I tracked down the famous miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979).
Alec Guinness gives a masterful performance, considered by some to be
one of the greatest television performances of all time.

Remastered for BluRay in 2019. Looks pretty good.

The producer's interview was one of the extras, and the
behind-the-scenes stuff was fascinating. Jonathan Powell talked BBC into
obtaining adaptation rights to the 1974 novel. Someone else had the
rights but wasn't able to produce a movie. This ended up being BBC's
costliest production to date.

I had no idea that this was the production that finally forced BBC to
improve quality. For years, BBC had been using an inferior video process
for studio production, with film for outdoors and on-location shooting,
then video again to edit together the film and video portions. It looked
just awful.

The producer convinced BBC that using film for studio and interiors
would actually save production costs and he promised to shoot eight
minutes of footage a day. It wouldn't work out because BBC was hit with,
well, not quite a strike but an extreme work slowdown, and because
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was the marque production, it got the union's
attention.

The producer did something very clever. He allowed the union to work to
rule rather than shutting production down. We know that plenty of tv
series got shut down and never completed their episode orders due to pas
strikes.

Given that Guinness was an in-demand actor, he couldn't afford to lose
him to another production.

Despite the near-strike work slowdown, the filmed production probably
made it possible to sell it to the United States.

Even more interesting was a glimpse of Guinness as an actor. He demanded
that he be allowed to go over the script with the producer and writer.
His intent? To CUT DOWN his lines. Guinness had trouble memorizing
lines! I don't get how that works on stage if your playrwright is dead.

Smiley is supposed to be a nondescript short, balding, overweight
middled-aged man, whose intelligence is underestimated by his
adversaries. He's a most professional spy and very good at the
tradecraft. At times he can be ruthless. He gets stepped on in real
life, particularly by his unfaithful wife. Guinness brings out the
character's intelligence and plays most scenes by sitting and listening
to the other actors.

It's quite effective.

The plot is rather complicated and because the miniseries gave them the
time to make it possible to follow. I like the 2011 Gary Oldman movie,
but I get lost in the plot.

Now, this is the American edit, which is six episodes. The BBC edit was
7 episodes. I don't think scenes were cut, but intros and titles got
cut.

Fantastic supporting cast, including Ian Richardson (the original
Francis Urquhart), Ian Bannen, Beryl Reid (an old comedienne), and Nigel
Stock. Warren Clarke has a small role, and Patrick Stewart is seen briefly
as Karla in the backstory, Smiley's USSR adversary in this novel and the
next two novels.

On 2023-03-26 04:02:44 +0000, Adam H. Kerman said:

> I tracked down the famous miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979).

Damn - the original miniseries isn't available anywhere for streaming
(I'm not sure if JustWatch would tell me if BritBox or Acorn would have
it...).

Meanwhile, the 2011 movie is only available for "pay", via Apple TV or Amazon.

--
"Who would ever do this to him!?" - HottCiara on DOOL (04-27-2020), asking
who would stab Victor Kirakis... How about ANYONE WHO'S EVER MET HIM??!!

Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid> wrote:
>On 2023-03-26 04:02:44 +0000, Adam H. Kerman said:

>>I tracked down the famous miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979).

>Damn - the original miniseries isn't available anywhere for streaming
>(I'm not sure if JustWatch would tell me if BritBox or Acorn would have
>it...).

Acorn distributed the home video. I don't know if that necessarily means
they have streaming rights three years later.

But this is what libraries are for. Just request that they obtain it
through ILL.

>Meanwhile, the 2011 movie is only available for "pay", via Apple TV or Amazon.

Give it a few months. I'm sure one of the movie channels will buy
rights.

Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid> writes:

> On 2023-03-26 04:02:44 +0000, Adam H. Kerman said:
>
>> I tracked down the famous miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979).
>
> Damn - the original miniseries isn't available anywhere for streaming
> (I'm not sure if JustWatch would tell me if BritBox or Acorn would
> have it...).
>
> Meanwhile, the 2011 movie is only available for "pay", via Apple TV or Amazon.

I'm pretty sure I watched it for free in the last year.
Put it on your Amazon watchlist if you have that, and check occasionally.
Things switch back and forth from free to not all the time.

Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid> wrote:
> On 2023-03-26 04:02:44 +0000, Adam H. Kerman said:
>
>> I tracked down the famous miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979).
>
> Damn - the original miniseries isn't available anywhere for streaming
> (I'm not sure if JustWatch would tell me if BritBox or Acorn would have
> it...).

Yes. I looked for some thing for a friend earlier today and found it on
BritBox.

>
> Meanwhile, the 2011 movie is only available for "pay", via Apple TV or Amazon.
>
>

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

Ian J. Ball wrote:

> On 2023-03-26 04:02:44 +0000, Adam H. Kerman said:
>
>> I tracked down the famous miniseries Tinker Tailor
>> Soldier Spy (1979).
>
> Damn - the original miniseries isn't available anywhere
> for streaming (I'm not sure if JustWatch would tell me if
> BritBox or Acorn would have it...).
>
> Meanwhile, the 2011 movie is only available for "pay", via
> Apple TV or Amazon.
>
>
I have the Region 2 DVD set that I bought from amazon.uk
years ago.

Maybe it's worth a check there in case it's still available
or available via a third party seller who will ship across
the pond.

BTW the Region 2 set was less expensive than the Region 1
was at the time I bought it even considering the additional
shipping charges.

Good luck!

Nyssa, who bought quite a few Region 2 DVD sets after she
bought a region-free player both because of lack of availability
of several series in Region 1 sets and others were less
expensive in Region 2