Smiley's People
Encyclopedia
Smiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré
, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley
, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
and The Honourable Schoolboy
. George Smiley is called out from retirement for the last time to investigate the death of one of his old agents, a former Soviet General, titular head of an Estonian
émigré organization based in London. Smiley learns the General had discovered information that leads to a final confrontation with George Smiley's nemesis, the Soviet spy-master Karla
.
, for some unknown reason. She therefore contacts an old friend of her late husband, a General Vladimir, a former World War II Soviet general who was secretly an agent for the British because of his love for his native Estonia
. After his eventual defection
, "the General" became the leader of a pro-Estonian independence group, of dubious usefulness to Western intelligence agencies but nonetheless a hero among the Russian émigré community living in the West.
Vladimir immediately realizes that Ostrakova was unwittingly used to provide a "legend", i.e., a false identity, for an unknown young woman through a scheme personally directed by KGB master spy Karla
. He also recognises that the operation is wholly unofficial, because Karla uses untrained and blundering Soviet diplomatic personnel rather than trained intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover.
Vladimir attempts to contact "Hector" (Toby Esterhase
), his old handler and "postman" in the British Secret Service, but is rebuffed as Esterhase is now retired from the Circus (the London headquarters of British Intelligence). He nevertheless sends his agent and confidant Otto Leipzig to interview Ostrakova in Paris. From a photograph, Ostrakova immediately identifies "Kursky". The General later sends another friend's son, Villem, to Hamburg
to collect vital proofs from Leipzig. He then contacts British Intelligence again. This time he insists on speaking to his former senior case officer "Max" (George Smiley
), not realising that Smiley himself is retired. The current Circus personnel are unfamiliar with Vladimir and are therefore sceptical and uncooperative. Meanwhile, Vladimir's activities have been betrayed by Karla's network of informers within the Russian émigré community. Vladimir is professionally assassinated while on his way to meet with a young and inexperienced handler from the Circus, evidently by Moscow agents.
New Circus head Saul Enderby and Civil Service undersecretary Oliver Lacon
are certain that the General was merely an obscure ex-agent seeking attention, and want to bury the matter quickly to protect themselves and the Circus from any scandal. They recall George Smiley from his forced retirement in the hope that he will quickly clean up the incident and bury any links to the Circus. Unlike Enderby and Lacon, Smiley takes seriously Vladimir's claims about valuable information and begins to investigate rather than sweeping the issue under the rug. He fortuitously recovers a letter from Ostrakova to the General from a postman outside Vladimir's rundown flat. Close to the spot where Vladimir was murdered, he then discovers a half-empty packet of Gauloises
cigarettes (the General's favourite brand), which Vladimir had thrown into a tree just before his death. The packet contains the negative of a compromising photograph of Leipzig and another man. Smiley recalls that Leipzig had often used a venal Russian amateur agent named Oleg Kirov, who was susceptible to blackmail, as a source of information, and surmises that Kirov is probably the other man in the photograph. Soviet agents meanwhile bungle an attempt to kill Ostrakova.
Smiley next consults former Circus researcher Connie Sachs
. Although very ill, she remembers clearly some background information on Kirov, who is also known by the cover name "Kursky", and as the "Ginger Pig". Following the late General's logic that Karla was acting outside the dedicated system he himself devised, Connie also recounts old rumours that Karla had a daughter by a mistress
whom Karla had deeply loved but who ultimately turned against him and was sent to the Gulag
on Karla's orders. The daughter, Tatiana, grew up without a mother and with a father she never knew, became mentally unstable (as demonstrated by "acting out" through repeated petty crime and rampant promiscuity) and was subsequently confined to a mental institution.
Smiley flies to Hamburg, where he hopes to learn the rest of the story. He tracks down Claus Kretzschmar, an old associate of Leipzig and owner of the seedy night club
where the photograph discarded by the General was taken. Kretzschmar gives him directions to Leipzig's temporary address on a boat in a gypsy encampment, but Soviet agents have found Leipzig first, torturing and killing him. Smiley's postmortem search of Leipzig's boat uncovers what Karla's agents did not; the torn half of a postcard hidden underwater in an old shoe. His discovery is witnessed by several people, and his rental car is severely damaged by the gypsies. Smiley rushes to finish his work in Hamburg before the German authorities and Soviet thugs close in on him. Here Smiley appears as the spy of old (his first assignment was in Germany before the war according to Call for the Dead
) and a master of tradecraft
.
