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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?

♫ And did those feet in ancient time

♫ Walk upon England’s mountains green ♫

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.

Style appalling.

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.

My goal has been to establish its track record beyond all doubt.

I think the time has come to approach our American brothers-in-arms.

Will they take us back into bed? I’m not interested in a one-off trade.

I want on-going access to American intelligence.

You think we can get it?

With Witchcraft on our side, we can get anything we bloody well want.

Fine.

Carry on.

Thank you.

And I strike thee down…

Oh, I, er…

Not supposed to. Doctor’s orders.

Wicked, wicked George.

I don’t know about you, George,

but I feel seriously under-fucked.

I heard Ann left you again.

She doesn’t deserve you, George, not one hair on your head.

You left the Circus shortly after I retired.

I didn’t leave. I was dismissed.

Chucked out on the rubbish heap, like you.

Why?

Polyakov.

Do you remember him?

From the Soviet Embassy?

Aleksey Polyakov, cultural attaché here in London.

When he arrived here 15 years ago, I requested he be checked out.

He was graded whiter than white. Didn’t put a foot wrong.

But you disagreed?

There’s a story you must have heard

that Karla has set up a secret cell.

The personnel are all ex-military,

trained to handle deep-penetration agents, moles.

There are always stories, Connie.

But what if this story was true?

One night in research I saw something, George.

There was our friend Polyakov at a May day parade in Berlin

receiving a salute.

Why would you salute a cultural attaché?

Exactly. Unless he was a war veteran himself.

And if he was, why hide the fact?

What did you do?

I went straight to Eszterházy and Alleline.

Here.

Polyakov is a Karla-trained hood if ever I saw one.

If he’s here, it must be because he’s running a mole.

You’re to leave Polyakov alone.

You’re becoming obsessed with him.

You’re losing your sense of proportion. But that’s ridiculous.

Perhaps it’s time you went out into the real world.

What does it matter? Old Circus is gone anyway.

Here we are.

The Nursery in our day.

Jim Prideaux.

And Bill Haydon. Together, of course.

The Inseparables.

There’s Control himself.

All my boys.

All my lovely boys.

That was a good time, George.

A real war.

Englishmen could be proud then.

So I was right, then?

About Polyakov.

There is a mole.

If it’s bad, don’t come back. I want to remember you all as you were.

Percy? Percy, did you mix this?

Aye, I did so.

You Calvinistic, penny-pinching Scot.

Can you nae learn to take a bloody order?

Nobody tampers with the recipe!

I followed the recipe. Come on.

It’ll take us five hours to get drunk on this monkey’s piss.

♫ He’s not the first

♫ He’s not the first Oh, well.

♫ He’s the second best secret agent Merry Christmas.

♫ In the whole wide world

♫ He’s not number one

♫ But not the worst

♫ He’s just the second best secret agent

♫ In the whole wide world

♫ He’s every bit

♫ As good as what’s-his-name

♫ With a dame

♫ Any dame

♫ And all those bullet holes are in his vest

♫ To prove you work a little harder

♫ When you’re second best… ♫

Courtesy of Mrs. P. Hm?

You been up all night?

Yes.

What’s this?

Request for £ 1,000 in cash from the Reptile fund.

To a Mr. Ellis.

It was one of Jim Prideaux’s work names.

Prideaux was killed in Hungary a year ago.

October 21.

So why was someone giving him £ 1,000 two months later?

I wonder where he is then, sir.

Settle down now.

Hand those out. Sir.

What is it? The Hunchback of Notre-Dame?

The bells, the bells!

Ohh!

Come here.

I’m a new boy. New arrival, eh?

What’s the story? My mother and father.

My father left, so…

Hm.

Bill.

The unpaid Bill.

Anyone ever call you that? No, sir.

Known a lot of Bills in my time.

They’ve all been good ’uns.

What are you good at?

Nothing, sir.

You’re a good watcher, though, eh?

Us loners always are.

Best watcher in the unit, Bill Roach is, I’II bet.

Long as he’s got his specs on. Right? Yes, sir.

This is good, very good.

Hello, Ricki.

You’ve missed the wedge.

