How the story of Scalphunter Ricki Tarr and his relationship with Irina is portrayed in the BBC production and the film Tinker Tailor also illustrates the gulf between the two. In the cinema film Tarr has what I describe as a James Bond type encounter in which he becomes emotional attached to the subject of his sexual entrapment. I accept that it is not as superficially glossy as the Fleming based cinematic creations but yet another instance of pandering to the theatre audience. In the BBC production the depth and intensity of the relationship is explored, the use by Ricki and also by Irina of each other for their individual purposes, but also the strength of love and Bond on her part because she has embraced Christianity and seeks at different way of life something which also attracts Ricki.
He explains that he was sent help the local Circus man Tuffty Thessinger (Thorley Walters) who had his eyes on subverting one the young local Russians into defection because the man was exhausting the local lamplighters with his fleshpots nightlife, club eating drinking and making merry despite having an attractive wife. Ricki whose role is to find something to blackmail Boris but quickly assesses that the target is a Moscow Central trained hood and according to latest edicts from the London Centre, Lacon and Government Minister, he is no longer allowed to try and create a double agent. But the man’s behaviour interests Ricki so he decides to break in and take a look at the man’s accommodation, only to encounter the wife, Irina (Susan Kodicek).
Ricki pretends to be an Australian self made business man who is after Boris because of stealing his girl friend after drinking on his wallet. Irina reveals she knows Ricki to be a spy in part because of his placement of door wedges and arranges to meet the following evening. She explains she is also a highly trained operative with a textile cover and restricted in talking to others unless when on a mission. He says that Boris is not a good spy because he did not spot Ricki and she asks if Ricki is good to which he replies in the affirmative and says try me. She had been put together with Boris whose role is to entrap business men.
She wants to continue to call Ricki by the first name used of Lawrence, calling him Colonel Lawrence of Arabia. She is troubled and fearful. She is impressed with Christians and is studying the bible in secret. She accepts his invitation to share a room on the coast, quiet and safe. She wants to be a team with Ricki and taken to the UK and has on offer her knowledge of a Mole in London, which she will only reveal to Alleline, one of the biggest secrets ever she says which will make Ricki famous. She dreams of going to Scotland which she regards as a perfect place.
They arrange to meet at a cemetery the following day, and she is pressed by Ricki to tell something more to interest Alleline. She says that the information had come from a former lover in Moscow Circus, who had worked as a driver in London whose cover name was Lapin and who had been the right hand man to a Russian military officer who in London was known as Polyakov a Cultural attaché. The British mole was code named Gerald. Ricki says Alleline will take some persuading. He catches Tuffty leaving the office and they return and send a message Flash, maximum security, for the duty officer only to pass the Alleline. There is no immediate response. When the reply comes it is a stall asking for more information. It is not immediately clear how much information he has already given to Alleline but he goes to see Irina but she does not turn up so he goes to the agreed message drop in the cemetery,
He finds her diary which says she wants to give him her life, but if they take her before she gets to see Alleline then the diary is her gift of love to him. She goes into details about the operation in London and that the information provided by the mole is so good and voluminous in audio tapes and also unprocessed film that it is overwhelming the Moscow London contact. The Gerald-Merlin link had been established by Karla who operates independently and whose role is secret to most in the Soviet hierarchy. She fears for the safety of anyone employed by the Circus because of Moscow’s inside knowledge. She asks if he has been indiscrete and told London more than he should. She wants to know if they will let them live in Scotland. She used to think the secret world would free her but God has shown she had only to step outside to be free. She is being closed watched.
Ricki goes to the airport and finds out about an unscheduled Russian plane which had arrived to collect a woman in a coma. He then found that Irina and her husband had left their hotel.
Peter who remains suspicious of Ricki Tarr argues that there would have been no opportunity for London to alert Moscow in the time scale, a view held by Tarr thinking that their affair had been spotted or Irina and said too much to Boris, and fearful that his part had been identified Ricki had jumped ship and gone visit a mistress and his child in Istanbul until he felt it was safe to come and tell his tale.
Lacon takes George into the grounds as morning arrives after a long night to argue that it is George’s role to sort out the mess quietly so that the Circus and Lacon’s reputation are protected. George is upset that even Ricki has known the gossip about Anne and Bill Haydon, Lacon comments that Haydon had been close to Prideaux who Lacon felt had been too old to be sent on the mission by Control.