He takes the half of the postcard to Kretzschmar, who matches it to the other half and gives Smiley a tape recording made at the time the photograph of Leipzig and Kirov was taken, and the photocopy of Ostrakova's first letter to Vladimir, which he had sent to Leipzig. Smiley reads the letter and flies to Paris, fearing for Ostrakova's life. With help from his old friend and former lieutenant Peter Guillam
, now serving out his days in the British Embassy in Paris, Smiley gets Ostrakova to safety. He also learns that Kirov has been summoned back to Moscow, and has probably been killed for his indiscretions.
Smiley then returns to London where he meets in secret with Enderby. The transcribed tape of Kirov's confession to Leipzig shows that Karla is secretly diverting official funds (US $10,000 every month) and misappropriating resources through the Soviet embassy in Bern, Switzerland, using a commercial attache named Grigoriev. The money is going to the care of Karla's daughter who has been committed to an expensive Swiss psychiatric facility under the faked citizenship papers of Ostrakova's daughter. Smiley explains that if British Intelligence can obtain proof of this activity, they may have the information necessary to blackmail (or "burn") Karla and force him to defect or face disgrace and possibly execution. Unexpectedly, Smiley obtains approval, and secret and deniable funding, from Enderby to mount an operation to secure the evidence from Grigoriev and close the trap on Karla.
While Smiley does research at the Circus, Toby Esterhase, the former head of the Circus's "lamplighters" (covert agent operations) section, sets up a team in Bern to keep Grigoriev under surveillance. Smiley then visits his estranged wife, Ann, and makes a point of cutting all relations with her, deliberately shedding his illusions (Karla previously described Ann as 'the last illusion of an illusionless man') as he prepares to face down his greatest foe. Smiley recognises how ruthless he must become if he is to be Karla's nemesis.
In Bern, Smiley learns that, like Kirov, Grigoriev is untrained in spycraft and hopeless at concealment. Esterhase's team soon gains ample evidence of his unofficial handling of funds for Karla and his affair with one of his secretaries. Although Grigoriev is normally accompanied everywhere by his formidable wife, Grigorieva, he makes an informal trip into Bern by himself one Sunday and is bundled into a car by Esterhase and his helpers. He is then subjected to Smiley's expert interrogation, and given the choice of cooperating and defecting, or being returned to the Soviet Union in disgrace with the prospect of a lifetime facing Karla's and Grigorieva's wrath. Grigoriev quickly confesses all he knows of the arrangements regarding Alexandra's care and the details of the visits he makes to her.
Although it is unnecessary, Smiley visits "Alexandra", who is being treated in an institution run by an order of nuns. Among her "symptoms" is her insistence that she is actually called Tatiana and is the daughter of a powerful man who can make people disappear but who does not actually exist. Smiley then writes a letter to Karla, which Grigoriev passes on instead of his usual weekly report on "Alexandra's" condition and the minutiae of her treatment. Although a copy of the letter does not exist, it is assumed that Smiley concisely details Karla's illegal activities and offers him the stark choice between defection to the West or his own destruction by adversaries within Moscow Centre.
In a final scene reminiscent of the opening scene of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
, Karla, posing as a labourer, defects using a walk-bridge at the Berlin Wall
. Unlike Karl Riemeck in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Karla does not panic during the crossing and makes it safely to the Circus's waiting car. Before crossing over into the waiting arms of western agents, Karla drops the cigarette lighter he had purloined from Smiley years ago, a gift to George from his unfaithful wife Ann. Given the opportunity, Smiley fails to pick up the lighter — another sign that he has become that which he resisted for so long. Karla is finally defeated, but the similarity of Smiley's methods to the cold and ruthless techniques of Karla himself robs Smiley of any apparent sense of triumph in the book's closing sentences.
