and you can have my job on the comic.
04:32You've got just the turn of phrase of the women's pink pong.
04:36Do you fancy it?
04:39Is that the task for today?
04:41Much bigger stuff, old boy.
04:43Footer, the opiate of the people.
04:46Heap, big transfer.
04:47Scottish thunder boots to rescue of ex-champions.
04:50Now on the slide.
04:51Thanks, Linda, my love.
04:52Do you want me to write it down, Mr. Westerby?
04:55Ah, please, Linda.
04:58Cheers, George.
05:00Cheers.
05:00This isn't entirely a chance meeting.
05:08I got the letter you wrote me last football season.
05:11I burnt it straight away.
05:13Right.
05:16Thanks.
05:17Stupid, old mayor.
05:19Talking out of school.
05:20Sorry.
05:21No, no, no.
05:21You obviously did what you felt was the best thing at the time, and so did I.
05:26I haven't seen many of the boys and girls lately, as a matter of fact.
05:29I guess they put us both on the shelf.
05:32With me, I can hardly blame them.
05:35Firewater, not good for Braves.
05:37I think our blab crack up.
05:38I'm sure they don't.
05:39I expect they're just resting you up for a bit.
05:41They do that, you know.
05:43In case you've been wondering, I didn't tell anyone else about your letter.
05:48I was out of favor, indeed, out of work by then.
05:51Writing to me wasn't what put them off you, if that's what you thought.
05:55In your letter, you said you were a bit worried about Toby Esterhazy.
06:01Felt you ought to get something off your chest.
06:05Yes, well, I got all xenophobe and suspicious.
06:08I thought Toby had gone a bit haywire, as a matter of fact.
06:10I should talk.
06:13Tell me now.
06:14You'd just come back from Czechoslovakia, hadn't you?
06:19The last job I did for Toby.
06:21Looks like the last I'll ever do.
06:23Letterboxd job?
06:25Yes.
06:26Nothing to do it, really.
06:28Telephone kiosk, ledge at the top, dump a little package ready for collection.
06:32That was Budapest, the Czechoslovak thing I ran into by accident.
06:39I had to go on to Prague, you see, for the comic.
06:41Nothing to do with...
06:43Linda, sweetheart.
06:45And again, Mr. Westerby?
06:47Please, my beauty.
06:49Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
06:51You've got time to eat?
06:53Mm-hmm.
06:54Ah, we'll go Dutch on that, shall we?
06:56I, um...
06:57I was in this bar in Prague.
07:00Always use it.
07:01Locals go there, all sorts.
07:04Anyway, I got in with this crowd at a corner table.
07:07They're playing the squeeze box.
07:09We're all hugger-mugger to the music.
07:11Oh, thank you, Linda, my love.
07:14Hang on.
07:15And there's, um...
07:17There's this kid with a pudding bowl haircut.
07:19Army, obvious.
07:20Anyway, he's on leave, well in his cups, and he knows I'm English.
07:23And he suddenly says,
07:25Do I want to know the truth about the British spy
07:27who got himself shot up by the Russian secret police?
07:30Just like that.
07:31Yells it right in my ear.
07:33I played dumb, of course, and he goes right on with it.
07:34You know the Jim Preeto shambles.
07:38Well, the kid was bellyaching about the trials and tribulations
07:40of being a foot soldier of the line.
07:42It seems that on the two nights in question,
07:44he and his mates were being chased around the place
07:45till they were dizzy.
07:46Make camp, break camp, move up, move back, fix bayonets.
07:51But the big point...
07:53was the Russian contingent.
07:56Full war paint.
07:58Tanks, motorbikes, tracker dogs,
08:00and a big carload of very sinister civilians.
08:04Dirty work afoot in the forest.
08:06Up near the Austrian border, this was.
08:10So, my little friend, being a sassy little devil,
08:15decides to ask his sergeant what's it all about.
08:17Look, Sarge, he says, what's going on?
08:20Are we being invaded, Sarge?
08:21No, says the sergeant.
08:23The Russians are after a British spy
08:25who tried to kidnap a general.
08:29Ah, after?
08:31Or where after?
08:34Exactly.
08:35That's what the kid wanted to tell me.
08:37The Russians moved in on the Friday.
08:40It was the day after when they got Jim.
08:43As the kid said, they were ready and waiting for him.
08:46Knew the lot in advance.
08:47He had a bad story.
08:50Bad for our big chief.
08:52Bad for tribe.
08:53So, as soon as I got back, I went and towed all to Tobe.
09:00How did he take it?