Where have you been, Ricki?

They’re going to kill me.

Who is? Your lot.

Or their lot. Whoever gets me first.

I’m innocent.

Within reason.

How long have you been here?

Sorry, I’ve run out of places now.

I needed to see you.

Why?

There’s a woman.

I need you to trade for her. I need you to get her back off Karla.

A woman?

Her name’s Irina.

This was last November.

Mr. Guillam sent me to Istanbul to check out a Russian trade delegate

who might be persuaded to defect.

Tufty Thesinger, resident. Yeah.

Hiya, Ricki. All right, mate?

Did you know him? No, never met him.

Bit of a drinker.

Hangover from hell.

Bit of a fucking idiot.

Apparently this Russian, name of Boris,

was spending high and wide in the nightclubs.

So you were sent to persuade this Boris?

Yeah. He was your typical Russian.

Trade delegation by day, out boozing every night.

Didn’t seem to sleep.

Tufty was worn out from following him around.

I think it’s going to be a long night, son.

His favourite haunt was this club in Taksim.

It had a hellhole in the basement where the sailors and the tourists went.

Anyway, I took one look at him and I knew I’d wasted a journey.

Boris was no delegate.

What delegate bothers to play drunker than he really is?

You get to recognise your own, don’t you, Mr. Smiley?

Moscow Centre trained.

♫ Someone is waiting

♫ I mean just for you

♫ Spinning wheel

♫ Keep on spinning through, Drop all your troubles… ♫

I guessed he was waiting for a connect.

Working a letterbox, maybe.

Or trailing his coat and looking for a pass from some mug like me.

So the second night I went to the import/export outfit

that Tufty had set up with a cipher room hidden in the back.

I cabled “No sale” to Mr. Guillam.

And that was that.

You were due to fly home the next day.

Yes.

But you didn’t.

Boris had a wife.

Common-law.

Apparently she was a member of the delegation in her own right.

You once told me to trust my instincts about women, Mr. Smiley.

Well, my instincts told me this woman had some treasure.

When Boris went out for the night, I found myself going into her hotel.

So you dropped Boris.

I know. It was breaking protocol.

But I was acting on my own initiative, as it were.

Your man’s a bit of a bastard, isn’t he?

I just wanted to make sure you were all right, OK?

So you didn’t come home?

I would have.

Boris was a dead end, but…

Um…

I could…

I could sense something in her.

A secret.

And how did you intend to get this secret out of her?

I played this businessman, Michael Trench.

Holiday romance.

I thought I’d take my time with it.

I know who you are.

I want to talk to your boss.

Control.

I have something to trade.

Something big.

I want a new life in the West.

That’s the deal.

You tell them.

Look, you can’t expect them to jump at every offer of service.

If you won’t tell me more, there is nothing I can do.

If I tell you everything,

I’m putting my life in your hands.

And the lives of other people.

So she told me what she had to trade.

Her secret.

I mean,

the mother of all secrets.

I told her I’d alert the Circus.

She made me promise I wouldn’t give any of the details to London.

And you agreed? Yes.

I mean it was…

I couldn’t believe I’d got hold of something this big.

I went back to the import/export,

sent the message to the Circus, graded, “Flash, highest priority”,

just that I had a Moscow-trained hood wanting to defect.

You’re supposed to have gone. London stations have been on to me.

Want to know what the hell you’re doing.

Fuck off.

Anything else, Ricki?

I know what I am to the Circus. I’m one of the scalp-hunters,

someone that you can hand your dirty little jobs to.

I just…

I just wanted to bring this one in myself.

Well, I understand how you felt.

You wanted to do something.

Vital to the safeguarding of the Circus.

Anything more?

I said that she had information concerning a double agent.

Look, I just wanted to get the proper attention. And I’d…

I told them this was the reason why I had not come home.

It wasn’t that I’d defected or anything.

What did you do then? I waited for a reply.

I hung around for hours. I heard the Imsak call to prayer.

So what’s that? That’s about 3. 30 in the morning.

Then the message comes through.

“We read you.”

That was all they sent. Nothing.

It didn’t make sense. It was like they were stalling.