George says he will need Control’s chief factotum Mendel who in turn uses Fawn and who sets up George on the top floor of an apartment hotel near Paddington station because of previous associations with the owner. He impresses that no one should be told about the presence of Smiley and that no one but Smiley and himself will have access to anything stored in the Hotel safe. At a meeting at the Hotel with Lacon, George asks Peter to break into the Circus to find out what happened to the information which Peter sent to the Circus at the request of Alleline. Lacon says he can only get material via his office and not direct from the Circus. There is also a request for information on the whereabouts of Jim Prideaux. George says he will be making a trip to Oxford in the meantime.
The third episode begins with Peter’s visit to the Circus after George has warned him to be extra careful. He is met by Lauder Strickland (Frank Morrey) and they first bump into Bill Haydon who expresses surprise at the visit with Lauder explaining that Peter has come to arrange with “Banking” funds for a Scalphunter and Peter reassures the paperwork will be already on his desk confirming his entry into the Circus and the fifth floor. Passing the open door of Bland’s office that has Esterhase with him, they ask Lauder if he has seen Haydon as they had put out an urgent call for him. They then spot Peter at the door and both express surprise adding that they like to keep the fifth floor secure to themselves these days. We are yet to learn why Peter is out of favour.
The scene switches to George’s visit to Connie Sachs (Beryl Reed) the former head of research and a walking encyclopaedia of knowledge who was also pushed out because of her drinking and fanciful notions to return as an Oxford College Don where he interrupts a tutorial with a male student.
Connie is able to give the date and place of birth and full description of Polyakov from memory. She comments that from the day he arrived he had army written all over him and a Moscow centre trained hood if ever there was one. But she had been told by Alleline and Haydon that she would have to pack her bags if she persisted with her claims. She had then come across a photo of him with medals attending a state parade and went off to Esterhase proclaiming that he was a gold plated hood running a Mole and was told to report to Alleline and then got a letter sacking her saying she had lost it, was living in fantasy and needed to go back into the real world.
Back at the Circus Peter completes the official business and then breaks into a safe to get the manual register of Duty officer information only to find the page cut out with a razor blade. No Irina, no Tarr and all inquiries to Head of station in the hand writing of Toby Esterhase. Connie’s information confirms that of Tarr, George tells a meeting with Peter and Lacon at the hotel. Lacon has provided a makes reference to Operation Witchcraft and Merlin but Lacon refuses to answers questions and argues that Witchcraft and Merlin are not connected with the issue of the Mole. George presses him to find out the whereabouts of Jim Prideaux and after Lacon leaves, George tells Peter that the two matters interlinked and that Control had gone on the same journey and had nearly arrived at the conclusion until the two bullets in the back of Prideaux. There are three of them, he meant Alleline Haydon Bland or Esterhouse, the men who invented or developed Witchcraft or perhaps are the marionettes.
We then journey back in time to when Control called George to support him against Alleline who had produced a report of a most recent Soviet Sea Exercise which the British Admiralty longed to know about. Smiley agrees that any topical information is always suspect by the Admiral friend of Alleline had congratulated Control saying he believed the report gold dust and wanted to share with his other Sea Lords but Alleline said he had to wait two weeks. The information had come from Merlin of Witchcraft where information was restricted to Alleline and a small group of trusted colleagues within the Circus who were horrified at the recent failure of the organisation and determined to change its reputation, too many scandals to many agents blown and attacking Control directly. Percy Alleline would sell his mother for a knighthood and seat in the House of Lords.
This was followed by a meeting with Lacon at which all the top staff were there with Control facing sideways and Alleline looking smug and Haydon congratulating. He had arranged a special reading room at the Admiralty for customers to have reading rights for Merlin information and to have access only through Percy’s Janitor to which Control explodes, but Lacon intervenes to say that given that Alleline has the wizard the janitor will be modest staff. Haydon says at the meeting and afterwards to Smiley that the information is pure gold and nothing like his activities has produced before and that Alleline will get his reading room and restricted access and after that anything will be possible. He says Control will not accept the development as genuine and that will mean Smiley will take the same position, excluding himself from the new inner circle. Haydon tells Smiley to cut the strings.
After that Control went into himself and Smiley could not get into see Control until after he went to Hong Kong which I presume was for the affair of the Honourable Schoolboy. On return George expresses concern because Control will not read the Merlin product saying he has no the time. He needed time to sort out which of he four was the Mole and he orders George to sweat them, question those involved and of course George had this knowledge when he is first taken by Peter to see Lacon and therefore was not surprised by the development.