09:06Well, to begin with, it was thanks a million, Jerry, old boy.
09:10He'd go and pow-wow with the top brass.
09:12And then the next morning.
09:17You're so plastered these days, you can't tell fact from fiction.
09:23You're an embarrassment.
09:26You go in a bender, drink yourself in a cloud cuckoo land, and come staggering back here with a load of tripe like this.
09:33You're pathetic.
09:39Now, look, old boy.
09:40I don't want to hear any excuses.
09:42I had to report what I heard.
09:44Yes, you believed every stupid word of it, didn't you?
09:47Swallowed it like...
09:48like mother's milk.
09:52A load of half-baked wombers.
09:54You come spreading them around here.
09:57What you can remember through your alcoholic haze.
10:00I didn't forget a thing.
10:04Well, you will now.
10:07You'll forget the lot.
10:11Don't you see?
10:12The boy was a plant.
10:16Provocateur, in layman's language.
10:24He was doing a job for Moscow Center.
10:27Object disruption.
10:28Make the circus chase our own tails.
10:30And you fell for it, Jerry.
10:32That's all.
10:43Okay, Tobe, you know best.
10:47If you don't want the story, that's your business.
10:49I do it for the paper.
10:51You'll what?
10:53Not the bit about the Russians getting there first.
10:54Of course not, but the rest of it's all good stuff.
10:56The story wasn't covered very well at the time.
11:00Just the official statement.
11:03I thought Jerry gets himself a splash about the day the Czechs mobilized for the Third World War.
11:08Except it was one lone Englishman surrounding him all by himself.
11:12That's a good piece.
11:16The comic might even run an ad on the telly.
11:18Well, the day after that, I was called for by the editor.
11:26The editor, I mean, not the sports bloke.
11:29He tells me some clown has been on the phone with a formal warning.
11:34Keep that baboon, Westerby, off the Czechos spy story.
11:37Any further reference against the national interest?
11:44End of message.
11:48Sir, I didn't get the report for the year award.
11:53Can't, can you, in your stories on the spike?
11:55Cheers.
11:57But you didn't spike it entirely.
11:59I mean, you wrote to me.
12:01Dropped the letter in by hand.
12:03Must have been the same day you talked to Toby Estehisi.
12:06Yes, well, as I said, at the time, it just felt odd.
12:14My mistake, old boy.
12:18When I heard you'd got the heave-ho anyway, I felt an even bigger damn fault.
12:28I thought it was you who phoned the editor, you see.
12:31It wasn't.
12:35Of course not.
12:35I'm sorry, old boy.
12:40I think I'm toward going on to Sir, old boy.
12:43I mean, the tribe hasn't gone on the rampage or anything.
12:50But are you hunting alone?
12:53I mean, I know I'm not the brightest, but when you start asking questions, there's got to be something.
12:58What I'm saying is, any time of all.
13:10Thank you, Jesse.
13:10Rum, chap, Toby Estehisi.
13:20But good.
13:21My God, first-rate.
13:22Brilliant, my view.
13:23But rum.
13:26Don't forget to give my love to Anne, will you?
13:28Oh, one of the great marriages, that always said so.
13:31Oh, come on, Jerry, out with it.
13:34Did Toby say something about Anne?
13:39Some story had gone.
13:40I told him to stuff it up his silk straws.
13:45Let's do this!
13:58I suppose I should be prepared for something.
14:08Take on a temporary.
14:09The last thing you expect is loyalty.
14:13Well done, that boy.
14:18We're going to lose this match.
14:21So much for Priddo's coaching.
14:23I'm absolutely furious with that money.
14:26It's monstrous to clear off.
14:28Did he say what's wrong with his mother?
14:30No, he did not.
14:32She is supposed to be dying.
14:35Well, that's one excuse for absence that he can hardly use again.
14:39Not at all, Mother. It's quite the reverse.
14:40One false alarm can easily lead to another.
14:43I shall ask for a full medical diagnosis next time.
14:54Those front row forwards of hers look overage to me.
14:57Did he ever tell you how he got that awful shoulder?
15:00Oh, fell off a bus with a bottle of vodka.
15:02What?
15:03Fell off a bus with a bottle of vodka inside him, I shouldn't wonder.
15:06I suppose I shall have to take his French.
15:10He's gone in the Alvis because he'd never trust any other form of transport.
15:23But if he'd gone for good, he wouldn't leave the caravan behind, would he?
15:27Stands to reason that.
15:29Besides, he'd have said goodbye properly, Rhino would.
