Call For The Dead | BBC RADIO DRAMA

[@Thinkingbbc]

Please Support This Channel. Thanks!😘 buymeacoffee.com/ThinkingLoud Call For The Dead | BBC RADIO DRAMA: Did Samuel Fennan commit suicide or was he murdered? The Department would like to think it was suicide, but Smiley is not inclined to sacrifice truth to political expediency. And he finds in Mendel a willing ally. I Have No Control Over The Adverts😭😭 rb.gy/ixs3w BBC RADIO DRAMA💖 rb.gy/dma1xh by John Le Carre, adapted for radio in five parts by Rene Basilico. Starring George Cole as George Smiley and Alfred Burke as Mendel with Douglas Blackwell as Peter Guillam and Richard Hurndall as Maston. BBC World Service production Author: John Le Carre Adapted for radio by: Rene Basilico Producer: John Fawcett Wilson George Smiley: George Cole Mendel: And Alfred Burke Peter Guillam: Douglas Blackwell Maston: Richard Hurndall Adam Scarr: George Innes Josie: Jane Williams First broadcast: Mon 9th Oct 1978, 22:30 on BBC Radio 4 FM

[@annefeibelman2090]

😊😊😊

[@ivorybow]

Few things more suiting for a late afternoon cleaning, and listening. BBC was always so classy. Thank you

[@Thinkingbbc]

Thanks for listening😍😘💖💞💕

[@robertandrews5640]

SUPERB STORY WONDERFUL AUTHOR GREAT PLEASURABLE ENJOYMENT

[@JeanLucRaoelina-nd4og]

Outstanding radio play, close to original novel. Many thanks indeed.

[@surfaceten510n]

Well crafted spy story. Excellently played.

[@anne-mariepovall8102]

Excellent. Thank you🎉🎉

[@Thinkingbbc]

Thank you too!😍😘💖💞💕

[@doriskarloff964]

I've neither heard this nor read it! So glad to find another Le Carre. Thank you so much for posting!

[@Thinkingbbc]

You're so welcome! Thank you! 😍😘💖💞💕

[@dannygrant4603]

Simply brilliant no need to say anything else

[@sharimeyers292]

Thank you so much. Absolutely loved this. Wonderful listen while walking.

[@Thinkingbbc]

Wonderful! 😍😘💖💞💕

[@davidsandz2186]

Loved the much under-rated George Cole as Smiley.

[@doreekaplan2589]

Untrue. Overused misplaced label.

[@toforgetisagem8145]

It suprised me, just how good he was and how he fit right in, especially since Alex Guinness became the almost definitive Smiley. I loved the new (older) approach.

[@paulleverton9569]

Google GEORGE COLE and see what a hard start to life he had. Adopted. His adopted father had to work several jobs despite having many health problems - all started by a gas attack during WWI. He really did claw his way out of the gutter BUT Alastair Sim made him a type of apprentice and did a lot to keep him focused (including homing Cole and his Mother for a decade). Sim came from a comfortable Edinburgh middle class home but clearly had a heart of gold. Cole died in 2015 aged 90. He lived a long and a very full life. Can't ask for more.

[@katyvdb5993]

What a wonderful dramatisation of a (to me) hitherto unfamiliar John Le Carré novel. I love the clever crafting of the story, and the Carré-esque balance of idealism, pragmatism and regret. Also, I had no idea that George Cole was such a versatile actor. Thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you.

[@robpearson9526]

Oh my. Splendid, just splendid indeed. I so enjoy a spot of tea while I curl up in my shawl, in front of the burn barrel in the back ally, next to the subway grate to listen to Smiley.

[@darjeeling6432]

Thank you. This certainly adds colour on Mendel when I read the book again.

[@DarrenRounding]

First time I've heard this version. Excellent and good quality audio too. Thanks 👍

[@tjannarra1279]

Excellent dramatisation. Enjoyed it thoroughly. ❤

[@manmonkee]

As much as I love George Cole anything with Alfred Burke is a joy to listen to.

[@elaineedgar2913]

George Cole not as convincing by a long shot as Guinness of course. Alfred Burke superb as always. Love his Public Eye series on TV (Talking Pictures) from the mid-70s.

[@janmeyer3129]

George Cole brings out the class disadvantages Smiley faced within the Service more effectively than Alec Guinness did

[@richt6353]

Excellent tape!

[@perseus9428]

Outstanding. Many Thanks.

[@annemaclean6634]

Love the John Le Carre George Smiley books, and the radio dramas. Haven't heard this one before with George Cole as George Smiley, I see it's from the 1970s. I will certainly enjoy it, thanks so much for uploading. 😊😊

[@Thinkingbbc]

You're very welcome. Thanks! 😍😘💖💞💕

[@colinglass1342]

Neither have i. I saw the tv series with sir ALEC Guinness First time i heard this

[@kathleenellenford4816]

Thank you! delighted to find this on the roto tonight

[@sophiablow3422]

I really good yarn. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for the share.

[@Thinkingbbc]

You are so welcome! Thanks for listening! 😍😘💖💞💕

[@spikemcnock8310]

A great story, thanks. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@AngelApprentice]

Loved this you are a star🎉

[@Thinkingbbc]

😍😘💖💞💕

[@josephmanning636]

The novel was an inauspicious introduction to the incomparable Smiley. Its sales were not originally very successful, but encouraged le Carre's publishers to produce a second little-known Smiley novel called 'A Murder of Quality' (equally worth finding in 2nd-hand bookshops). Small beginnings for a monumental saga. This BBC Radio version has many necessary deviations from the original plotline, but is superbly well done in the opinion of this lifelong espiophile.

[@janebrown7231]

Thank you! ❤️

[@joycarmichael1476]

I liked this a lot. Thanks

[@sharimeyers292]

Thanks for the information.