We are now privy to his attempt to help Control with an interview first with Toby Esterhase (Bernard Hepton) whose daughter is in medical school and son is at Westminster. The excuse for the visit is that reports on the working schedule of Esterhouse department are two months late. He asks if his staff have been used for special jobs which are not on the books. Toby responds that to do would be illegal to which George suggests not if required by Percy Alleline. Esterhouse says he does like the service and wants to stay in it and his problem is the absence of promotion given his seniority when young fellows ask him to take orders defining young by anyone above him. George says perhaps Control will be able to move him up a couple of rungs to which Toby says he is not sure Control is in a position to do this anymore and asks George if he is sure this is not so.
George then goes on walkabout with Bland (Terence Rigby) who asks what the deal is. Smiley says the present situation is unhealthy and he would not want to see Roy caught up in a cabal. Bland says he wants £5000 cash probably worth £100000 to day plus a House, a car and his son a place at Eton. George who knows Roy’s background with his father a communist and having got himself to grammar school and Oxford asks what would the man’s father say. He says no deal then Control can get stuffed. Bland says has paid his dues although he is not sure what he has bought given his experience of living and working in various soviet countries post world war but during the worse conditions of the Cold War.
He says if he is going to the bad George is to blame because he brought him into the Circus and tests George to name the authority of the aphorism, an artist is a man who can hold two fundamentally opposing views and still function. Adding that Scot Fitzgerald knew a thing or two and that he is definitely functioning - as a good socialist I am going where the money is and as a capitalist I am going with the revolution because if you can’t beat it spy on it. He continues, don’t look like that George. It is the name of the game these days. You scratch my conscience I’ll drive your jag. Smiley says no doubt this came from Bill Haydon, one of his jokes about materialist England Pigs in Clover society. He says of course there are acquisitive and competitive aspects of Western society but they are offset by other concerns (free speech, freedom to as well as freedom from) which you will not find in places and Roy recites the places he endured for the cause.
Roy then claims England has become like conditions in the Soviets- George all you have to do is look out of the blood window. George’s parting shot is to say that Roy has been seen frequently with Bill Haydon these days to which Bland says jealous George, you have his Job as Control’s High Chamberlain, adding-for as long as it lasts. This exchange is clearly an expression of the kind of thing Philby would argue about the changing place of the UK after the loss of Empire still hankering for its former day power and glory, clinging to its aristocratic hierarchy, racism and suppression of the working class.
He then arranges to interview Haydon suggesting that he writes the Merlin reports which Haydon says means that he is saying Alleline won’t do and that if Witchcraft had been Bill’s it would have been acceptable to Control and therefore to Smiley. Bill adds that if he had acted alone he would have been given a medal by now and a pot of Jasmine Tea. He bemoans the vulgarity of the way things are done and that in the old days Smiley would not have been sent snooping around. Bill confirms George’s point that Alleline is on the make who wants to be head boy with Toby and Roy wanting his job which is natural.
They have been out for a meal and drink and go back to George’s home so Haydon asks after Ann, if she had been sent out to play while he is interrogated. George wants to now who is running Alleline to which Haydon jokes Karla of course, as a middle class bloke with upper class ambitions must be a bounder. George says meant who is Merlin what is going on is. Bill says if anyone’s nose is out of joint it is his given the failure to deliver information. Because of the systems and attitudes
George defends control saying that the chief is opposed to the glamour boys who hog the budgets and Bill retorts that it is a pity he does not have same opposition to failure. He says the problem is of Control and his to some extent is that the networks have not been good enough. Bill suggests control has gone potty and dying and it depends which comes first.
George then tells Peter that Control died of old age, a little early. Testify destroyed his functioning which was a form of murder. After explaining all this to Peter, he admits he does not have enough information on Testify and asks Peter to return to the Circus for the file.
The fourth episode begins with Peter returning to the Circus for the file and which mirrors what happens in the film as he gets hold of the file and is then called to the telephone re his car and takes the file with him but needs his case for the telephone number and switches the real file for a dummy one and then arranges for the bag to be sent to his office at Brixton while he called to the inner sanctum to be quizzed by Alleline.
Mendel is concerned that Peter sounded edgy and too loud. George despite his high standards has great empathy for the frailties of the human condition within limits says he trusts Peter will be Ok. Mendel asks George if he knew what happened in the North Africa affair and George says that Peter met his match and all his agents were hanged. He adds that such an event took time to get over and he would not trust anyone who was not affected, hence Peter being outposted to the Brixton Scalphunters.
