A Little Tinker

Gary Oldman and John Hurt...men in beige

I was around 17 when the much Lauded tv series Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was around., so was really too young to appreciate this complicated John le Carré tale of the sad and the obsolete in 1973 MI6.
The Tomas Alfredson remake is now obviously a period piece set against the beige filled early seventies, when everyone drank scotch out of their filing cabinets, hid their sexuality preferences and mourned the glory days of post war espionage.
It is a complicated, slow burn of a movie, which is well worth watching, a fact that surprised me, as I tend to hate similar drab "Ipcress File" type dramas.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy also has a cast to die for. Gary Oldman (remarkably good as the melancholy George Smiley) takes the lead role from the likes of Tom Hardy,Toby Jones,John Hurt,Mark Strong,Benedict Cumberbatch (also very good) and Colin Firth and even a rather lumpy Kathy Burke Shows her face as a retired agent who misses the camaraderie of the "old Cold
war days"(mind you if this was a Hollywood movie her role would have been played by Meryl Streep!)

It is a carefully paced and if you stick with it, a satisfying watch, especially if you are like me, a
a complete ignoramus on Le Carre novels.

8/10