FanFare

Based on John le Carré’s best-selling literary masterpiece of the same name and directed by visionary filmmaker Park Chan-wook, The Little Drummer Girl weaves a suspenseful and explosive story of espionage and high-stakes international intrigue. Set in the late 1970s, the pulsating thriller follows Charlie, a fiery actress and idealist whose resolve is tested after she meets the mysterious Becker while on holiday in Greece. It quickly becomes apparent that his intentions are not what they seem, and her encounter with him entangles her in a complex plot devised by the spy mastermind Kurtz. Charlie takes on the role of a lifetime as a double agent while remaining uncertain of her own loyalties. AMC [more inside]
posted by myotahapea on Jan 28, 2019 - 14 comments

This question refers specifically to the recent miniseries adaptation of the 1983 John le Carré novel of the same name. [more inside]
posted by myotahapea on Dec 19, 2018 - 5 comments

As the terrorist threat increases, PS David Budd strives to prevent the home secretary Julia Montague from falling victim to an assassination plot. [more inside]
posted by Stark on Oct 3, 2018 - 1 comment

Smiley springs his trap and then goes about picking up the pieces and putting The Circus back together. Poor George! Life is such a puzzle to you, isn't it? - Lady Ann
posted by carsonb on Apr 2, 2015 - 18 comments

With a new light cast on the aftermath of Operation Testify—who told Jim Prideaux to forget it, man... forget it! and move on with his post-Circus life—George Smiley knows who in the Merlin/Witchcraft circle to approach first. But before he heads down that path, a bit of follow-up is in order with old-boy lamplighter and drunkard footie newsman Jerry Westerby. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Mar 26, 2015 - 21 comments

George Smiley conducts two interviews, first with old hand Sam Collins, the duty officer on the night Jim Prideaux was shot, then with Prideaux himself. Between the two testimonies a clearer picture is painted of the events of that night, the fateful, failed Operation Testify, as well as its fallout.
posted by carsonb on Mar 19, 2015 - 22 comments

In search of more information about Operation Testify, George sends Peter back to The Circus for the archived file. Waylaid mid-operation by the three of them and Alleline, Peter is read in on and then interrogated about some ultra-ultra-sensitive Witchcraft material. Patrick Stewart makes a brief, silent, and rather intense appearance during Smiley's relation to Guillam of the time in Delhi when he met Karla in the flesh. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Mar 12, 2015 - 12 comments

Smiley sends Guillam to The Circus headquarters at London Station to covertly follow up on Ricky Tarr's story, while he visits Oxford to pick the brain of former Head of Research Connie Sachs. Connections begin to appear as they compare notes, and George fills Peter in on Merlin, Witchcraft, and Percy Alleline's insufferable angling for Control's chair. There are three of them, and Alleline. Control's words. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Mar 4, 2015 - 7 comments

Four men in a room quickly filling with smoke: George Smiley, newly un-retired right-hand man to The Circus chief, Peter Guillam, disgraced head Scalphunter for The Circus, Oliver Lacon, Intelligence Service overseer, and Ricky Tarr, officially absent without leave, on the Wanted list, recently resurfaced Circus spook extraordinaire. Ricky has a story he thinks might change all their lives. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Feb 26, 2015 - 3 comments

Two to six men in a room filled or quickly filling with smoke. There is terse, slow conversation, interrogations mostly, punctuated by short, uneventful drives on the streets of Cold War-era London. Spies! George Smiley (ret.), played elderly and formidable and ironically reticent by Sir Alec Guinness, looms and frowns at the goings-on and pieces together the legend of a mole, right at the top of The Circus. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Feb 19, 2015 - 15 comments

This BBC/Sundance production by Hugo Blick, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Andrew Buchan, Stephen Rea, and Lubna Azabal, is a critically-lauded eight episode series that's certain to appear prominently in next year's Emmy nominations. Reminiscent of le Carré, this is a story of duplicity, of familial and personal tragedy, and is set within the context of the Palestinian occupation and the diplomacy, politics, and espionage of the British, Israelis, and Americans. "It is a wonder we trust anyone at all." [more inside]
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich on Sep 18, 2014 - 14 comments