Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

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 Hungarian 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 like you to meet him.

He has some information that I need, Jim.

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.

Stop!

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, Eszterházy.

Gentlemen, shall we start?

Under 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.

Yes?

Someone on the line for you, sir. Seems urgent.

All right, well put him through.

Hello? Is this Under 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.

Peter Guillam. Hello, Peter, this is Oliver.

Just ringing to find out…

So Winston Churchill saved your life, 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…

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.

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 keep Peter.

And there’s a retired Special Branch man, Mendel.

I should like to have him.

Lift up.

And quickly down again.

There’s a place I know, sir. A little hotel near Liverpool Street.

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.

Peter, did you get the keys to Control’s flat?

Oh!

George!

George, get in here!

George.

Sit down.

Take 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 walked in with it.

Look, Control… Shut up.

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 makes 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 keep 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…

Nothing is genuine any more.

George…

Do you want me to get this stuff over to the hotel?

Thank you. Er, anywhere will do.

Peter? Hm?

I need you to do something for me.

I’d like you to go to the Circus.

In the cabinet at the duty officers’ station

are records of staff recently retired.

I’d like 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.

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 Eszterházy. We’ll make it a priority on the top floor.

Where are you off to? Lunch.

Want some company?

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.