(Recording of opera music plays)
(Footsteps)
(Knock at door)
You weren't followed?
No.
Better come in.
Trust no one, Jim.
Especially not in the mainstream.
Sit down.
I understand you still have one H ungarian identity running?
I do.
I want you to go to Budapest.
'This is not above board.
'Nobody else knows.
'They're after my head, Jim boy.
'Do you understand?
'I have had an offer of service.
'A Hungarian general wants to come over.
'I would lik e you to meet him.'
He has some information that I need, J im.
What information?
Treasure.
'He has the name of the mole
'the Russians have planted in the British intelligence service
'right at the top of the Circus.
'There's a rotten apple, Jim.
'We have to find it.'
(# Jazz)
(Rumbling)
(Clatter)
Stop!
(Clock chimes)
(Control) Would you witness this for me?
I wish I could done more, Control.
You did all you could, Percy.
Well, a man should know when to leave the party.
What about Smiley?
Smiley is leaving with me.
You little prick, Esterhase.
(Alarm clock)
Gentlemen, shall we start?
(Secretary) U nder Secretary Lacon is ready for you, Sir Percy.
The Treasury don't understand.
Why can't the intelligence service simply put in a request
for a general increase in funding
and then you account for the spend on your special operation?
Operation Witchcraft needs to remain secret.
- It's a fiefdom of its own. - Yes, that's what's worrying us.
The whole thing's very unaccountable, isn't it?
And this London house that nobody knows the address of,
is that really necessary?
Now more than ever. We need to protect our Soviet source.
So where do you propose we meet? In a café?
The rent and rates on this house have doubled.
We spent millions on nuclear warheads.
We're asking for a few thousand for a house.
I wonder if Karla has the same problem
with the Treasury at the Kremlin.
Look, nobody underestimates
the importance of the job you chaps are doing.
But what happened in Budapest last year,
that was a disaster.
With respect, sir,
it wasn't one of your civil servants that got killed, was it?
Now this isn't about soldiers in trenches any more.
- We're the front line now... - Roy!
For 25 years we've been the only thing standing between them and Karla
and Moscow and the third bloody world war.
Look, the Minister's very pleased with your progress so far.
He's less pleased, though,
with the lack of progress with our American cousins.
You see,
in their eyes,
you're still a leaky ship.
(Buzzer)
Yes?
'Someone on the line for you, sir. Seems urgent. '
All right, well put him through.
(Phone rings)
- Hello? - 'Ls this U nder Secretary Lacon? '
Yes.
My name's Ricki Tarr.
- 'What do you want? ' - I need to meet you.
If you need to confirm who I am, you can talk to my boss at the Circus,
Peter Guillam.
But only Guillam, no one else.
You got clearance for that?
Well, I'm not bloody chaining it up outside.
Mind you, no better off in here with this bunch of bloody cut-throats.
They'd have the gold out of your teeth.
Thought I'd pop in and catch a glimpse of the new girl before Bland gets to her.
Ah, yes. Belinda the blonde.
- Has he seen her yet? - Of course he has.
Came down first thing this morning.
Belinda.
(Rings bicycle bell)
(Phone rings)
- Peter Guillam. - 'Hello, Peter, this is Oliver.
'J ust ringing to find out...
(Joan Bak ewell on radio) 'So Winston Churchill saved your life, Edie.'
(Edie) 'I was working in the kitchen, getting dinner ready.
'And he was late, you see.'
- 'During a raid? ' - 'During a raid, you see.'
'He said, "Why aren't you in that shelter?"'
- 'Why weren't you? ' - 'Well, because... '
(Guillam) I was sorry to hear about Control, Mr Smiley.
'He said Tarr called him from a phone box.'
He said there's a mole,
right at the top of the Circus,
that he's been there for years.
(Clears throat)
It does mean
you're rather well placed to look into this matter for us now,
doesn't it?
Outside the family.
I'm retired, Oliver.
You fired me.
The thing is,
some time ago before Control died,
he came to me with a similar suggestion.
That there is a mole.
He never mentioned his suspicions to you?
No.
Oh, I just thought that as you were his man, so to speak...
What did you say to him?