Then what happened?

Then, all of a sudden…

… the Russians begin to move.

It was nice work. I couldn’t have done it better myself.

The message was quite clear. I needed to warn her.

Come on, come on, come on.

I couldn’t find her at the airport.

I even looked through all the flight lists and…

I headed down to the harbour.

They put her on a ship to Odessa.

That’s all I know.

I’ve…

I’ve done a lot of things in my life, Mr. Smiley, but…

I just… I can’t stop thinking about her.

She wasn’t even my type.

I’ve got to get her out. I owe her that.

Karla will be looking for you.

Everybody’s looking for me.

You can’t stay here.

It isn’t safe.

I said, “You may fuck me but you’ll call me “Sir” in the morning.”

OK. Just need to let you know.

Someone flew into Paris last week on one of our escaped passports.

And? It was Ricki Tarr.

Why are you telling me?

It could be coincidence… You are a poisoned dwarf.

Why don’t you fuck off to his Majesty

and stop trying to involve me in your cabaret?

Mr. Eszterházy: “It could be coincidence but…”

Mr. Haydon interrupting.

“You really are a poisoned dwarf, Toby.

“Why don’t you fuck off to his Majesty

“and stop trying to involve me in your cabaret?”

You look tired.

I didn’t sleep well.

You’re going to do something for me, Peter.

I need the duty officer’s log book for last November.

I’m going to have to send you up a floor into the lions’ den.

If you’re caught,

I’m sorry, but you’re alone.

Last November? Hm.

Mr. Guillam!

Thank you, Bryant.

How’s the family?

Fine. Need to go up to the registry today.

OK, sir.

Now you’ll need a yellow one for the bag, sir.

Thank you.

Good morning, Mr. Guillam. Morning, Alwyn.

Want me to look after that for you? Thank you.

I’ll need your chit, Mr. Guillam.

Dolphin will kill me if I don’t. New rules.

So, chit me.

Thank s.

Sal, lovely surprise. Peter.

What are you up to this week end? Oh, you know.

Visiting aunts.

I’ll bet.

Corridor D.

The two eights are halfway on your right.

The three ones are next alcove down.

Thank s.

Here’s a request from Libby Barr from Bromley

for “Mr. Wu’s A Window Cleaner Now”. Take it away, George.

Hello. Archive, Alwyn speaking.

Can I speak to Mr. Guillam, please?

I’m his car mechanic.

Well, I’ll just see if he’s available. Hold on, please.

♫ Mr. Wu, what shall I do?

Oh, Christ! Telephone, sir.

Who is it? Outside line, sir. Someone rough.

Sir?

Hello? (Mendel) ‘Your gearbox is bust, sir.

Damn it, can’t you fix the bloody thing?

Can’t be done, sir.

Well, phone the main dealership first. Have you got their number?

No.

Hang on. Alwyn!

Alwyn. Sir?

Get me my bag, will you?

But… Just for a second.

Thank you.

Hang on.

Hello? I’m listening.

Yes. 9-4-60-3-3-5. Be right on it, sir.

Thank you.

Peter Guillam.

Could we see you, please?

Percy would like quite an urgent word with you.

If you can come now to the fifth floor that would be so kind.

Yes, of course.

Throw that into the lift for me.

Send it to the second floor, save me filling out bloody chits.

Will do, sir.

So what have you been getting up to down there these days?

Apart from chasing our virgins.

A couple of Arab ploys that look quite promising.

Apart from that, I’m getting quite good at ping-pong.

Arabs.

You can rent one but you can’t buy one. Right, Bill?

How’s Ricki Tarr these days?

Fine. We have tea at Fortnum’s every afternoon.

I require the matter of your discussion with Tarr.

I’ll tell him. He’ll be thrilled.

What’s that shrug for?

I’m talking to you about the traitor

who cut the throat of our man in Istanbul.

I’m talking to you about a defector from your own damn section.

I’m accusing you of consorting with an enemy agent behind my back.

Don’t damn well shrug at me!

How would you like a term in prison?

Well, I haven’t been seeing him.

So get your facts straight and get off my back!

