#AlecGuinness portrayed #GeorgeSmiley in a twelve-part tv series of the first and third books of #JohnLeCarre 's great #Karla trilogy. As they say of other spies, nobody does him better. I've re-watched this television a dozen times, and re-read all three books so many times I've lost count.
The #BBC decided not to film the second book, #TheHonourableSchoolboy. Budget was tight. A good deal of THB is set in China and South-East Asia, prohibitively expensive for the BBC in the 70s. Indeed they re-located the short Hong Kong section of #TinkerTailorSoldierSpy to Portugal in the first series for the same reason. An effective and meaningful transfer, and it didn't affect the plot.
In my most recent re-watching, I noticed hints of what might have been. #Smiley visits Jerry Westerby, played by #JossAckland, in a bar near Fleet Street, to find out what he had heard in Czechoslovakia at the time that Jim Prideaux was shot and caught. This is a scene of great intelligence and sensitivity.
Jerry behaves like a bumbling alcoholic English journo, glad-handing George and suggesting that all that he heard was rumour and not to be taken seriously. Jerry reveals what he knows; and particularly, when he reported the Russian manoeuvres to Toby Esterhazy, how Toby called him back to slap him down and warn him off. Jerry says of Toby: 'Rum chap. But good!' As if to brush away this strange encounter as a social mix-up.
But Jerry knows George is out of the Circus, and immediately realises that he's on the cold trail of something important, clearly not on Circus instructions. This isn't stated explicitly. He's exquisitely sensitive to George's enigmatic smiles and hints.
Jerry never tells anyone at the Circus that he was approached by George in the hunt for the mole. If he had - say, to buy his way back into service with Toby - then George would have been blown and Karla would have continued to destroy the Circus. None of this is explicitly stated in either the book or the tv series.
In THB, George recollects Jerry's discretion and realises that he's someone he can trust - and exploit. He puts him on the trail of another mole planted by Karla, this time in China.
THB is a great and epic tragedy for Jerry and the Ko brothers, who are cynically martyred for the fate of the Circus. It is completely different in mood from Tinker Tailor or #SmileysPeople. In the tv series, the nearest portrayal of this tragedy is the fate of #BerylReid 's Russia-watcher Connie Sachs, a dying and betrayed Circus researcher. Her tragedy spans the three books. For Connie, THB is an Indian summer: George drafts her back to spar with her China-watcher counterpart, Doc di Salis. She animates the imagination and creativity of the Circus during its ordeal. But Jerry's story in THB is an attempt at redemption, ended with his death at the hands of the man he trusted, and who trusted him, in a pub in Fleet Street.
I know, watching this single scene, how agonising it must have been for the BBC to leave out THB. Joss Ackland and Alec Guinness were perfectly matched - so different, so sympathetic, so sensitive to the plot, theme and mood of their single scene together. Ackland would have been an unforgettable honourable schoolboy. Jerry is a character who lives in my head, and who Ackland personifies, even if only in my imagination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq61jstTApk&list=PLyNzc9cbF4EWeXnVOQhXG6_wGdlssG22y&index=3
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