Alleline wants to consult Peter where he is given the third degree in front of the rest of the new team after what appears to be a friendly welcome. The new head of research is also there- Mo Delaware. He is offered to be brought back to the Circus if he reports on his contact with Ricki Tarr. Roy asks about Tarr’s daughter who Peter says is called Danny. He says that Tarr’s woman with his daughter has come to the UK via information from an ultra secret source. Alleline calms down and advises that Ricki gets any information about Tarr, the woman and her daughter to let any of the grown ups around the table know. He gets Peter to sign a keep secret declaration at which Haydon mutters that Percy gets more insufferable everyday. Peter says he wouldn’t know.
On returning George takes Peter to see Tarr. Peter is furious with Tarr for not disclosing that the daughter and woman were on their way to the UK and tells George that the declaration stated he would speak to no one about Merlin and Witchcraft. George says he is pleased with Tarr who can be forgiven for not revealing the whole story because it is now certain that Merlin works to Moscow Central because that is where the information about Tarr’s woman and daughter must have come from.
On arrival Tarr’s minder is quizzed and says Tarr did mention the daughter a little at first but he talks more of Irina and living with her in a place in Scotland after an exchange with Moscow when the Mole is caught. He will see the minder alright get him promotion. He has not been out or attempted to phone anyone. Tarr’s distrust causes him to go for Smiley who is defended by the minder and Peter when George works out the measures taken to protect the woman and his daughter. Ricki had exchanged or got rid of the two additional escape passports issued to him and had acquired two new ones using his original to come to back to England which led Moscow centre to advise London he was back in England and alert the Mole to try and locate so he could be eliminated.
Ricki had then booked flights to London for woman and her daughter which would put the Russians of the scent of where he had hidden the two, probably Marseilles suggests George which lit the fuse. Ricki tells George that he should look after his woman and leave Ricki to look after his.
Smiley takes Peter out for a meal on the way back to London. Peter takes the opportunity to ask about Karla who was in England during the War. He tells Peter than he met Karla once when had been used to travel the world interrogating and advising back on those who wanted to defect or were being considered for subverting. Karla had been held on an immigration charge. He had been to San Francisco organising a network which was rolled up the day he left. He had stopped over in India on his way back to Moscow having been sent that way officially when in disgrace and would be shot on return or sent to one of the camps. It has been agreed with the Americans that they would round up the agent and the UK would give him the invitation to defect, Karla had remained silent throughout showing no emotions but had accepted a cigarette ones that he usually smoked and the use of Smiley’ s lighter, the one with the inscription from Anne.
Smiley said told Karla he was not offering money or women and they both were aware of the faults of each other’s system, but this was a way out from the alternatives facing him. He asks about his wife saying she will have to make a new life. Does her have a good friend someone he wants to join him. He says nothing and gets up to leave and Smiley knows he has failed and then realises he has lost the lighter but makes no effort to get it.
Smiley Peters that his boss was shot not Karla who survived and thrived. Smiley confides that whenever he questions anyone they raise his marriage failings, taunt him with it. He also praises Fawn’s intervention and use of Karate. Peter says that Karla is therefore fire proof and George says no. He is a fanatic and the lack of moderation will be his downfall, one day.
On the journey Peter notes that Karla and George have in common their dislike the use of the radio and radio men and the other thing they have in common is the cigarette lighter from Anne. George says that after this is all over Peter should take three months holiday which he had been given by control when he got back from India with no option. Having criticised Peter for driving like the clappers previously he now asks if the handbreak is on! He says they are nearly there, meaning proving the identity of the Mole.
On return he studies the Testify file and then with Lacon present explains that developments confirm the connection between the Mole, Polyakov Merlin and Karla. Lacon says how is going to explain this to the Minister who is thrilled with everything coming from Merlin. Smiley with a hint of glee says that he should make the point that everything the Americans provide in exchange for their access goes straight to Moscow.
The Minister provides the file on there whereabouts of Jim Prideaux. He also says that have evidence that in March the Soviets had executed three of their own with one a woman. Smiley says Ricki most not know because they may still need him. Guillam suggests that Tarr has no such feelings given his behaviour and that he has a woman and daughter aged 12 years. George tells Peter not to underestimate the ability of the agent to have links which bind for whatever reason and something which again comes to the fore in the Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People.