I'm afraid I thought his paranoia had rather gotten the better of him
and he was going to pull his whole house down.
That bloody mess in Budapest.
Damn it, George.
It's your generation, your legacy.
I would have thought, if there's any truth in it, you'd want to...
I'll k eep Peter.
And there's a retired Special Branch man, Mendel.
I should lik e to have him.
(Scraping)
- Lift up. - (Buzzing)
And quickly down again.
There's a place I know, sir. A little hotel near Liverpool Street.
(Buzzing)
(Whirring)
(Buzzing)
Be careful with it. Please. It's Georgian.
My friend wants peace and quiet in order to work, Mrs Pope Graham.
No disturbances.
Her real name is just Graham.
Added the Pope for a touch of class.
(Smiley) 'Peter, did you get the k eys to Control's flat? '
# And did those feet in ancient time
# Walk upon England's mountains green #
Oh!
(Control) 'George! '
George, get in here!
George.
Sit down.
Tak e a look at this nonsense.
Report by Soviet high command
on their recent naval exercises in the Black Sea.
Just what the admiralty has been begging us
for some information on.
- Where did you get this? - I didn't.
Percy and his little cabal walk ed in with it.
- Look, Control... - Shut up.
Style appalling.
Patently a fabrication from beginning to end.
- Just could be the real thing. - Well, if it's genuine, it's gold dust.
But its topicality mak es it suspect.
Smiley is suspicious, Percy.
Where did it come from? What's the access?
A new secret source of mine.
But how could he possibly have access?
He has access to the most sensitive levels of policy-making.
We've named the operation Witchcraft.
Oh, Percy and his pals bypassed us, Smiley.
Gone straight to the minister.
Percy has been allowed to k eep the identity of his new friend
top secret.
The minister agrees too many secrets are blown around here.
Too much failure, too many scandals.
- Too little solid intelligence. - Percy does have a point, Control.
We should be fighting Communism, not each other.
Meanwhile we're losing our reputation, our partners.
Your bloody Yank s!
We've had enough! There's going to be changes.
We need to decide if want to be part of the past or part of the future.
I should have left you where I found you.
- Look! - Control...
Out, all of you!
If Witchcraft is genuine...
(Control) Nothing is genuine any more.
(Guillam) George...
Do you want me to get this stuff over to the hotel?
(Train passing)
Thank you. Er, anywhere will do.
- Peter? - Hm?
I need you to do something for me.
I'd lik e you to go to the Circus.
'Ln the cabinet at the duty officers' station
'are records of staff recently retired.
'I'd lik e photographs of them
'and of the diagram of the Circus's reorganisation under Percy Alleline,
'along with a list of all payments made from the Reptile fund.'
- Help you with anything, Bill? - I was just looking for his Majesty.
Well, he's out walking the battlements.
Oh.
(Speak s Hungarian)
- Heard you had an accident, Peter. - Yeah, I cut my hand open on a drawer.
When are you going to get some new furniture up here?
I'll have a word with Esterhase. We'll mak e it a priority on the top floor.
- Where are you off to? - Lunch.
Want some company?
(Guillam) According to the personnel files,
seven were due for retirement anyway.
Another four don't seem particularly mysterious.
Jerry Westerby was dismissed December 4.
Connie Sachs retired November 28.
That's just two week s after you and Control were forced out.
- Return to Oxford, please. - That's 1. 15.
Percy has always resisted any proposal
of a wider exploitation of Witchcraft's intelligence.
Drop the bloody jargon, Lacon.
I've refused to share Witchcraft with our allies so far, Minister.
Greedy boy.
My goal has been to establish its track record beyond all doubt.
I think the time has come to approach our American brothers-in-arms.
- Will they tak e us back into bed? - I'm not interested in a one-off trade.
I want on-going access to American intelligence.
You think we can get it?
With Witchcraft on our side, we can get anything we bloody well want.
Fine.
Carry on.
Thank you.
(Male actor) And I strik e thee down...
Oh, I, er...
Not supposed to. Doctor's orders.
Wick ed, wick ed George.
I don't know about you, George,
but I feel seriously under-fuck ed.
I heard Ann left you again.
She doesn't deserve you, George, not one hair on your head.