So… if I told you Tarr had recently arrived in Paris,

would you be surprised?

No, nothing would surprise me about Ricki Tarr.

And if I told you we happen to know £30,000 mysteriously appeared

in his bank account last month,

would that surprise you?

Your man’s a defector, Guillam.

Turned by the opposition months ago and now they’ve sent him back to us.

What for? Never mind what for.

To muddy the water, that’s what for.

To spread a whole lot of damn nonsense to get us chasing our tails.

The point is this.

He’s heading for home.

The first peep from him, you come to the grown-ups.

Understood?

Anyone you see around this table but not another damn soul.

Get out.

Peter?

Thank you, Belinda.

♫ Oh, Mr. Wu

♫ What shall I do?

♫ Oh, Mr. Wu

♫ What shall I do?

♫ Mr. Wu… ♫

All go smoothly, did it?

I need to go to the hotel to see George.

Mr. Smiley isn’t at the hotel, sir. Change of venue.

George?

Mr. Guillam…

Sorry it took me so long to come home.

Ricki has been helping us, Peter.

He’s been telling us all about his adventures.

He’s a double, George.

There is no mole. Whole thing’s been thought up by Moscow.

Karla bought him for £30,000.

I stole that because of you.

I spied on my own because of him. Do you know how that makes me feel?

Ricki…

you said you sent the Circus a telegram concerning Irina’s information.

That’s right. What was the date?

He doesn’t know because there was no telegram.

The whole thing is a fabrication. 20th November.

It must have been 20th November. Evening.

Irina kept telling me in Moscow Centre

everybody on the top floor was laughing themselves sick.

She told me Karla… November 20th is missing.

Someone is covering their track s, unless of course you think

that’s just a coincidence?

What about the money?

30,000 isn’t so much for Karla to pay if it protects his mole.

I’m afraid someone in the Circus knows all about Mr. Tarr

and is doing everything they can to discredit him.

…everything the Circus think s is gold is shit, made in Moscow.

Why didn’t you tell me that you had Tarr?

In case I never made it out of the Circus.

I suppose you’ve got your reading to do.

Come up.

I met him once.

Karla.

In ’55.

Moscow Centre was in pieces.

Purge after purge.

Half their agents were jumping ship.

I travelled around, signing them up.

Hundreds of them.

One of them was calling himself Gerstmann.

He was on his way back to Russia

and we were pretty sure he was going to be executed.

Plane had a 24-hour lay-over at Delhi and that’s how long I had

to convince him to come over to us

instead of going home to die.

There’s a little room.

I’m sitting here. He’s sitting there.

The Americans had had him tortured.

He had no fingernails.

It’s incredibly hot.

I’m very tired and all I want to do is get this over with and get back home.

Things weren’t going well with Ann.

I give him the usual pitch.

“Come to the West and we can give you a comfortable life,

“after questioning.”

What did he say?

“Think of your wife.

“You have a wife, don’t you?

“Here. I brought you some cigarettes, by the way.

“Use my lighter.

“We could arrange for her to join you. We have a lot of stock to trade.

“If you go back, she’ll be ostracised. Think of her.

“Think about…”

I kept on…

…harping on about the damn wife,

telling him more about me than…

I should have walked out, of course.

“We’re not so very different you and I.

“We’ve both spent our lives

“looking for the weaknesses in one another’s systems.

“Don’t you think it’s time to recognise

“there is as little worth on your side as there is on mine?”

Never said a word.

Not one word.

And the next morning he got back on his plane.

He handed the pack of cigarettes back to me, untouched.

This was a chain-smoker, mind.

And he flew off to what he presumed would be his death.

He kept my lighter.

It was a gift.

“To George from Ann.

“All my love.”

That was Karla.

He went back to die rather than giving in.

Yes, and that’s how I know he can be beaten.

Because he’s a fanatic.

And the fanatic is always concealing a secret doubt.

What did he look like?

I can’t remember.

After today, Peter,

you have to assume they’re watching you.

If there’s anything you need tidied up,

now is the time.

Nearly done.

For God’s sake.

Sometimes I think they’re all sharing the same moronic brain.