George, and presumably Le Carré, understand that given the personalities and roles of the field agents, it is inevitable they will form relationships some professionally required, other that come their way in additional to letting off steam in brothels or casual picks up, a feature of Jerry Westerby as the upper class Honourable School boy and who we are yet to meet. Just as Bland talks of the functioning ability of holding opposite positions there is also functioning ability to have more than one genuine relationship as the same time as well as to have the genuine alongside the casual. Smiley understands this from his relationship with Ann however much he wishes it were not so.
He explains that he was sent help the local Circus man Tuffty Thessinger (Thorley Walters) who had his eyes on subverting one the young local Russians into defection because the man was exhausting the local lamplighters with his fleshpots nightlife, club eating drinking and making merry despite having an attractive wife. Ricki whose role is to find something to blackmail Boris but quickly assesses that the target is a Moscow Central trained hood and according to latest edicts from the London Centre, Lacon and Government Minister, he is no longer allowed to try and create a double agent. But the man’s behaviour interests Ricki so he decides to break in and take a look at the man’s accommodation, only to encounter the wife, Irina (Susan Kodicek).
Ricki pretends to be an Australian self made business man who is after Boris because of stealing his girl friend after drinking on his wallet. Irina reveals she knows Ricki to be a spy in part because of his placement of door wedges and arranges to meet the following evening. She explains she is also a highly trained operative with a textile cover and restricted in talking to others unless when on a mission. He says that Boris is not a good spy because he did not spot Ricki and she asks if Ricki is good to which he replies in the affirmative and says try me. She had been put together with Boris whose role is to entrap business men.
She wants to continue to call Ricki by the first name used of Lawrence, calling him Colonel Lawrence of Arabia. She is troubled and fearful. She is impressed with Christians and is studying the bible in secret. She accepts his invitation to share a room on the coast, quiet and safe. She wants to be a team with Ricki and taken to the UK and has on offer her knowledge of a Mole in London, which she will only reveal to Alleline, one of the biggest secrets ever she says which will make Ricki famous. She dreams of going to Scotland which she regards as a perfect place.
They arrange to meet at a cemetery the following day, and she is pressed by Ricki to tell something more to interest Alleline. She says that the information had come from a former lover in Moscow Circus, who had worked as a driver in London whose cover name was Lapin and who had been the right hand man to a Russian military officer who in London was known as Polyakov a Cultural attaché. The British mole was code named Gerald. Ricki says Alleline will take some persuading. He catches Tuffty leaving the office and they return and send a message Flash, maximum security, for the duty officer only to pass the Alleline. There is no immediate response. When the reply comes it is a stall asking for more information. It is not immediately clear how much information he has already given to Alleline but he goes to see Irina but she does not turn up so he goes to the agreed message drop in the cemetery,
He finds her diary which says she wants to give him her life, but if they take her before she gets to see Alleline then the diary is her gift of love to him. She goes into details about the operation in London and that the information provided by the mole is so good and voluminous in audio tapes and also unprocessed film that it is overwhelming the Moscow London contact. The Gerald-Merlin link had been established by Karla who operates independently and whose role is secret to most in the Soviet hierarchy. She fears for the safety of anyone employed by the Circus because of Moscow’s inside knowledge. She asks if he has been indiscrete and told London more than he should. She wants to know if they will let them live in Scotland. She used to think the secret world would free her but God has shown she had only to step outside to be free. She is being closed watched.
Ricki goes to the airport and finds out about an unscheduled Russian plane which had arrived to collect a woman in a coma. He then found that Irina and her husband had left their hotel.
Peter who remains suspicious of Ricki Tarr argues that there would have been no opportunity for London to alert Moscow in the time scale, a view held by Tarr thinking that their affair had been spotted or Irina and said too much to Boris, and fearful that his part had been identified Ricki had jumped ship and gone visit a mistress and his child in Istanbul until he felt it was safe to come and tell his tale.
Lacon takes George into the grounds as morning arrives after a long night to argue that it is George’s role to sort out the mess quietly so that the Circus and Lacon’s reputation are protected. George is upset that even Ricki has known the gossip about Anne and Bill Haydon, Lacon comments that Haydon had been close to Prideaux who Lacon felt had been too old to be sent on the mission by Control.
George says he will need Control’s chief factotum Mendel who in turn uses Fawn and who sets up George on the top floor of an apartment hotel near Paddington station because of previous associations with the owner. He impresses that no one should be told about the presence of Smiley and that no one but Smiley and himself will have access to anything stored in the Hotel safe. At a meeting at the Hotel with Lacon, George asks Peter to break into the Circus to find out what happened to the information which Peter sent to the Circus at the request of Alleline. Lacon says he can only get material via his office and not direct from the Circus. There is also a request for information on the whereabouts of Jim Prideaux. George says he will be making a trip to Oxford in the meantime.