Smiley's People was dramatised by John Hopkins
for television for the BBC
in 1982, as a sequel to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
(1979), again starring Alec Guinness
as George Smiley.
*Same actor/actress as 1979 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. †Played by different actor in 1979 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley
George Smiley
George Smiley is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is an intelligence officer working for MI6 , the British overseas intelligence agency...
, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
and The Honourable Schoolboy
The Honourable Schoolboy
The Honourable Schoolboy is a spy novel by John le Carré. George Smiley tries to reconstruct an intelligence service and to run a successful offensive espionage operation to save the service from falling to the "war hawks" in government...
. George Smiley is called out from retirement for the last time to investigate the death of one of his old agents, a former Soviet General, titular head of an Estonian
Estonian
Estonian may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe* Estonians – people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent...
émigré organization based in London. Smiley learns the General had discovered information that leads to a final confrontation with George Smiley's nemesis, the Soviet spy-master Karla
Karla (fictional character)
Karla is a fictional character in several novels by John le Carré. A Soviet Intelligence officer, he most often appears as a distant antagonist of George Smiley...
.
Plot
Maria Andreyevna Ostrakova is a Soviet émigrée in Paris who defected to the West years ago leaving behind a daughter named Alexandra. Ostrakova is persuaded by a Soviet agent, calling himself Kursky, that her daughter may be permitted to emigrate and join her in Paris, for "humanitarian reasons". Ostrakova eagerly applies for French citizenship for her daughter, but time passes with no sign of Alexandra and no further contact with "Kursky." She realises that she had been duped, and her real-life story has been used, probably by the KGBKGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, for some unknown reason. She therefore contacts an old friend of her late husband, a General Vladimir, a former World War II Soviet general who was secretly an agent for the British because of his love for his native Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
. After his eventual defection
Defection
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...
, "the General" became the leader of a pro-Estonian independence group, of dubious usefulness to Western intelligence agencies but nonetheless a hero among the Russian émigré community living in the West.
Vladimir immediately realizes that Ostrakova was unwittingly used to provide a "legend", i.e., a false identity, for an unknown young woman through a scheme personally directed by KGB master spy Karla
Karla (fictional character)
Karla is a fictional character in several novels by John le Carré. A Soviet Intelligence officer, he most often appears as a distant antagonist of George Smiley...
. He also recognises that the operation is wholly unofficial, because Karla uses untrained and blundering Soviet diplomatic personnel rather than trained intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover.
Vladimir attempts to contact "Hector" (Toby Esterhase
Toby Esterhase
Toby Esterhase is a fictional character in John le Carré's George Smiley spy novels including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and Smiley's People, as well as some of the stories in The Secret Pilgrim....
), his old handler and "postman" in the British Secret Service, but is rebuffed as Esterhase is now retired from the Circus (the London headquarters of British Intelligence). He nevertheless sends his agent and confidant Otto Leipzig to interview Ostrakova in Paris. From a photograph, Ostrakova immediately identifies "Kursky". The General later sends another friend's son, Villem, to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
to collect vital proofs from Leipzig. He then contacts British Intelligence again. This time he insists on speaking to his former senior case officer "Max" (George Smiley
George Smiley
George Smiley is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is an intelligence officer working for MI6 , the British overseas intelligence agency...
), not realising that Smiley himself is retired. The current Circus personnel are unfamiliar with Vladimir and are therefore sceptical and uncooperative. Meanwhile, Vladimir's activities have been betrayed by Karla's network of informers within the Russian émigré community. Vladimir is professionally assassinated while on his way to meet with a young and inexperienced handler from the Circus, evidently by Moscow agents.