You left the Circus shortly after I retired.
I didn't leave. I was dismissed.
Chuck ed out on the rubbish heap, lik e you.
Why?
(Connie) 'Polyak ov.
'Do you remember him? '
(Smiley) 'From the Soviet Embassy? '
(Connie) 'Alexsey Polyak ov, cultural attaché here in London.
'When he arrived here 15 years ago, I requested he be check ed out.
'He was graded whiter than white. Didn't put a foot wrong.'
(Smiley) 'But you disagreed? '
(Connie) 'There's a story you must have heard
'that Karla has set up a secret cell.
'The personnel are all ex-military,
'trained to handle deep-penetration agents, moles.'
(Smiley) 'There are always stories, Connie. '
(Connie) 'But what if this story was true?
'One night in research I saw something, George.
'There was our friend Polyak ov at a May day parade in Berlin
'receiving a salute.'
(Smiley) 'Why would you salute a cultural attaché? '
(Connie) 'Exactly. Unless he was a war veteran himself.'
And if he was, why hide the fact?
What did you do?
I went straight to Esterhase and Alleline.
Here.
Polyak ov is a Karla-trained hood if ever I saw one.
If he's here, it must be because he's running a mole.
You're to leave Polyak ov alone.
You're becoming obsessed with him.
- You're losing your sense of proportion. - But that's ridiculous.
Perhaps it's time you went out into the real world.
(Connie) What does it matter? Old Circus is gone anyway.
Here we are.
The N ursery in our day.
Jim Prideaux.
And Bill Haydon. Together, of course.
The Inseparables.
There's Control himself.
All my boys.
All my lovely boys.
That was a good time, George.
A real war.
Englishmen could be proud then.
So I was right, then?
About Polyak ov.
There is a mole.
If it's bad, don't come back. I want to remember you all as you were.
(# Rock music)
Percy? Percy, did you mix this?
Aye, I did so.
You Calvinistic, penny-pinching Scot.
(Scottish accent) Can you nae learn to tak e a bloody order?
Nobody tampers with the recipe!
- I followed the recipe. - Come on.
It'll tak e us five hours to get drunk on this monk ey's piss.
# He's not the first
- # He's not the first - Oh, well.
- # He's the second best secret agent - Merry C hristmas.
# I n the whole wide world
# He's not number one
# But not the worst
# He's just the second best secret agent
# I n the whole wide world
# He's every bit
# As good as what's-his-name
# With a dame
# Any dame
# And all those bullet holes are in his vest
# To prove you work a little harder
# When you're second best... #
(Car pulls up)
(Dog bark s)
- Courtesy of Mrs P. - H m?
You been up all night?
Yes.
What's this?
Request for £ 1,000 in cash from the Reptile fund.
To a Mr Ellis.
It was one of J im Prideaux's work names.
Prideaux was killed in H ungary a year ago.
October 21.
So why was someone giving him £ 1,000 two months later?
I wonder where he is then, sir.
(Gunshot)
(Children shouting)
(Grunting)
Settle down now.
- Hand those out. - Sir.
(Boy) What is it? The H unchback of Notre-Dame?
(Giggling)
(Groans)
The bells, the bells!
(Squawking)
(Flapping and squawking)
(Gasps)
(Screeching)
(Tweeting)
- (Bones crack) - Ohh!
Come here.
- I'm a new boy. - New arrival, eh?
- What's the story? - My mother and father.
My father left, so...
Hm.
Bill.
The unpaid Bill.
- Anyone ever call you that? - No, sir.
Known a lot of Bills in my time.
They've all been good 'uns.
What are you good at?
Nothing, sir.
You're a good watcher, though, eh?
Us loners always are.
Best watcher in the unit, Bill Roach is, I'II bet.
- Long as he's got his specs on. Right? - Yes, sir.
This is good, very good.
Hello, Ricki.
You've missed the wedge.
Where have you been, Ricki?
They're going to kill me.
- Who is? - Your lot.
Or their lot. Whoever gets me first.
I'm innocent.
Within reason.
How long have you been here?
Sorry, I've run out of places now.
I needed to see you.
Why?
There's a woman.