[@thomasbernecky2078]

I'm gobsmacked by how much the lead sounds exactly like George Smiley AND Alec Guinness?

[@sieradelphi3497]

Thank you. This version is rare. I like this one more.

[@u11851]

Strongly agree, .this one is better than the Simon Russel Beale version with the annoying voice of Ann. A pity Bernard Hepton did not had a go at it.

[@Alan_Mac]

George Cole is a good Smiley!

[@sharimeyers292]

@@Alan_Mac I thought so too. Just perfect.

[@terinunes604]

Thank you so much ❤

[@sumazdar]

Dziękuję

[@marcaskew61]

Nicely done!

[@michaelstill5184]

This was filmed as The Deadly Affair with my favourite Smiley, James Mason, and my favourite Mendel, Harry Andrews.

[@jacksonburnette762]

Very enjoyable.

[@toforgetisagem8145]

Alex Guinness was the Smiley of my time. It is fascinating to be much closer to the actual time, with that more stiffer upper lip and hidden feelings. Ann makes far more sense in the days of compartmentalising feelings and appearances. And marriage because of marriage and spying being considered gentlemanly

[@solipsismworld]

Love the Wimsey reference at the top

[@latimeralder1]

Neat. It was the last thing I listened to before this.

[@RhysOlwyn]

At the Belona Club?

[@paulleverton9569]

Michael Jayston October 29th, 1935 - February 5th, 2024 He played Peter Guillam in BBC's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, 1979 - but was replaced for Smiley's People, 1982, by Michael Byrne. Despite that he went on to narrate many of John le Carre books, becoming the 2nd most associated person with the le Carre universe (after John le Carre). Jayston was already committed, when offered offered the 1982 job - but his IMDB page only lists him as narrator for one episode of Timewatch during that year. Theater maybe?

[@rexthompson8518]

Thank you.

[@peterchaloner2877]

Back when BBC broadcast the monarch's English and not Mockney.

[@bsastarfire250]

I love the old stuff, but language does change .Remember Chaucer at school .''Who so shall telle a tale after a man, He moste reherse, as neighe as ever he can, Everich word, if it be in his charge, All speke he never so ''...

[@fintonmainz7845]

You've never met a monarch.

[@kobrien61]

I like him too, it sounds like he gives a bit of a tip of the hat to Alec Guinness

[@MacMcCaskill]

Taxi - "£1.40, please guv." These days it'd be more than that to pull out into traffic! 😂🚕

[@peterallman8474]

And fifty years before that it would have been a shilling.

[@kristinmarra7005]

I’m loving this. Thank you

[@danjsy]

Really good, best one I've heard, thanks

[@michelleberkeley7520]

I do love Simon Russell Beale as George ❤

[@moonkeele]

I thought it was going to be Simon Russell Beale when I saw the thumbnail, but this is a different production 😥

[@lucikate10]

Loved it. Thank you

[@joedge6142]

Thanks, enjoyed this.

[@janegreen9340]

Good stuff.

[@5bags]

Hello Arthur......where is Terry?

[@petercasey6938]

I love this story & Le Carré too, but this is an unfortunately flawed adaptation: Call for the Dead predates Spy Who Came in from the Cold - in which Mundt appears prominently - & both books are definitely predecimal currency. Cole is not my choice for Smiley, Guinness will always be unbeatable.

[@mefor5199]

How much they needed mobile phones those days ?!!😂

[@0tt0z]

Very good. I really enjoyed it.

[@barbararice6650]

George isn't Smiley, can't imagine him studying mediaeval German manuscripts 🌚

[@peterallman8474]

So the director drops everything when someone drifts in to join the theatre club. One of many super-weak plot features.

[@imlistening1137]

I do wish that these otherwise wonderful radio plays would stop having their actors chew or swallow right next to the microphone. Such an abhorrent noise!

[@paulleverton9569]

I always rated George Cole but I don't think he was right to be the voice of George Smiley. It's too kind/compassionate, and it contains too many hints of the working class. Alec Guinness also played a softer, more caring Smiley, than he was in the books. John le Carre made that criticism personally BUT was so impressed by Guinness that he found himself writing later Smiley content to be much more like the Guinness version. Gary Oldman was OK but not hugely memorable. There were no flashes of genius. Simon Russell Beale, who already voiced BBC Radio 4 The Complete Smiley, would be perfect to portray him on film/TV. He already proved that he can voice act Smiley better than anyone else and, in LEGACY, 2013, he played Hookey, an MI5/6 spymaster, in a very paranoid 70's England of angry trade unions, smoke filled rooms and power cuts. It was the best depiction of Smiley I ever saw - even if it wasn't _technically_ George Smiley.

[@arabellacox]

How old is Elizabeth meant to be??!!

[@BryinWillis-e8g]

35min 15sec.

[@COBBETT1215]

George Cole is the perfect Smiley. As is Bernard Hepton in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Much prefer their versions to the later much heralded versions starring Simon Russell Beale. All those silly pointless and unnecessary internal conversations with his estranged and absent wife. that add nothing to the plot.

[@Thinkingbbc]

BOOOM! Someone finally said it! 😂😂😂

[@BryinWillis-e8g]

52min…

[@BryinWillis-e8g]

52min

[@vickipinkney-atkinson6349]

Which anochradnistic colonial pieces. Interesting from a world view perspective

[@BryinWillis-e8g]

1hr 41min

[@BryinWillis-e8g]

1hr 35min…

[@Thinkingbbc]

1:35:00 💖

[@Buce-ku9vx]

Love it.🫵👍 Thanks for sharing.

[@Thinkingbbc]

Thanks for loving! 😍😘💖💞💕

[@KarenBryant-qv9nm]

Thank you.

[@BryinWillis-e8g]

1hr 37min…