New Circus head Saul Enderby and Civil Service undersecretary Oliver Lacon
Oliver Lacon
Oliver Lacon is a fictional Permanent Secretary at Britain's Cabinet Office in John le Carré's 'George Smiley' spy novels: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. He is responsible for administrative oversight of The Circus, Le Carré's fictionalised version of...
are certain that the General was merely an obscure ex-agent seeking attention, and want to bury the matter quickly to protect themselves and the Circus from any scandal. They recall George Smiley from his forced retirement in the hope that he will quickly clean up the incident and bury any links to the Circus. Unlike Enderby and Lacon, Smiley takes seriously Vladimir's claims about valuable information and begins to investigate rather than sweeping the issue under the rug. He fortuitously recovers a letter from Ostrakova to the General from a postman outside Vladimir's rundown flat. Close to the spot where Vladimir was murdered, he then discovers a half-empty packet of Gauloises
Gauloises
Gauloises is a brand of cigarette of French manufacture. It is produced by the company Imperial Tobacco following their acquisition of Altadis in January 2008.- Cigarette :...
cigarettes (the General's favourite brand), which Vladimir had thrown into a tree just before his death. The packet contains the negative of a compromising photograph of Leipzig and another man. Smiley recalls that Leipzig had often used a venal Russian amateur agent named Oleg Kirov, who was susceptible to blackmail, as a source of information, and surmises that Kirov is probably the other man in the photograph. Soviet agents meanwhile bungle an attempt to kill Ostrakova.
Smiley next consults former Circus researcher Connie Sachs
Connie Sachs
Connie Sachs is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Sachs plays a key supporting role in le Carré's Karla Trilogy of spy novels including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and Smiley's People....
. Although very ill, she remembers clearly some background information on Kirov, who is also known by the cover name "Kursky", and as the "Ginger Pig". Following the late General's logic that Karla was acting outside the dedicated system he himself devised, Connie also recounts old rumours that Karla had a daughter by a mistress
Mistress (lover)
A mistress is a long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner; the term is used especially when her partner is married. The relationship generally is stable and at least semi-permanent; however, the couple does not live together openly. Also the relationship is usually,...
whom Karla had deeply loved but who ultimately turned against him and was sent to the Gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
on Karla's orders. The daughter, Tatiana, grew up without a mother and with a father she never knew, became mentally unstable (as demonstrated by "acting out" through repeated petty crime and rampant promiscuity) and was subsequently confined to a mental institution.
Smiley flies to Hamburg, where he hopes to learn the rest of the story. He tracks down Claus Kretzschmar, an old associate of Leipzig and owner of the seedy night club
Strip club
A strip club is an adult entertainment venue in which striptease or other erotic or exotic dance is regularly performed. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, but can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style....
where the photograph discarded by the General was taken. Kretzschmar gives him directions to Leipzig's temporary address on a boat in a gypsy encampment, but Soviet agents have found Leipzig first, torturing and killing him. Smiley's postmortem search of Leipzig's boat uncovers what Karla's agents did not; the torn half of a postcard hidden underwater in an old shoe. His discovery is witnessed by several people, and his rental car is severely damaged by the gypsies. Smiley rushes to finish his work in Hamburg before the German authorities and Soviet thugs close in on him. Here Smiley appears as the spy of old (his first assignment was in Germany before the war according to Call for the Dead
Call for the Dead
Call for the Dead is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain...
) and a master of tradecraft
Tradecraft
Tradecraft is a general term that denotes a skill acquired through experience in a trade.The term is also used within the intelligence community as a collective word for the techniques used in modern espionage...
.
He takes the half of the postcard to Kretzschmar, who matches it to the other half and gives Smiley a tape recording made at the time the photograph of Leipzig and Kirov was taken, and the photocopy of Ostrakova's first letter to Vladimir, which he had sent to Leipzig. Smiley reads the letter and flies to Paris, fearing for Ostrakova's life. With help from his old friend and former lieutenant Peter Guillam
Peter Guillam
Peter Guillam is a fictional character in John le Carré's series of espionage novels. He first appears in Call for the Dead at which time he is working for the Ministry of Defence....
, now serving out his days in the British Embassy in Paris, Smiley gets Ostrakova to safety. He also learns that Kirov has been summoned back to Moscow, and has probably been killed for his indiscretions.