15:34Wouldn't just go.
15:35Not Rhino.
15:36Not like a juju man.
15:38That's not-
15:46He's gone.
15:52You're
15:55You're
16:00Let's go.
16:30I've come about the furs.
16:46Hello, Toby.
16:48Peter.
17:00It's not exactly five-star, but then we are shopping a bit downmarket.
17:10It's as safe as it is I have now.
17:26Take the weight off your feet.
17:34Won't be long.
17:35Come on.
17:41Come on.
18:01So we're expecting a pole, are we, Peter?
18:03The pole in the fair trade you think I might like to take on as a courier?
18:09I'd like him on my own payroll for preference.
18:12It looks useful.
18:13But what's the point?
18:15My lads are underemployed as it is.
18:17Very generous of you, Peter.
18:18Stay put, Toby.
18:29Sorry about this, Toby.
18:46Against the wall, Tobe!
18:48Did he come alone, or is there some little friend waiting down in the square?
18:53Looks all clear to me, sir.
18:54Go back to the other room and don't take your eyes off the street.
19:06You've seen something?
19:08Turn the light out a moment.
19:10Just a shadow, I suppose.
19:23Yes, I think so.
19:24I want to put a thesis to you, Toby, about what's been going on.
19:46Let's cast our minds back, say, about 18 months, when Control is still with us.
19:52Percy Alleline wants his job.
19:53Everyone knows that.
19:55But although Control is sick and past his prime, Percy can't dislodge him.
20:00It's a time of uneasiness in the service.
20:04Morale is low.
20:05Activity is low.
20:06Yes?
20:07I remember, George.
20:09Well, Percy's door opens one day and one of our senior men walks in.
20:14We'll call him Gerald.
20:17Oh, it's just a name.
20:18And Gerald says, Percy, I've stumbled on a major source of Russian intelligence.
20:24It could be a gold mine.
20:26Perhaps they take a walk in the park or drive in a car, but whatever, Percy listens.
20:30Because what Gerald goes on to say is music in Percy's ears.
20:37Some of us, Gerald tells him, are worried sick about the state the circus has got into.
20:42I mean, look at our operational losses.
20:44Agents, networks.
20:46He's careful not to suggest there's a traitor inside the circus, but he emphasizes that slovenliness
20:55at the top is leading to failure all round.
20:59That is to say, it's all control's fault.
21:03My thesis, you understand.
21:06Sure, George.
21:07Another notion is that Percy Allerlyne was his own Gerald, that he went out and bought
21:13himself a top Russian spy and manned his own boat from then on.
21:16But I don't believe that's what happened.
21:17I think he'd mess it up, don't you?
21:20Sure, George.
21:21So the next thing is for Gerald to say to Percy, I and a little group of like-minded friends
21:29want you to be our father figure, Percy.
21:33We are not political men.
21:34And we don't know our way in the Whitehall jungle, but you do.
21:38Did you bring a babysitter, Toby?
21:41George, why should I?
21:43I came to meet Peter and some pearl in the fur trade.
21:47Do you want Faun to go down and have a look?
21:49No, need him here.
21:52Can't take the chance.
21:55Yes, well, Gerald says that if Percy will handle the committees, he and his friends will handle
22:02Merlin.
22:03Merlin being the Moscow intelligence source, and witchcraft, the name of the material he
22:09supplies.
22:10And how well it all worked.
22:13Merlin's material proved excellent, as everyone agreed, except Control.
22:18And eventually Control was out, and Percy was king.
22:24So what's new, George?
22:25Ever bought a fake picture, Toby?
22:32Sold a couple once.
22:35The more you pay for it, the less inclined you are to doubt its authenticity.
22:40Merlin's price was 20,000 francs a month into a Swiss bank, according to the file.
22:46Oh, yes, Toby, this is official.
22:52There came the day when Gerald admitted Percy to the greatest secret of all, that the Merlin
23:00set up has a London end.
23:03You're on record as grading him Snow White, Toby, quite untainted with a mischief of espionage.
23:17In fact, he's Merlin's London representative.
23:23That's a start, I should tell you now, but very clever not.
23:26Now, everything to do with witchcraft is secret, of course, but inevitably a lot of people are
23:31involved.
23:32Transcribers, translators, codists, evaluators, God knows what.
23:35He doesn't worry Gerald, of course.
23:39He likes it.
23:40Because the art of being Gerald is to be one of a crowd.
23:46But when it comes to Polyakov, that's a different story.
23:52Who knows it?