If there’s someone else, you can tell me.

I’m a grown-up.

I know. It’s just going to be such a wonderful Christmas.

Excuse me.

♫ And I was too proud to give in

♫ I had to learn the hard way

♫ That pride… ♫ Peter, when you’re ready

Put it on now.

Everybody!

Jerry. George.

Peter. Jerry.

I need to talk to you.

About the night Jim Prideaux was killed.

You were duty officer, weren’t you?

Yeah. Control asked me to man the phones that night.

He said someone was doing a special job for the service.

He wanted someone he could trust.

Hurricane Henry set to be ridden by Ray Walsh at 7:2…

There’s been a bit of a panic, sir.

This is from the FO resident clerk.

A Hungarian news bulletin.

“British spy, work name Ellis,

“travelling with false Hungarian papers,

“has attempted to kidnap an unnamed Hungarian General in Budapest.

“He’s been shot.

“Other arrests imminent.”

Can I have a brief, please?

Sir? Do you want me to deny it, sir?

I couldn’t get a word out of Control.

So I followed protocol and went for the emergency list.

You rang my house.

Just on the off-chance you were back from Berlin.

What did you say?

Hello? Hello, Mrs. Smiley.

It’s Jerry. Jerry Westerby from the office.

Just that there’d been a bit of a crisis.

Ann said you wasn’t back yet and that was it.

Go on.

All hell broke loose.

Military yelling about Hungarian tank s on the border.

Lacon and the minister baying at the door.

Thank Christ Bill Haydon turned up when he did.

Mr. Haydon. Not now.

Mr. Haydon!

Out!

Tell me. I tried to get hold of you.

I got half a story on the ticker tape at my club. Tell me.

Jim Prideaux’s been shot.

Get me the Hungarian embassy.

You tell your masters what will happen

if one hair on Jim Prideaux’s head is damaged.

Get Eszterházy on the phone. Tell him to call in the Hungarian agents.

Yes, sir.

Any more news on him? Sir?

Oh, God.

We need to get down to his flat, clear out anything linked.

Haydon heard the news at his club?

At 1: 30? The ticker-tape wouldn’t have been running.

So how did he know?

Jesus, George. Peter!

How could he have known? It’s not what you think.

Then how did he know? He was at my house that night.

Good flight?

Yes.

Pleasant enough.

I was just passing. I thought I’d call in.

Ann was in bed. She insisted on getting up.

She said she’d be down in a minute.

That’s what I’m dropping off. It’s an awful daub really.

But Ann expressed a liking.

What’s keeping her?

Keep going.

Come on, lads. Keep up.

Come on, Bill!

Got your specs on, Jumbo? Yes, sir.

Come here.

Who’s that fellow down there?

I don’t know, sir.

Who is he?

Beggar man?

Thief?

Why doesn’t he look this way, hm?

Wouldn’t you if you saw a bunch of boys flogging a car round a field?

What’s the matter with him? Doesn’t he like us?

I don’t hold with odd-bods hanging around.

He might steal the Alvis.

Which is? The best car in England, sir.

Good lad.

How were you briefed for the Budapest mission?

Control asked me to come to a flat in Kensington.

There’s a rotten apple, Jim.

And we have to find it.

What did you make of it, Jim?

Control’s theory?

I thought it was madness.

I know that it is one of five men.

All I want from you is one code name.

Alleline.

Tinker.

Haydon.

Tailor.

Bland.

Soldier.

We drop Sailor. It’s too close to Tailor.

And Rich Man doesn’t seem to be applicable.

Eszterházy.

Poor Man.

And the fifth?

Smiley.

I thought it was madness.

To think that any one of you could have been a traitor.

Absolute madness.

But you still went.

Why?

I went because Control asked me to go.

It’s called doing one’s duty.

At the station I met the legman supposed to take me to the General.

The waiter must have panicked.

It was meant to be a simple snatch job.

They drove me to some military hospital,

and then put me on a transport plane.

I could tell by the stars we were heading east.

Then they worked me for…

… I don’t know how long.

Week s, maybe months.

What did you tell them?

Everything.