Smiley then returns to London where he meets in secret with Enderby. The transcribed tape of Kirov's confession to Leipzig shows that Karla is secretly diverting official funds (US $10,000 every month) and misappropriating resources through the Soviet embassy in Bern, Switzerland, using a commercial attache named Grigoriev. The money is going to the care of Karla's daughter who has been committed to an expensive Swiss psychiatric facility under the faked citizenship papers of Ostrakova's daughter. Smiley explains that if British Intelligence can obtain proof of this activity, they may have the information necessary to blackmail (or "burn") Karla and force him to defect or face disgrace and possibly execution. Unexpectedly, Smiley obtains approval, and secret and deniable funding, from Enderby to mount an operation to secure the evidence from Grigoriev and close the trap on Karla.
While Smiley does research at the Circus, Toby Esterhase, the former head of the Circus's "lamplighters" (covert agent operations) section, sets up a team in Bern to keep Grigoriev under surveillance. Smiley then visits his estranged wife, Ann, and makes a point of cutting all relations with her, deliberately shedding his illusions (Karla previously described Ann as 'the last illusion of an illusionless man') as he prepares to face down his greatest foe. Smiley recognises how ruthless he must become if he is to be Karla's nemesis.
In Bern, Smiley learns that, like Kirov, Grigoriev is untrained in spycraft and hopeless at concealment. Esterhase's team soon gains ample evidence of his unofficial handling of funds for Karla and his affair with one of his secretaries. Although Grigoriev is normally accompanied everywhere by his formidable wife, Grigorieva, he makes an informal trip into Bern by himself one Sunday and is bundled into a car by Esterhase and his helpers. He is then subjected to Smiley's expert interrogation, and given the choice of cooperating and defecting, or being returned to the Soviet Union in disgrace with the prospect of a lifetime facing Karla's and Grigorieva's wrath. Grigoriev quickly confesses all he knows of the arrangements regarding Alexandra's care and the details of the visits he makes to her.
Although it is unnecessary, Smiley visits "Alexandra", who is being treated in an institution run by an order of nuns. Among her "symptoms" is her insistence that she is actually called Tatiana and is the daughter of a powerful man who can make people disappear but who does not actually exist. Smiley then writes a letter to Karla, which Grigoriev passes on instead of his usual weekly report on "Alexandra's" condition and the minutiae of her treatment. Although a copy of the letter does not exist, it is assumed that Smiley concisely details Karla's illegal activities and offers him the stark choice between defection to the West or his own destruction by adversaries within Moscow Centre.
In a final scene reminiscent of the opening scene of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold , by John le Carré, is a British Cold War spy novel that became famous for its portrayal of Western espionage methods as being morally inconsistent with Western democracy and values. The novel received critical acclaim at the time of its publication and became an...
, Karla, posing as a labourer, defects using a walk-bridge at the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
. Unlike Karl Riemeck in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Karla does not panic during the crossing and makes it safely to the Circus's waiting car. Before crossing over into the waiting arms of western agents, Karla drops the cigarette lighter he had purloined from Smiley years ago, a gift to George from his unfaithful wife Ann. Given the opportunity, Smiley fails to pick up the lighter — another sign that he has become that which he resisted for so long. Karla is finally defeated, but the similarity of Smiley's methods to the cold and ruthless techniques of Karla himself robs Smiley of any apparent sense of triumph in the book's closing sentences.
Characters
- Maria Andreyevna Ostrakova - a Russian émigrée in Paris, mother of a girl, Alexandra Glikman, whom she left with the girl's father when she escaped from the Soviet Union
- Oleg Kirov né Oleg Kursky - an agent for Karla, deputed to find a suitable legend for Karla's daughter
- General Vladimir - Estonian émigré, former Soviet general, spied for the British for three years, since defected and later retired
- Otto Leipzig - "The Magician", freelance intelligence agent and occasional fraud, who works with Vladimir to take down Kirov and Karla
- George SmileyGeorge SmileyGeorge Smiley is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is an intelligence officer working for MI6 , the British overseas intelligence agency...
- retired, former Acting Chief of British intelligence - Peter GuillamPeter GuillamPeter Guillam is a fictional character in John le Carré's series of espionage novels. He first appears in Call for the Dead at which time he is working for the Ministry of Defence....
- Head of the British Intelligence section in the Paris embassy - Connie SachsConnie SachsConnie Sachs is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Sachs plays a key supporting role in le Carré's Karla Trilogy of spy novels including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and Smiley's People....