I need you to trade for her. I need you to get her back off Karla.
A woman?
Her name's Irina.
(Ship's horn)
(Tarr) 'This was last November.
'Mr Guillam sent me to Istanbul to check out a Russian trade delegate
'who might be persuaded to defect.'
- (Smiley) 'Tufty Thesinger, resident.' - 'Yeah.'
- H iya, Ricki. - All right, mate?
(Tarr) 'Did you know him? ' (Smiley) 'No, never met him.'
(Tarr) 'Bit of a drink er.'
Hangover from hell.
'Bit of a fucking idiot.
'Apparently this Russian, name of Boris,
'was spending high and wide in the nightclubs. '
(Smiley) 'So you were sent to persuade this Boris? '
(Tarr) 'Yeah. He was your typical Russian.
'Trade delegation by day, out boozing every night.
'Didn't seem to sleep.
'Tufty was worn out from following him around.'
I think it's going to be a long night, son.
(Tarr) 'H is favourite haunt was this club in Tak sim.
'Lt had a hellhole in the basement where the sailors and the tourists went.
'Anyway, I took one look at him and I knew I'd wasted a journey.
'Boris was no delegate.
'What delegate bothers to play drunk er than he really is?
'You get to recognise your own, don't you, Mr Smiley?
(# BLO OD, S WEAT & TEARS: "Spinning Wheel")
'Moscow Centre trained.'
# Someone is waiting
# I mean just for you
# Spinning wheel
# Keep on spinning through, Drop all your troubles... #
'I guessed he was waiting for a connect.
'Working a letterbox, maybe.
'Or trailing his coat and looking for a pass from some mug lik e me.'
'So the second night I went to the import/ export outfit
'that Tufty had set up with a cipher room hidden in the back.
'I cabled "No sale" to Mr Guillam.
'And that was that.'
(Smiley) You were due to fly home the next day.
Yes.
But you didn't.
(Tarr) 'Boris had a wife.
'Common-law.
'Apparently she was a member of the delegation in her own right.
'You once told me to trust my instincts about women, Mr Smiley.
'Well, my instincts told me this woman had some treasure.
'When Boris went out for the night, I found myself going into her hotel.'
(Smiley) 'So you dropped Boris.'
(Tarr) 'I know. It was breaking protocol.
'But I was acting on my own initiative, as it were. '
Your man's a bit of a bastard, isn't he?
I just wanted to mak e sure you were all right, OK?
(Smiley) 'So you didn't come home? '
I would have.
Boris was a dead end, but...
Um...
I could...
I could sense something in her.
A secret.
And how did you intend to get this secret out of her?
(Tarr) 'I played this businessman, Michael Trench.
'Holiday romance.'
(She laughs)
'I thought I'd tak e my time with it.'
I know who you are.
I want to talk to your boss.
Control.
I have something to trade.
Something big.
I want a new life in the West.
That's the deal.
You tell them.
Look, you can't expect them to jump at every offer of service.
If you won't tell me more, there is nothing I can do.
If I tell you everything,
I'm putting my life in your hands.
And the lives of other people.
(Tarr) 'So she told me what she had to trade.
'Her secret.
'I mean,
'the mother of all secrets.
'I told her I'd alert the Circus.
'She made me promise I wouldn't give any of the details to London.'
(Smiley) 'And you agreed? ' (Tarr) 'Yes.
'I mean it was...
'I couldn't believe I'd got hold of something this big.
'I went back to the import/ export,
'sent the message to the Circus, graded, "Flash, highest priority",
'just that I had a Moscow-trained hood wanting to defect.'
You're supposed to have gone. London stations have been on to me.
Want to know what the hell you're doing.
Fuck off.
(Smiley) 'Anything else, Ricki? '
I know what I am to the Circus. I'm one of the scalp-hunters,
someone that you can hand your dirty little jobs to.
I just...
I just wanted to bring this one in myself.
Well, I understand how you felt.
You wanted to do something.
Vital to the safeguarding of the Circus.
Anything more?
I said that she had information concerning a double agent.
Look, I just wanted to get the proper attention. And I'd...
(Tarr sighs)
I told them this was the reason why I had not come home.
