WARREN CUMMINGS joins me to talk about the TV adaptations of the work of JOHN LE CARRÉ

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 8th 2024.

For various reasons, recently I’ve been watching rather a lot of adaptations of the work of the novelist John le Carré, or David Cornwell as his family knew him, mostly, perhaps, because I’ve started reading his books, partially, of course, because SANDY made reference to him our show about ROCK FOLLIES earlier in the year, and also maybe because several of the adaptations have been made more widely available on the BBC’s iPlayer service.

Anyway, whatever the mysterious dark truth of those reasons might turn out to be, I’ve recently watched THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL; THE NIGHT MANAGER; TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY; SMILEY’S PEOPLE and also the film of his 1960s classic THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, and, at time of recording, I’m also about to give A PERFECT SPY a rewatch after several decades.

Le Carré’s world of spies, counter-spies, mistrust, intrigue, and intense Cold War hostilities entertained us for several decades, and mostly centred around the enigmatic character of GEORGE SMILEY, as perfectly personified in two of the television adaptations of the late 1970s and early 1980s by SIR ALEC GUINNESS, and it is mostly upon those two series, TINKER, TAILOR and SMILEY’S PEOPLE that my conversation with WARREN CUMMINGS over the course of the next slow-burning but hopefully intensely engaging hour will concentrate, but, as long as neither of us turns out to be the Mole, then maybe we’ll return to talk about a few of the others on another occasion.

PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.