I held on for as long as I could to let everyone get the hell out of there.

Did they?

My network s in Hungary, did they get out?

No, they were blown.

The story is you blew them to save your own skin.

After the interrogators had cleared out, this little fellow turned up.

Looked like a priest.

That’s when they really started on me.

What was your last line of defence, hm?

The mole.

Control’s crazy theory.

I was going to bury that so deep they’d never get it out of me.

Which was a joke. Why?

Because they already knew.

All they wanted to know was how far Control had got in his investigation.

No, I don’t know her.

Did they ask about me at all?

Yes.

The little fellow did.

What did he say about me?

He had this cigarette lighter.

He kept flashing it about for me to see it.

Showed me the inscription.

“To George…” “…from Ann.

“All my love.”

Karla.

It was odd.

They sent me back to England.

Straight to Sarratt for debriefing.

He said when he was being debriefed at the Nursery, he had a visitor.

Who?

Toby Eszterházy.

He gave him £ 1,000 and an Alvis.

Told him he was dead now. Couldn’t come back.

Had to become a lotus eater, forget everything that happened.

Control’s theory.

Tinker, Tailor. All of it.

Yes, that’s what I thought.

How on earth did Eszterházy hear about Tinker, Tailor?

Irina kept telling me in Moscow Centre

everybody on the top floor was laughing themselves sick.

She told me Karla was very proud of this.

She said everything the Circus think s is gold is shit, made in Moscow.

Irina kept telling me in Moscow Centre

everybody on the top floor was laughing themselves sick.

No, I had a hotel nearby. They do have some seedy rooms.

Irina kept telling me in Moscow Centre

everybody on the top floor was laughing themselves sick.

She told me Karla was very proud of this…

She said everything the Circus think s is gold is shit.

This meeting is not taking place. Is that clear?

Perfectly, Minister.

There is a house somewhere in this city

where Alleline and the others meet Witchcraft’s London representative.

I thought Lacon had made it clear to you.

Keep your nose bloody well out of Witchcraft’s business.

It’s Lacon’s advice I’m following.

You told me to follow in Control’s footsteps.

I wouldn’t consider that sound advice, given the mess Control left us with.

It has taken Alleline and, if I may say so, myself

this long to get us back in the game.

The man Alleline and the others meet is called Polyakov.

From Witchcraft to you.

His real role is to receive information from the mole

to take back to Karla.

That, er… That’s not possible.

Made possible.

By you in the house you persuaded the Treasury to pay for.

Witchcraft’s intelligence is genuine. It’s been gold.

It’s just enough glitter amongst the chicken feed.

Control didn’t believe in miracles or in Witchcraft.

But you were lazy and greedy

and so you hounded him out of the Circus and you let Karla in.

You opened negotiations to exchange intelligence with the Americans.

What they tell the Circus, they’ll be telling the Kremlin.

Witchcraft’s information, the “gold” Karla let you have,

it wasn’t to lure you.

It was to lure the Americans.

Now,

do you want to take credit for that?

What can we do?

We have one thing the mole wants.

If I go to Paris… You’ll go.

If I go to Paris,

I want your word that you will get Irina back.

I don’t care who you have to trade. And I am out.

I want a family, thank you. I do not want to end up like you lot.

You will get her back.

I’ll do my utmost, Ricki.

Oh, hello, George.

Hello.

I want to talk about loyalty, Toby.

Control recruited you, didn’t he?

Found you starving in a museum in Vienna.

A wanted man.

Saved your life, I heard.

And yet when the time came,

when it came to picking sides between him and Alleline,

you didn’t hesitate.

That’s understandable, perhaps, with your war experience.

You survived this long, I suppose, because of your ability to change sides.

Serve any master.

What? What’s… What’s this about, George?

It’s about which master you’ve been serving, Toby.

Intelligence has been leaked, Toby.

Someone’s been taking files from the Circus.

No, no, no, no. No.

This is a mistake, a misunderstanding.

Files were delivered to a Russian attaché, weren’t they?

Yes.

And, yes, I delivered them.

But so did Percy Alleline.

Good boy.

Bill Haydon.