It wasn't that I'd defected or anything.
- What did you do then? - I waited for a reply.
(Tarr) 'I hung around for hours. I heard the lmsak call to prayer.
'So what's that? That's about 3. 30 in the morning.'
(Clicking)
'Then the message comes through.
"'We read you."
'That was all they sent. Nothing.
'Lt didn't mak e sense. It was lik e they were stalling.'
(Smiley) 'Then what happened?
(Tarr) 'Then, all of a sudden...
'... the Russians begin to move.'
(# Music on radio)
(Music stops)
'Lt was nice work. I couldn't have done it better myself.'
(Flies buzz)
(Tarr) 'The message was quite clear. I needed to warn her. '
(Phone rings)
Come on, come on, come on.
(Tarr) 'I couldn't find her at the airport.
'I even look ed through all the flight lists and...
'I headed down to the harbour.
'They put her on a ship to Odessa.
'That's all I know.'
I've...
I've done a lot of things in my life, Mr Smiley, but...
I just... I can't stop thinking about her.
She wasn't even my type.
I've got to get her out. I owe her that.
Karla will be looking for you.
Everybody's looking for me.
You can't stay here.
It isn't safe.
(Haydon) 'I said, "You may fuck me but you'll call me "Sir" in the morning."'
(Esterhase) 'OK. Just need to let you know.
'Someone flew into Paris last week on one of our escaped passports.'
(Haydon) 'And? ' (Esterhase) 'lt was Ricki Tarr.'
(Haydon) 'Why are you telling me? '
- 'Lt could be coincidence... ' - (Haydon) 'You are a poisoned dwarf.
'Why don't you fuck off to his Majesty
'and stop trying to involve me in your cabaret? '
(Line goes dead)
(Recording) 'Mr Esterhase: "It could be coincidence but..."
'Mr Haydon interrupting.
"'You really are a poisoned dwarf, Toby.
"'Why don't you fuck off to his Majesty
"'and stop trying to involve me in your cabaret?"'
You look tired.
I didn't sleep well.
You're going to do something for me, Peter.
I need the duty officer's log book for last November.
I'm going to have to send you up a floor into the lions' den.
If you're caught,
I'm sorry, but you're alone.
- Last November? - Hm.
(Bryant) Mr Guillam!
Thank you, Bryant.
How's the family?
Fine. Need to go up to the registry today.
OK, sir.
Now you'll need a yellow one for the bag, sir.
Thank you.
- Good morning, Mr Guillam. - Morning, Alwyn.
- Want me to look after that for you? - Thank you.
I'll need your chit, Mr Guillam.
Dolphin will kill me if I don't. New rules.
So, chit me.
Thank s.
- Sal, lovely surprise. - Peter.
- What are you up to this week end? - Oh, you know.
Visiting aunts.
I'll bet.
Corridor D.
The two eights are halfway on your right.
The three ones are next alcove down.
Thank s.
(Door slams)
(Radio) 'Here's a request from Libby Barr from Bromley
'for "Mr Wu's A Window Cleaner Now". Tak e it away, George.'
(# George Formby: "Mr Wu's A Window Cleaner Now")
(Buzzing)
(Dialling tone)
(Phone rings)
Hello. Archive, Alwyn speaking.
(Mendel) 'Can I speak to Mr Guillam, please? '
I'm his car mechanic.
Well, I'll just see if he's available. Hold on, please.
# Mr Wu, what shall I do?
- Oh, Christ! - Telephone, sir.
- Who is it? - Outside line, sir. Someone rough.
(# George Formby: "Mr Wu's A Window Cleaner Now")
(Whistling)
(Alwyn) Sir?
- Hello? - (Mendel) 'Your gearbox is bust, sir.'
Damn it, can't you fix the bloody thing?
'Can't be done, sir.
Well, phone the main dealership first. Have you got their number?
'No.'
Hang on. Alwyn!
- Alwyn. - Sir?
Get me my bag, will you?
- But... - J ust for a second.
Thank you.
Hang on.
- Hello? - 'I'm listening.'
- Yes. 9-4-60-3-3-5. - 'Be right on it, sir.'
Thank you.
Peter Guillam.