The third episode begins with Peter’s visit to the Circus after George has warned him to be extra careful. He is met by Lauder Strickland (Frank Morrey) and they first bump into Bill Haydon who expresses surprise at the visit with Lauder explaining that Peter has come to arrange with “Banking” funds for a Scalphunter and Peter reassures the paperwork will be already on his desk confirming his entry into the Circus and the fifth floor. Passing the open door of Bland’s office that has Esterhase with him, they ask Lauder if he has seen Haydon as they had put out an urgent call for him. They then spot Peter at the door and both express surprise adding that they like to keep the fifth floor secure to themselves these days. We are yet to learn why Peter is out of favour.
The scene switches to George’s visit to Connie Sachs (Beryl Reed) the former head of research and a walking encyclopaedia of knowledge who was also pushed out because of her drinking and fanciful notions to return as an Oxford College Don where he interrupts a tutorial with a male student.
Connie is able to give the date and place of birth and full description of Polyakov from memory. She comments that from the day he arrived he had army written all over him and a Moscow centre trained hood if ever there was one. But she had been told by Alleline and Haydon that she would have to pack her bags if she persisted with her claims. She had then come across a photo of him with medals attending a state parade and went off to Esterhase proclaiming that he was a gold plated hood running a Mole and was told to report to Alleline and then got a letter sacking her saying she had lost it, was living in fantasy and needed to go back into the real world.
Back at the Circus Peter completes the official business and then breaks into a safe to get the manual register of Duty officer information only to find the page cut out with a razor blade. No Irina, no Tarr and all inquiries to Head of station in the hand writing of Toby Esterhase. Connie’s information confirms that of Tarr, George tells a meeting with Peter and Lacon at the hotel. Lacon has provided a makes reference to Operation Witchcraft and Merlin but Lacon refuses to answers questions and argues that Witchcraft and Merlin are not connected with the issue of the Mole. George presses him to find out the whereabouts of Jim Prideaux and after Lacon leaves, George tells Peter that the two matters interlinked and that Control had gone on the same journey and had nearly arrived at the conclusion until the two bullets in the back of Prideaux. There are three of them, he meant Alleline Haydon Bland or Esterhouse, the men who invented or developed Witchcraft or perhaps are the marionettes.
We then journey back in time to when Control called George to support him against Alleline who had produced a report of a most recent Soviet Sea Exercise which the British Admiralty longed to know about. Smiley agrees that any topical information is always suspect by the Admiral friend of Alleline had congratulated Control saying he believed the report gold dust and wanted to share with his other Sea Lords but Alleline said he had to wait two weeks. The information had come from Merlin of Witchcraft where information was restricted to Alleline and a small group of trusted colleagues within the Circus who were horrified at the recent failure of the organisation and determined to change its reputation, too many scandals to many agents blown and attacking Control directly. Percy Alleline would sell his mother for a knighthood and seat in the House of Lords.
This was followed by a meeting with Lacon at which all the top staff were there with Control facing sideways and Alleline looking smug and Haydon congratulating. He had arranged a special reading room at the Admiralty for customers to have reading rights for Merlin information and to have access only through Percy’s Janitor to which Control explodes, but Lacon intervenes to say that given that Alleline has the wizard the janitor will be modest staff. Haydon says at the meeting and afterwards to Smiley that the information is pure gold and nothing like his activities has produced before and that Alleline will get his reading room and restricted access and after that anything will be possible. He says Control will not accept the development as genuine and that will mean Smiley will take the same position, excluding himself from the new inner circle. Haydon tells Smiley to cut the strings.
After that Control went into himself and Smiley could not get into see Control until after he went to Hong Kong which I presume was for the affair of the Honourable Schoolboy. On return George expresses concern because Control will not read the Merlin product saying he has no the time. He needed time to sort out which of he four was the Mole and he orders George to sweat them, question those involved and of course George had this knowledge when he is first taken by Peter to see Lacon and therefore was not surprised by the development.
We are now privy to his attempt to help Control with an interview first with Toby Esterhase (Bernard Hepton) whose daughter is in medical school and son is at Westminster. The excuse for the visit is that reports on the working schedule of Esterhouse department are two months late. He asks if his staff have been used for special jobs which are not on the books. Toby responds that to do would be illegal to which George suggests not if required by Percy Alleline. Esterhouse says he does like the service and wants to stay in it and his problem is the absence of promotion given his seniority when young fellows ask him to take orders defining young by anyone above him. George says perhaps Control will be able to move him up a couple of rungs to which Toby says he is not sure Control is in a position to do this anymore and asks George if he is sure this is not so.