- retired, former analyst and head of Moscow sphere of British intelligence (the Circus) - Sir Oliver LaconOliver LaconOliver Lacon is a fictional Permanent Secretary at Britain's Cabinet Office in John le Carré's 'George Smiley' spy novels: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. He is responsible for administrative oversight of The Circus, Le Carré's fictionalised version of...
- WhitehallWhitehallWhitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...
's Head Prefect to the intelligence service, aka Cabinet Office factotum - Nigel Mostyn - young intelligence officer who took Vladimir's calls to Circus
- Alexandra Borisovna Ostrakova - Maria Andreyevna's daughter; identity assumed by Karla's daughter
- Karla - Chief of the Thirteenth Directorate within Soviet Intelligence. The Directorate is also known as the Karla Directorate.
- Sir Saul Enderby - Chief of British intelligence
- William (Villem) Craven - son of a deceased friend of Vladimir, performs a courier job for Vladimir
- Mikhel - Vladimir's émigré friend at the Free Baltic library in BloomsburyBloomsbury-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
- Elvira - Mikhel's wife, probably Vladimir's lover
- Toby EsterhaseToby EsterhaseToby Esterhase is a fictional character in John le Carré's George Smiley spy novels including Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and Smiley's People, as well as some of the stories in The Secret Pilgrim....
- former Circus man, now an antiques dealer, organizes the trapping of Grigoriev - Claus Kretzschmar - Otto Leipzig's old associate, owner of a seedy night club in HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
where Kirov is burned - Grigoriev - Soviet bureaucrat in Bern who is drawn against his will into, first, Karla's services, then Smiley's
- Krassky - Moscow courier who handles correspondence between Grigoriev and Karla
- Tatiana - Karla's deranged daughter, usually referred to by her assumed identity, "Alexandra"
- Mother Felicity - mother superiorAbbessAn abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....
of the facility in ThunThunThun is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland with about 42,136 inhabitants , as of 1 January 2006....
where Alexandra/Tatiana is kept
Adaptations
John Hopkins (writer)
John Richard Hopkins was an English film, stage, and television writer.Born in southwest London, he graduated from St Catharine's College, Cambridge...
for television for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 1982, as a sequel to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
(1979), again starring Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
as George Smiley.
Cast
- George Smiley - Alec GuinnessAlec GuinnessSir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
* - Madame Ostrakova - Eileen AtkinsEileen AtkinsDame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...
- Peter Guillam - Michael ByrneMichael Byrne (actor)Michael Byrne is an English actor noted for his roles on film and television. He has often been cast in Nazi military roles such as Colonel Vogel in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Obergruppenführer Odilo Globocnik in the BBC radio dramatisation of the novel Fatherland by Robert Harris...
† - Toby Esterhase - Bernard HeptonBernard HeptonBernard Hepton is a British actor of stage, film and television.Hepton is known as a particularly versatile character actor. He trained at Bradford Civic Theatre school under Esme Church along with actors such as Robert Stephens...
* - Sir Oliver Lacon - Anthony BateAnthony BateAnthony Bate is an English actor.He is possibly best known for his role as Oliver Lacon in the BBC television adaptations of the John le Carré novels Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People....
* - Sir Saul Enderby - Barry FosterBarry Foster (actor)Barry Foster was a British actor who appeared in numerous film roles and is known for his leading role as a Dutch detective in the ITV drama series, Van der Valk, which spanned five series over 20 years from 1972....
- Anton Grigoriev - Michael LonsdaleMichael LonsdaleMichael Lonsdale , sometimes billed as Michel Lonsdale, is a French actor who has appeared in over 180 films and television shows....
- Connie Sachs - Beryl ReidBeryl ReidBeryl Elizabeth Reid, OBE was a British actress of stage and screen.-Early life:Born in Hereford, England in 1919, Reid was the daughter of Scottish parents and grew up in Manchester where she attended Withington and Levenshulme High Schools.-Career:Reid applied for and was accepted in a revue in...
