Smiley's People (1982– )

TV Mini-Series  -   -  Drama | Mystery
7.9
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.9/10 from 1,667 users  
Reviews: 30 user | 4 critic

Called out of retirement to settle the affairs of a friend, Smiley finds his old organization, the Circus, so overwhelmed by political considerations that it doesn't want to know what ... See full summary »

0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 100 titles created 10 months ago
 
a list of 19 titles created 28 Jan 2012
 
a list of 207 titles created 4 weeks ago
 
a list of 49 titles created 24 Apr 2012
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Smiley's People (1982– )

Smiley's People (1982– ) on IMDb 7.9/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Smiley's People.

Season:

1

Year:

1982
Nominated for 3 Primetime Emmys. Another 4 wins & 6 nominations. See more awards »
Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

12 Angry Men (1957)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.9/10 X  

A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court.

Director: Sidney Lumet
Stars: Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb
Citizen Kane (1941)
Drama | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.5/10 X  

Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance.

Director: Orson Welles
Stars: Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
Drama | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years just before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. The abused and suppressed children of the villagers seem to be at the heart of this mystery.

Director: Michael Haneke
Stars: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch
Inspector Morse (1987–2000)
Crime | Drama | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

A grouchy but cultured police detective and his easy going partner investigate crimes around the British community of Oxford.

Stars: John Thaw, Kevin Whately, James Grout
Comedy | Drama | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

Mr. Neville, a cocksure young artist is contracted by Mrs. Herbert, the wife of a wealthy landowner, to produce a set of twelve drawings of her husband's estate, a contract which extends ... See full summary »

Director: Peter Greenaway
Stars: Anthony Higgins, Janet Suzman, Anne-Louise Lambert
Doubt I (2008)
Drama | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

A Catholic school principal questions a priest's ambiguous relationship with a troubled 12-year-old student.

Director: John Patrick Shanley
Stars: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
Life on Mars (2006–2007)
Crime | Drama | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X  

After being involved in a car accident in 2006, DCI Sam Tyler (Simm) wakes up to find himself in 1973, the era of 'Sweeney' type policing, Mark III Cortinas, and flared trousers.

Stars: John Simm, Philip Glenister, Liz White
Crime | Drama | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.5/10 X  

The cases of the greatest of the detectives

Stars: Jeremy Brett, David Burke, Rosalie Williams
Foyle's War (TV Series 2002)
Crime | Drama | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

As World War II rages around the world, a police inspector fights his own war on the home-front in investigating murder, robbery, and espionage on the south coast of England.

Stars: Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Anthony Howell
Sherlock (TV Series 2010)
Crime | Drama | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9.2/10 X  

A modern update finds the famous sleuth and his doctor partner solving crime in 21st century London.

Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Una Stubbs
Crime | Drama | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X  

Holmes, his friend Watson (or his brother Mycroft) work to solve the mysteries of three gables, the dying detective, a golden pince-nez, the red circle, a mazarin stone, and a cardboard box.

Stars: Jeremy Brett, Rosalie Williams, Edward Hardwicke
Inspector Lewis (TV Series 2007)
Crime | Drama | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X  

Inspector Robert Lewis and Sergeant James Hathaway solve the tough cases that the learned inhabitants of Oxford throw at them.

Stars: Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Clare Holman
Edit

Cast

Series cast summary:
...
 George Smiley (6 episodes, 1982)
Beryl Reid ...
 Connie Sachs (6 episodes, 1982)
...
 Madame Ostrakova (4 episodes, 1982)
...
 Lauder Strickland (4 episodes, 1982)
Vladek Sheybal ...
 Otto Leipzig (4 episodes, 1982)
Andy Bradford ...
 Ferguson (4 episodes, 1982)
Bernard Hepton ...
 Toby Esterhase (3 episodes, 1982)
...
 Peter Guillam (3 episodes, 1982)
Anthony Bate ...
 Oliver Lacon (3 episodes, 1982)
Tusse Silberg ...
 Alexandra Ostrakova (3 episodes, 1982)
Germaine Delbat ...
 Madame La Pierre (3 episodes, 1982)
Edit

Storyline

Called out of retirement to settle the affairs of a friend, Smiley finds his old organization, the Circus, so overwhelmed by political considerations that it doesn't want to know what happened. He begins to follow up the clues of his friends past days, discovering that the clues lead to a high person in the Russian Secret service, and a secret important enough to kill for. Smiley continues to put together the pieces a step ahead or a step behind the Russian killers. Written by John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Genres:

Drama | Mystery

Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

25 October 1982 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Agent in eigener Sache  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

| (6 parts)

Sound Mix:

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

Writer John le Carré partially based his famous George Smiley character on a friend, the Lincoln College tutor and Oxford University don, the Reverend Vivian Green. Smiley was also based on le Carré's boss at Mi5, Lord Clanmorris, who wrote crime novels under the pseudonym of John Bingham. See more »

Quotes

Toby Esterhase: First we'd take the document to Max. That's you, George. Max would know its meaning, Max would reward us. Gifts, promotion, medals, maybe we'd get lunch with the Queen. Only problem was, Vladimir didn't know you were on the shelf and the Circus had joined the Boy Scouts.
See more »

Crazy Credits

The opening credits feature a set of wooden planks, on which yellow chalk marks (the secret signal used by the spies) are scrawled. See more »

Connections

Follows Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

More problematic than Tinker Tailor, but still wonderful.
9 June 2005 | by (Illinois) – See all my reviews

The merits of Alec Guinness's Smiley are familiar to anyone who has seen this wonderful BBC adaptation of LeCarré's great 'Karla' trilogy of books..well, two of the books anyway. Sadly they skipped over 'The Honourable Schoolboy' arguably the most exciting of the three.

Both 'Tinker Tailor' and 'Smiley's People' have their casting mishaps but nothing that detracts in any important way. I found Eileen Atkins' Ostrakova to be wildly miscast, physically, but masterfully acted, so she gets a pass. Michael Byrne's Guillam is an improvement over his predecessor in 'Tinker Tailor' but his part is so small that it hardly registers. Beryl Reid's scene as Connie Sachs is longer than her scene in 'Tinker Tailor' but still woefully short of the involved and fascinating scene in the book. It is in regards to Sachs and Jerry Westerby that I deeply regret the BBC not making 'The Honourable Schoolboy.' Reid would have been fabulous in that role, though still not nearly fat or tall enough to wear the original Connie's shoes.

Generally the actors are superb. There is an especially moving and unforgettable performance from Tulle Silberg as Alexandra Ostrakova. Her scene with Smiley is deeply touching and it is easy to understand why Smiley does what he does in the end. I won't say any more to avoid a spoiler.

'Smiley's People' is not as riveting as 'Tinker Tailor' I think because I found the first mini- series, focusing on the inner workings of the Circus, to be far more interesting than the foreign "outside" locations in 'Smiley's People.' But that's just me. I still love this film and watch it often.

Don't miss the Smiley series! The BBC will never make anything like it again, on the evidence of the mediocre bilge they've been catting up in recent years.


22 of 24 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Are British Agents Allowed to Conduct This Kind of Operation in Germany? yjk316
In a glass dylanw1
Tin Pavillion Hampstead Heath stephandunbar
George Smiley's obsession farmerne
Best Guillam brown_bread
Trilogy Lilyan_Chandler
Discuss Smiley's People (1982) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?