Smiley's People

What Hacker News says

1. MrBuddyCasinoDec 2025
   And if that tickles your fancy, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" [0] is an excellent miniseries from 1979 about a mole in MI6, perhaps the best spy series ever made. I didn't care about the movie much, so don't let this deter you, but Alec Guiness as George Smiley is a perfect match. John Le Carré thought so, too.

   Oh and Patrick Steward plays "Karla" the soviet mastermind in this series and its successor "Smiley's People". Just a few seconds, but very memorable, its incredible really.

   [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080297/

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2. lqetJul 2024
   I also strongly suspect you watched "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold". If you enjoyed this movie and the way it is narrated, please do yourself a favor and watch all the BBC mini series from the 70ies/80ies based on John Le Carré books, namely "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "Smiley's People", and "A Perfect Spy" (or read the books, John Le Carré is an excellent writer, and "A Perfect Spy" can be compared to works by Dickens). You usually have no clue what is going on, and only learn about it later.
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3. jxramosAug 2017
   I have also been very awestruck by those PCB sleuths. Something about physical debugging that's very concrete, very tangible. Something about that effort tickles the human intellect in a very different way that I think is accessible to a lot of folks. I remember reading this article that posed some interesting questions in the realm of spy novels and all the physical shenanigans that spies can exploit in these magician like feats.

   Here's the take home clinch for the story, "physical viscerality"...

   I wonder about the future of the spy genre in our digital, post-historical era. The essence of espionage is information—specifically, information about the capabilities and intentions of friends and adversaries. The mechanics of this trade has always been the bread and butter of the spy thriller. The whole first half of Le Carré’s masterpiece Smiley’s People, for example, turns on the physical transportation of a single incriminating frame of negative film across national frontiers by couriers, several of whom end up dead. That was the analog world of the Cold War. Our digital world, in which the contents of the Library of Congress can be encrypted and transmitted across the globe with the touch of a key, is far less dramatic and does not lend itself as easily to romance. Kim Philby spent the better part of two decades transcribing the crown jewels of British and American intelligence secrets by hand and turning them over to the KGB. As current headlines attest, a single computer hack or anonymous leak today can yield a far bigger cache of secrets. Do spies still use dead drops? Brush passes? Microdots? Invisible ink? Do they still meet their contacts in smoky cafes and secluded parks? Many of these gritty noir devices may have been retired and replaced by banks of computer screens in the sub-basements of Northern Virginia office parks. All of which makes the spy genre poorer and more antiseptic. We are left with stylish but vapid movies about superheroes like Jason Bourne, pursued by cartoonish CIA assassins.

   The digital world also changes our perceptions of political crime, of which espionage is a sub-species. Without the physical Watergate break-in and the amateur-hour rifling through DNC file cabinets, there would have been no scandal. In contrast, the political scandals of the last election cycle seem mired in the geek-squad arcana of passwords, servers, and hard drives. They lack the visceral physicality of Watergate, which is why they are unlikely to amount to much, despite the wishes of political partisans. https://www.city-journal.org/html/alan-fursts-world-spies-15...

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4. sandinmyjointsDec 2022
   Thanks, I was just looking for more le Carré adaptations today! Finished Smiley's People yesterday.
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5. W-StoolOct 2022
   I have a large book collection and one of the cornerstones is a first edition of every John le Carre book published. I've read them all, and while he is probably best known for "Tinker Tailor ..." and "Smiley's People", I found "The Perfect Spy" to be just an exceptional work of literature - and at times it is also autobiographical (his father was a con man). I'm not surprised he was at times profoundly unhappy - in my experience, many highly creative people never find contentment.

   The TV miniseries of "Tinker Tailor ...", "Smiley's People", "The Perfect Spy", and "The Night Manager" are just amazingly well done and highly recommended.

   RIP David Cornwell.

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6. andyjohnson0Dec 2020
   He had a long and productive life, and I hope a happy one, but this is still a great loss.

   So many of the books are magnificent in their depth. So are the filmed adaptations: the BBC productions of Smiley's People and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; and the more recent film of the latter; and the Night Manager miniseries.

   What has also given me a lot of pleasure was the BBC Radio productions of the eight George Smiley books [1]. They've often kept me company: sometimes on long car journeys, sometimes when I'm feeling contemplative but need distraction. Such a treat.

   Thank you for it all Mr. Le Carré.

   [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/smiley-season/

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