And so did Roy Bland.

Things aren’t always what they seem, George.

You should know that.

Look, Moscow think s Polyakov’s…

…working for them.

Every now and then we give him the odd file to take back to them.

Chicken feed, just to keep his bosses happy.

But Polyakov’s our Joe.

He’s a part of a big operation. Operation Witchcraft.

Yes, I know.

George.

Please, I don’t deserve this. Who gave you the message

for Jim Prideaux to forget about Tinker, Tailor?

Bland. To get rid of Connie Sachs?

Westerby? Bland.

Or Haydon.

I don’t know. One of them.

Or maybe Percy. No.

Well, I don’t know who.

You’re just the messenger.

Running between them all.

Anything to serve Witchcraft.

I know all about your secret source.

And I know something you don’t.

I know who he is.

He’s Karla.

One of you has been giving Polyakov the crown jewels.

I did not know. Are you still a wanted man, Toby?

Look, George, I didn’t know. I… You picked the wrong side.

No, you’ve got to believe me.

George, please.

I am loyal.

I… I am loyal.

Don’t… Don’t… Don’t send me back.

Please, George.

Don’t send me back.

Give me the address.

Where do you meet Polyakov?

Hey, hey! Dog, dog, be quiet!

What is this? Who are you?

What are the safety signals? The air vent.

Open and all’s well, closed and you’re not to enter.

And the microphone?

Peter?

The boy stood on the burning deck whence all but he had fled

The flame that lit the battle’s wreck shone brightly o’er the dead

Beautiful and proud he stood as born to rule the storm

A creature of blood, a proud though child-like form

The flames rolled on…

Merci. Au revoir.

Go on.

The whole service is looking for you.

They’ll skin you alive if they find you. Maybe I want them to find me.

You can go now. Leave the book s and put the keys in the machines.

No, Ben stays here.

Ricki Tarr claims to have information vital to the safeguarding of the Circus.

Mr. Smiley?

Taxi approaching Circus.

Tinker.

Tailor.

Here comes Soldier.

Full house.

Well, go on then. Read it out loud. “Personal for Tarr from Alleline.

“Require clarification before meeting your request.

“Quote, information vital to safeguarding of the Circus, unquote

“does not qualify, send further information.”

Ah! That’s it, Percy, you keep stalling.

I warn you, Ben. We’ve got some really lousy people in this outfit.

I wouldn’t trust a fucking one of them.

The meeting’s over.

They’re leaving.

Craddox says I’ll be off in a few days.

I keep thinking how much I’m going to miss the cricket in Moscow.

I was rather hoping you might do a little light housekeeping for me.

If I can.

There’s a girl. Give her some money, would you?

And give her a good cover story.

If it helps, tell her I love her.

It’s all there.

And there’s a boy, too. Slip him a few quid to shut him up.

I know the inquisitors’ bag of trick s. I taught most of them.

It’s just a reaction.

An over-reaction, if you like.

I did have one or two questions.

About Prideaux. God damn it!

I got him back, didn’t I? Yes, yes, you did.

I am surprised Karla didn’t have him shot.

Or do you think he held back,

out of delicacy towards you?

Did Prideaux come and see you before he left on the Hungarian mission?

Yes, as a matter of fact he did.

To say what?

To warn you.

Because he knew deep down

it was you all along.

So did you.

I had to pick a side, George.

It was an aesthetic choice as much as a moral one.

And the West has become so very ugly.

Don’t you think?

Did Karla ever consider having you take over the Circus?

I’m not his bloody office boy!

What are you, then, Bill?

I’m someone who’s made his mark.

Is there anything particular you want me to pass on to Ann?

Oh, that was nothing personal, George. I hope you understand that.

Karla said you were good,

the one we had to worry about.

But you do have a blind spot.

He reckoned if I was known to be Ann’s lover,

you wouldn’t be able to see me straight.

And he was right.

Up to a point.

Up to a point.

I made this for you, sir.

I don’t want you hanging around here any more.

Keep away from me from now on.

Go and join the others. But…

Just… Just bloody join in, will you?

Go and play, damn you!

Could you check, Jerry?

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