23:54Only you, Roy Bland, Bill Hayden, and Percy.
24:01Three of you, Anne Alleline.
24:03You're the magic circle.
24:09Who meets him, Toby?
24:16For God's sake, let me sweat the bastard.
24:27You all meet him.
24:30How's that?
24:33Percy represents the authoritarian side, asks after his wife, suggests it's time he took
24:38a little holiday.
24:39Very paternal, Percy would be.
24:41Bill Hayden, I think, would see Polyakov much more often.
24:45Bill's a Russian expert, for one thing, and he's good entertainment value.
24:49I'd expect Bill to shine when it comes to the briefings and follow-up sessions, making sure
24:55the right messages went back to Moscow.
24:59Roy Bland's good on economics, as well as being top man on the satellite countries, so he'd have
25:05plenty to chat about.
25:07Then there's you, Toby.
25:09You'd have your solo sessions with Polyakov, because there's tradecraft to discuss and all those little snippets about goings-on inside the embassy, which are very much your field.
25:22And if the magic circle wanted Polyakov to do some photography inside the embassy, it would be you who would supply the film.
25:33Replenish his stock from time to time.
25:36Take him.
25:40Little sealed packets.
25:44Toby, you wouldn't be lying, would you?
25:46Did you bring a babysitter?
25:48Across my heart, George, I swear to you.
25:50What would you use for a job like this?
25:53Cars?
25:53No.
25:54On foot.
25:56Keep walking them through.
25:58How many?
25:59Eight.
26:00Ten, maybe.
26:02What about one man alone?
26:04One?
26:04Never.
26:05Impossible.
26:06I can call Mendel to take a look.
26:09I'm sure Toby's right.
26:12Listen, George.
26:14I know Polyakov works for Moscow Center.
26:17Of course I do.
26:18We all know.
26:20But come on.
26:22Think how many other operations we've run this way.
26:25We've bought Polyakov, right?
26:29He's a Moscow hood, but he's also our Joe.
26:32Now, he's got to pretend to his own people that he's spying on us.
26:37So we've got to give him one or two goodies now and again.
26:41Sure, I've passed him the odd sealed packet.
26:44Chicken feed.
26:46So he can send them home, and Moscow Center clap him on the back and tell him he's a big man.
26:50It happens all the time.
26:54Now, come on, George.
26:55You know the game.
26:58So are you, Polyakov's agent, inside the circus?
27:03Someone has to be.
27:05If Polyakov's cover for meeting you people is that he's spying on the circus,
27:12then he must have a man on the inside, mustn't he?
27:16And Polyakov can't report back to Moscow Center after he's picked up a great load of circus chicken feed
27:21and just say, I got this from the boys.
27:24He's got to have a whole history.
27:26How he selected his man, courted him, bought him.
27:33How they meet and where.
27:36The whole paraphernalia of running a double agent,
27:40and all this in Moscow Center's archives.
27:44You, Toby?
27:48Toby Esterhazy masquerades as a circus traitor
27:52in order to keep Polyakov in business.
27:55My hat, Toby.
27:57A dangerous job like that deserves a whole chest full of medals.
28:03You're on a damn long road, George.
28:06What happens to you if you never reach the other end?
28:09With Lacon and the minister behind me?
28:13Why become the little guy?
28:16Why not go for the big ones?
28:18Percy Alleline?
28:19Bill Hayden?
28:20I thought you were a big guy these days.
28:23You're the perfect choice, Toby.
28:26Resentful about slow promotion.
28:28Sharp-witted.
28:30Fond of money.
28:33With you as his agent,
28:34Polyakov has a cover story that really sits up and works.
28:38The big three give you the little sealed packets of chicken feed,
28:43and Moscow Center thinks you're all theirs.
28:46The only problem arises when it turns out you've been handing Polyakov the crown jewels
28:53and getting Russian chicken feed in return.
28:57If that's the case, Toby, you're going to need some good friends, like us.
29:03Gerald, of course, is a Russian mole.
29:08And he's pulled the circus inside out.
29:11But witchcraft material isn't chicken feed.
29:15It's the best.
29:16It was good at first.
29:17Listen, George.
29:20Suppose you're wrong.
29:21Toby.
29:23Who told you to muzzle Jerry Westerby?
29:25The same person who sent you down to Sarat with a thousand pounds for Jim Fredo
29:29and the instruction, get lost?
29:33Speak up.
29:34Was it Percy?
29:36I think so.
29:39Maybe it was Bill, though.
29:42Well, listen, it was a big operation.
29:45Sometimes Roy.