George then goes on walkabout with Bland (Terence Rigby) who asks what the deal is. Smiley says the present situation is unhealthy and he would not want to see Roy caught up in a cabal. Bland says he wants £5000 cash probably worth £100000 to day plus a House, a car and his son a place at Eton. George who knows Roy’s background with his father a communist and having got himself to grammar school and Oxford asks what would the man’s father say. He says no deal then Control can get stuffed. Bland says has paid his dues although he is not sure what he has bought given his experience of living and working in various soviet countries post world war but during the worse conditions of the Cold War.
He says if he is going to the bad George is to blame because he brought him into the Circus and tests George to name the authority of the aphorism, an artist is a man who can hold two fundamentally opposing views and still function. Adding that Scot Fitzgerald knew a thing or two and that he is definitely functioning - as a good socialist I am going where the money is and as a capitalist I am going with the revolution because if you can’t beat it spy on it. He continues, don’t look like that George. It is the name of the game these days. You scratch my conscience I’ll drive your jag. Smiley says no doubt this came from Bill Haydon, one of his jokes about materialist England Pigs in Clover society. He says of course there are acquisitive and competitive aspects of Western society but they are offset by other concerns (free speech, freedom to as well as freedom from) which you will not find in places and Roy recites the places he endured for the cause.
Roy then claims England has become like conditions in the Soviets- George all you have to do is look out of the blood window. George’s parting shot is to say that Roy has been seen frequently with Bill Haydon these days to which Bland says jealous George, you have his Job as Control’s High Chamberlain, adding-for as long as it lasts. This exchange is clearly an expression of the kind of thing Philby would argue about the changing place of the UK after the loss of Empire still hankering for its former day power and glory, clinging to its aristocratic hierarchy, racism and suppression of the working class.
He then arranges to interview Haydon suggesting that he writes the Merlin reports which Haydon says means that he is saying Alleline won’t do and that if Witchcraft had been Bill’s it would have been acceptable to Control and therefore to Smiley. Bill adds that if he had acted alone he would have been given a medal by now and a pot of Jasmine Tea. He bemoans the vulgarity of the way things are done and that in the old days Smiley would not have been sent snooping around. Bill confirms George’s point that Alleline is on the make who wants to be head boy with Toby and Roy wanting his job which is natural.
They have been out for a meal and drink and go back to George’s home so Haydon asks after Ann, if she had been sent out to play while he is interrogated. George wants to now who is running Alleline to which Haydon jokes Karla of course, as a middle class bloke with upper class ambitions must be a bounder. George says meant who is Merlin what is going on is. Bill says if anyone’s nose is out of joint it is his given the failure to deliver information. Because of the systems and attitudes
George defends control saying that the chief is opposed to the glamour boys who hog the budgets and Bill retorts that it is a pity he does not have same opposition to failure. He says the problem is of Control and his to some extent is that the networks have not been good enough. Bill suggests control has gone potty and dying and it depends which comes first.
George then tells Peter that Control died of old age, a little early. Testify destroyed his functioning which was a form of murder. After explaining all this to Peter, he admits he does not have enough information on Testify and asks Peter to return to the Circus for the file.
The fourth episode begins with Peter returning to the Circus for the file and which mirrors what happens in the film as he gets hold of the file and is then called to the telephone re his car and takes the file with him but needs his case for the telephone number and switches the real file for a dummy one and then arranges for the bag to be sent to his office at Brixton while he called to the inner sanctum to be quizzed by Alleline.
Mendel is concerned that Peter sounded edgy and too loud. George despite his high standards has great empathy for the frailties of the human condition within limits says he trusts Peter will be Ok. Mendel asks George if he knew what happened in the North Africa affair and George says that Peter met his match and all his agents were hanged. He adds that such an event took time to get over and he would not trust anyone who was not affected, hence Peter being outposted to the Brixton Scalphunters.