* - Lauder Strickland - Bill Paterson†
- Ann Smiley - Siân PhillipsSiân PhillipsJane Elizabeth Ailwên "Siân" Phillips, CBE, is a Welsh actress.-Early life:Phillips was born in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, the daughter of Sally , a teacher, and David Phillips, a steelworker-turned-policeman...
* - Claus Kretschmar - Mario AdorfMario AdorfMario Adorf is a German film and stage actor, best known for his lead role in the 1978 film The Tin Drum.-Biography:...
- KarlaKarla (fictional character)Karla is a fictional character in several novels by John le Carré. A Soviet Intelligence officer, he most often appears as a distant antagonist of George Smiley...
- Patrick StewartPatrick StewartSir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...
* - General Vladimir - Curd JürgensCurd JürgensCurd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens was a German-Austrian stage and film actor. He was usually billed in English-speaking films as Curt Jurgens.-Early life:...
- Otto Leipzig - Vladek SheybalVladek SheybalVladek Sheybal , born Władysław Sheybal, was a Polish character actor, whose career lasted from the 1950s into the 1980s. He was probably best known for his portrayal of the chess grandmaster Kronsteen in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love, a role for which he had been personally...
- Mother Felicity - Rosalie CrutchleyRosalie CrutchleyRosalie Crutchley was an English actress. Trained at the Royal Academy of Music, Crutchley was best known for her television performances, but had a long and successful career in the theatre and in films, making her stage debut at least as early as 1932 and her screen debut in 1947...
- Stella Craven - Maureen LipmanMaureen LipmanMaureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...
- Oleg Kirov - Dudley SuttonDudley Sutton-Life:He served in the RAF as a mechanic before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from which he was later expelled.Known for his eccentricity, he became a cult figure after playing a gay biker in The Leather Boys . He married American actress Marjorie Steele in 1961; she had previously...
- Mikhel - Michael GoughMichael GoughMichael Gough was an English character actor who appeared in over 150 films. He is perhaps best known to international audiences for his roles in the Hammer Horror films from 1958, and for his recurring role as Alfred Pennyworth in all four movies of the Burton/Schumacher Batman franchise,...
- Detective Chief SuperintendentChief SuperintendentChief superintendent is a senior rank in police forces organised on the British model.- United Kingdom :In the British police, a chief superintendent is senior to a superintendent and junior to an assistant chief constable .The highest rank below Chief Officer level, chief...
- Michael ElphickMichael ElphickMichael John Elphick was an English actor. Elphick was known in the UK for his trademark croaky voice and his work on British television, in particular his roles as the eponymous private investigator in the ITV series Boon and later Harry Slater in BBC's EastEnders.Robust and ruggedly good-looking... - Villem Craven - Paul HerzbergPaul HerzbergPaul Herzberg is a South African-born actor and playwright.Born in Cape Town, he studied acting at the University of Cape Town and scriptwriting at the University of Pretoria. He moved to the UK in 1976, after having served as a conscripted soldier on the Namibian border, during the period of the ...
- Nigel Mostyn - Stephen Riddle
- Alexandra/Tatiana - Tusse Silberg
- Hilary - Norma WestNorma WestNorma West is a British actress, born 19 November 1943 in Cape Town, South Africa.Her most prolific television appearance was as Queen Elizabeth of York in the 1972 BBC series The Shadow of the Tower. Other TV roles include Ace of Wands, A Touch of Frost, Lovejoy, The Murder at the Vicarage...
- Elvira - Ingrid PittIngrid PittIngrid Pitt was an actress best known for her work in horror films of the 1960s and 1970s.-Background:Pitt was born Ingoushka Petrov in Warsaw, Poland to a German father of Russian descent and a Polish Jewish mother. During World War II she and her family were imprisoned in a concentration camp...
- Molly Meakin - Lucy FlemingLucy FlemingLucy Fleming is a British actress.She is the daughter of the actress Celia Johnson and writer Peter Fleming, as well as the niece of James Bond author Ian Fleming...
- Ferguson - Andy Bradford
- Mr. Brownlow - Alan RickmanAlan RickmanAlan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
- Beckie Craven - Tanya Rees
*Same actor/actress as 1979 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. †Played by different actor in 1979 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.