THIS is the best!

[2:53:04] Travis from Blake's 7, season 2 :-)

the series was amazing. the movie good. I'm liking this as well

very very nice

SO SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE ABYSMAL FILM GARBAGE VERSION RUINATION PERPETRATED BY POOR ACTING AND RUINATION OF THE ENTIRE SETTING

Poetry

Tracker: 22:30

You can buy all the Le Carre's which were on tape...now in a box of dvds...bought myself a set and a set for my son, NEVER lend them out ❤

My comfort listening...again ❤

Best spy novels

42:00

Helps reveal the story's takeaways, including profiles of the English. Many characters here represent England of the day: Smiley, Control, Bill H. & Co., Roddy, Anne, Jim P (and Roach from the book), and Ricky Tarr... They're all Brits ..but Brits representing diff sides of B society that England has a chance to champion...or avoid.

A fantastic production of John LeCarre's novel. I have seen and listened to all previous TV, film and radio productions and this one sits high on the list. Thank you for posting

Lovely recording. Never heard it before. However, the metadata is a bit wonky. Transcript is full of mistakes. Cast list ignores a number of major characters. Doesn’t distract from the story and acting though.

Greetings from Dili, Timor-Leste in Southeast Asia. Wonderful drama, great aco

Bernard Hepton, such a talent. In fact, great listening to all of the actors. I never tire of this version. Thank you all round and also for posting.

Bernard Hepton is excellent here, as always.

As good as they are at Spy craft they made one mistake. The phony file should have looked at a casual glance like the real thing and not with blank sheets of paper just in case someone looked at it.

Brilliant.

So excellent!!! Thank-You$

I absolutely loathed Gary Oldman’s portrayal of George Smiley. I really enjoyed this adaptation as a radio play. The ending was a bit of a surprise.

I would rather hear the actual book being read than a radio narration.

Even better the second time around.

I prefer this reading however once you have seen the film,you can’t help but imagine Colin Firth as Haden. the voice is IDENTICAL.

Read the book at least thrice, seen the TV series, the film and probably this in the mists of time. Spent this stupidly hot afternoon listening to this all the way through. Slight differences but still hugely enjoyable. Fawn is still my favourite character, few lines but every one counts...

Did they get rid of Peter Guilliam?

I’m with almost everyone here, that this new version is refreshing. I must’ve experienced all forms, with my favorite having Simon Russell Beale as Smiley. Adding this to the collection

1:48:36

thanks very much

Excellent. I can never get enough of this story. Apart from Hollywood's recent drivel adaption. I cant count the number of times I've watched the BBC's adaption with Alec Guiness - Gold!

I've read the books, watched the show and film multiple times over the past couple years. I love how this radio drama has slight little details that are not in the book or show. This story never gets old.

SUPERIOR to the FILM...EASY TO FOLLOW..

Was the Circus so full of homos?

Ah the nostalgic sound of a dial telephone. 👴🏻

Time's passing is interesting. Bill Hayden would have been seen as an almost incomprehensible traitor. Today his position while still a betrayal was absolutely right about America, Western democracy and the shameful position of the British ruling class in that system. The falling of the Berlin Wall showed how empty American rhetoric has really been since 1945.

Why was the decision made to make it so camp in parts? Than god for Peter vaughn as george.

Oh dear ! This is a very poor offering from all concerned. Whilst Peter Vaughn was a good actor I feel his George Smiley was no where as strong as Simon Russel Beal who gives the role gravitas, depth and conveys a wise and secretive man giving little away. Typified of course by Alec Guinness on screen and Gary Oldman on film. As to the American accents well they are just bad ! Very few English actors can give a convincing American accent as can be heard, or rather not heard , in any BBC Radio drama.

The Chinese accents! Oh my. I know Chinese people who speak English as a first and a second language. They sound nothing like these Charlie Chan like facsimiles.

Here’s how you know it’s an inside job. When things go terribly wrong in the organization, Top Boys insist no investigation and early retirement for the top two allied performers. Doesn’t matter the organization . You only need five reporting to one outside the five to break the skin. Ever pierce the skin of a single cell organism under the electron microscope. Take a look.

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Apparently there are now 300 more variations to get through before I become a TinkerTailor Spyista.

I wonder which version John le Carre preferred? The radio or the TV version? I'm guessing the latter. But they are very different. The TV version is FAR more dramatic...for better or worse. ☮

Thank you, SO MUCH for this. I assume this is blasphemy. But I actually prefer Bernard Hepton over Alec Guinness for Smiley (though only by a little). And I realize the roles are written differently for radio vs. TV. ☮

This radio adaptation was my introduction to TTSS, so until I caught up with the TV series, Smiley was the soft spoken Hepton, perfect for radio. I lost my cassette copy of this over the years, so I'm delighted to be able to hear it again here, thanks for that! I too have consumed TTSS in all its formats over the years, well all of John le Carré's books actually, and here's a tip, the final novel, written when he was close to 90 years old and le Carré's final novel to be published before his death in 2020, Agent Running in the Field is very nearly as good!

Loneliness and snobbery can be treacherous. Traitorous as it were, without any real merit, like Bill Hayden, the fictional Philby. Witness the decline of the Royals in real time and the absolute fall of Philby during the Cold War beforePetroiska. And across the pond due East - what has become of Philby’s employers⁉️. No moreRed Army - dream and hope of the enslaved, a wild vision of a future without poverty and war but instead a thing even Lenin could not have anticipated: a tumbling descent into a waking nightmare cabal of gangsters and human traffickers no different than the greed and constipation extant due West! Tricks learned from the masters of empire and pure deceit - the Brits themselves. Empire - it’s culture and imperialism- now Hoist on their own petard! Carla gets the last laugh. The whole thing is a snake swallowing it’s tail.

The best one on youtube

OTT VOICE ACTING SORRY…….

Love this

Did they steal thar car

July 31st, 1989.

Absolutely brilliant and you know what? I never heard it before. A gem.