Alleline wants to consult Peter where he is given the third degree in front of the rest of the new team after what appears to be a friendly welcome. The new head of research is also there- Mo Delaware. He is offered to be brought back to the Circus if he reports on his contact with Ricki Tarr. Roy asks about Tarr’s daughter who Peter says is called Danny. He says that Tarr’s woman with his daughter has come to the UK via information from an ultra secret source. Alleline calms down and advises that Ricki gets any information about Tarr, the woman and her daughter to let any of the grown ups around the table know. He gets Peter to sign a keep secret declaration at which Haydon mutters that Percy gets more insufferable everyday. Peter says he wouldn’t know.
On returning George takes Peter to see Tarr. Peter is furious with Tarr for not disclosing that the daughter and woman were on their way to the UK and tells George that the declaration stated he would speak to no one about Merlin and Witchcraft. George says he is pleased with Tarr who can be forgiven for not revealing the whole story because it is now certain that Merlin works to Moscow Central because that is where the information about Tarr’s woman and daughter must have come from.
On arrival Tarr’s minder is quizzed and says Tarr did mention the daughter a little at first but he talks more of Irina and living with her in a place in Scotland after an exchange with Moscow when the Mole is caught. He will see the minder alright get him promotion. He has not been out or attempted to phone anyone. Tarr’s distrust causes him to go for Smiley who is defended by the minder and Peter when George works out the measures taken to protect the woman and his daughter. Ricki had exchanged or got rid of the two additional escape passports issued to him and had acquired two new ones using his original to come to back to England which led Moscow centre to advise London he was back in England and alert the Mole to try and locate so he could be eliminated.
Ricki had then booked flights to London for woman and her daughter which would put the Russians of the scent of where he had hidden the two, probably Marseilles suggests George which lit the fuse. Ricki tells George that he should look after his woman and leave Ricki to look after his.
Smiley takes Peter out for a meal on the way back to London. Peter takes the opportunity to ask about Karla who was in England during the War. He tells Peter than he met Karla once when had been used to travel the world interrogating and advising back on those who wanted to defect or were being considered for subverting. Karla had been held on an immigration charge. He had been to San Francisco organising a network which was rolled up the day he left. He had stopped over in India on his way back to Moscow having been sent that way officially when in disgrace and would be shot on return or sent to one of the camps. It has been agreed with the Americans that they would round up the agent and the UK would give him the invitation to defect, Karla had remained silent throughout showing no emotions but had accepted a cigarette ones that he usually smoked and the use of Smiley’ s lighter, the one with the inscription from Anne.
Smiley said told Karla he was not offering money or women and they both were aware of the faults of each other’s system, but this was a way out from the alternatives facing him. He asks about his wife saying she will have to make a new life. Does her have a good friend someone he wants to join him. He says nothing and gets up to leave and Smiley knows he has failed and then realises he has lost the lighter but makes no effort to get it.
Smiley Peters that his boss was shot not Karla who survived and thrived. Smiley confides that whenever he questions anyone they raise his marriage failings, taunt him with it. He also praises Fawn’s intervention and use of Karate. Peter says that Karla is therefore fire proof and George says no. He is a fanatic and the lack of moderation will be his downfall, one day.
On the journey Peter notes that Karla and George have in common their dislike the use of the radio and radio men and the other thing they have in common is the cigarette lighter from Anne. George says that after this is all over Peter should take three months holiday which he had been given by control when he got back from India with no option. Having criticised Peter for driving like the clappers previously he now asks if the handbreak is on! He says they are nearly there, meaning proving the identity of the Mole.
On return he studies the Testify file and then with Lacon present explains that developments confirm the connection between the Mole, Polyakov Merlin and Karla. Lacon says how is going to explain this to the Minister who is thrilled with everything coming from Merlin. Smiley with a hint of glee says that he should make the point that everything the Americans provide in exchange for their access goes straight to Moscow.
The Minister provides the file on there whereabouts of Jim Prideaux. He also says that have evidence that in March the Soviets had executed three of their own with one a woman. Smiley says Ricki most not know because they may still need him. Guillam suggests that Tarr has no such feelings given his behaviour and that he has a woman and daughter aged 12 years. George tells Peter not to underestimate the ability of the agent to have links which bind for whatever reason and something which again comes to the fore in the Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People.
George, and presumably Le Carré, understand that given the personalities and roles of the field agents, it is inevitable they will form relationships some professionally required, other that come their way in additional to letting off steam in brothels or casual picks up, a feature of Jerry Westerby as the upper class Honourable School boy and who we are yet to meet. Just as Bland talks of the functioning ability of holding opposite positions there is also functioning ability to have more than one genuine relationship as the same time as well as to have the genuine alongside the casual. Smiley understands this from his relationship with Ann however much he wishes it were not so.
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