Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (TV Mini Series)

Tinker Tailor (1979)

John Standing: Sam Collins

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sam Collins : So what can I do for you?

  George Smiley : I want to talk to you about the night Jim Prideaux was shot. The night of Operation Testify, which is what it was called in case you didn't know.

  Sam Collins : Writing your memoirs, George?

  George Smiley : We're reopening the case.

  Sam Collins : Who's this "we", old boy?

  George Smiley : Lacon called me, with the Minister's blessing. I can give you a telephone number to confirm it, although I would prefer not to.

  Sam Collins : All power corrupts but some must govern and in that case Brother Lacon will reluctantly scramble to the top of the heap.

• Sam Collins : Can I have a brief, please? Control, I need a brief! We must say something! Do you want me to deny it, a flat denial just to start with? Do you want me to get someone else? Do you want to come downstairs and handle it yourself?

  Control : It's deniable. He had foreign documents. No one could know he was British at this stage, even if he's not dead.

• Control : Find Smiley!

  Sam Collins : He's in Berlin.

  Control : ...Yes. Well, anyone will do. It makes no difference now.

• Sam Collins : You got my message, sir?

  Bill Haydon : [shakes his head]  How did you get me?

  Sam Collins : I rang George Smiley's house just in case his wife happened to know where you were. You are a friend of the family, aren't you?

  Bill Haydon : [nods]  I caught the ticker tape at the club. I gather there's been some God-awful shooting in Czechoslovakia.

  Sam Collins : Jim Prideaux's been shot. The Czechs haven't got his real name yet, they're using his workname Ellis.

  Bill Haydon : Jim? Shot dead?

• George Smiley : They sacked you for fibbing?

  Sam Collins : Alcoholism. There's a standing order against booze on the premises. What was your offense, George?

  George Smiley : Oh, I couldn't convince them that I wasn't involved.