29:48It never seemed to come straight from one.
29:51There was a committee.
29:54I took a lot of orders.
29:55You told Fredo to forget about Tinker Tailor.
29:59Where did that come from?
30:01I never knew what that meant.
30:02Now, George, that's the truth.
30:06Poor Toby.
30:10Yes, I do see.
30:13What a dog's life you must have been leading.
30:16Running between them all.
30:20George.
30:21If there's anything I can do of a practical nature.
30:25Now, you know me, George.
30:27My boys are pretty well trained.
30:29Now, if you want to borrow them.
30:30I'd have to speak to Lacon, of course.
30:35But, uh, well, you'd expect that.
30:43All I want is for this thing to be cleared up.
30:46For the good of the circus, I want nothing for myself.
30:49Where's this safe house you keep exclusively for meeting Palyokov?
30:56Five lock gardens at Camden Town.
30:58You're going to be staying here for a night or two.
31:05Fawn will look after you.
31:13Fawn.
31:14You'll have to make appropriate explanations to the circus.
31:17By telephone.
31:18You're having girl trouble, or whatever sort of trouble you're in these days.
31:25Then there's your wife, of course.
31:29Sure, George.
31:29I can handle that.
31:34If he's any bother, Fawn,
31:36use your own discretion.
31:37Peter, I want you to watch my back.
31:52Will you do that for me?
31:59Look for one man, but look.
32:01We all join up the Sussex Gardens.
32:03We all join up the Sussex Gardens.
32:33We're here for two.
32:33Look for another one.
32:34Bye.
32:38Bye.
32:40Bye.
32:41Bye.
32:41Oh, my God.
33:41Same as you, George.
33:49Just a feeling.
33:50Someone that I couldn't say for certain.
33:52I covered both of you right to the front door.
33:55If either of you did have company, he's cleverer than me.
33:58That's been known.
34:01Do you have anyone particular in mind?
34:05Shall I go down to pavement level?
34:06Take a sniff?
34:10Well, proceed.
34:12Yes.
34:12Right.
34:13Now, the minister has one major worry.
34:16In his own words, how much porcelain gets broken at the end of the day.
34:20Scandal he's talking about.
34:22If we unmask the mole, are the Russians going to cut their losses by telling the press of the world how they've made fools of us all this time?
34:29I think not.
34:29If you make your enemy look stupid, you lose the justification for taking him on.
34:34Yes, I've told him that, George.
34:35So isn't his mind at rest?
34:37He hopes there'll be nothing messy, George.
34:40Nothing that could provoke Moscow.
34:42But proceed.
34:44Heavens, yes.
34:46Clean the stables.
34:47Mm-hmm.
34:48Problem, flush out the mole.
34:51Method.
34:51We need to alarm him just sufficiently to make him call for a crash meeting with Polyakov at the safe house, a meeting Gerald the Mole needs all to himself, secret from the rest of the witchcraft magic circle.
35:08There are two of them, and Aliline.
35:12You've definitely cleared Esther Hayes.
35:13Oh, yes.
35:16Carla really did bring off the perfect fix for a while.
35:21It would be beautiful in another context.
35:24Tinker Aliline, Taylor Hayden, Soldier Bland.
35:28Spot the mole.
35:30Quite.
35:31Ways and means, George.
35:33Bricky Tower will go to Paris.
35:34He'll make use of the appropriate embassy facilities to send a signal to the head of London Station.
35:45Something, something, something, which we'll now concoct.
36:04Bricky Tower will go to Paris.
36:59The message will be, have information vital to the safeguarding of the service.
37:14Request immediate meeting, personal.
37:17Remember, vital to the safeguarding of the service.
37:21It's even true.
37:23Don't forget that.
37:25No mistakes, Ricky.
37:27Your head's on the block.
37:29You're not the only one, Peter.
37:59I have a pretty good job.
38:01corners of the road.
38:09You're not paying.
38:09You should figure it out.
38:11You're not the only one, you're being the only one.
38:13You're being the only one, you're being the only one.
38:45He died, according to thy word.
39:07Through my eyes
39:16Have seen
39:19My salvation
39:24Which now has
39:32Breed before the face
39:35Of all people
39:46To be your light
39:50To light your chances
39:58And to be the body
40:03Of thy people
40:07Israel
40:14Glory be to the Father
40:25And to the Son
40:28And to the Holy Ghost
40:32As it was in the beginning
40:37His love never shall be
40:43One will not end
40:50Amen
40:55Amen
40:56Amen
40:58You
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