Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979): Season 1, Episode 4 - How It All Fits Together - full transcript
Smiley and Guillam realise that Tarr has not told them the full story and that his presence in Britain is known to those suspected of being the mole. Smiley also reflects on an encounter he once had with Karla, Moscow Centre's leading strategist.
- The name on their passports
is Poole.
P, double O, I, E.
All three of them.
Tarr told his woman,
so we understand,
in case of difficulties,
she should come to you.
- Sign this, Peter, would you?
Stupid bloody cabaret.
Percy gets more insufferable
every day.
[horn blaring]
- Get over, you sodden snail.
- Peter.
- Tan. That bastard, Tan.
- Peter, slow down.
Slow down.
- The file on Testify
seemed a bit thin.
I hope it was worth the sweat.
- Ricki Tarfs
not lied to us, Peter,
not in any material way.
He's simply done
what agents the world over do:
failed to tell us
the whole story.
On the other hand,
he has been rather clever.
- Are you actually pleased
with him?
- Well, yes.
We now know that Source Merlin
works to Moscow Center,
because that's where
Merlin's information
on Ricki Tarr
must have come from,
from Karla.
[intense instrumental music]
II
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
II
[car door shuts]
- Ricki's been
a lot better today, sir.
Not nearly so nervy,
paid at his football pools
this morning.
And this afternoon,
we planted some trees
in the garden.
And, uh, then this evening,
we had a nice game of cards.
- Has he been out alone?
- Oh, no, Mr. Smiley.
- Used the telephone?
- No, wouldn't dare, sir.
- Has he talked
about his daughter Danny
or her mother?
- Well, he did over the weekend,
sir,
but, well, he's sort of
cooled off about them since.
I think it's in view
of the emotional side.
- Did he ever mention
any arrangements
for meeting them again?
Anything about passports?
- No, sir.
- What has he talked about,
for God's sake?
- Well, mostly the Russian lady,
Irina.
Oh, he mentions her name a lot,
Irina.
He likes to read her diary.
He says he's gonna make
Moscow Center
swap the mole for Irina,
when the mole's been caught
and all this
has been cleared up.
And then he's gonna buy
a little place in Scotland.
Oh, and he says
he'll see me right too.
Get me a big job in the Circus.
I, uh...
I just listen, of course.
- Right.
[car doors opening]
You don't post those
football pool coupons,
do you, Fawn?
- Oh, no, Mr. Smiley.
- Well, let's hope
he doesn't have a win.
That would be expensive for us.
Thank you for your help,
Ms. Brimley.
Sorry to impose on you.
- He's gone to bed.
[maps]
[inhales and sighs]
I must ask you once more.
What did you do with
the two Swiss escape passports
you took with you to Lisbon?
- I told you.
Burned them.
' [sighs]
When you bought your fake
British passport in Istanbul,
a passport for yourself
in the name
of Richard Henry Poole,
did you buy any others
from the same source?
- Why?
Why should I?
- To protect your child
and her mother.
That seems quite reasonable.
After all, it wouldn't be
a very gallant act
to leave the woman
and the child you love
to the mercy of the Moscow hood
on your tail
while you escape
to all this VIP protection.
It's horrible to think of,
truly horrible to contemplate
the lengths Karla might go to
in order to obtain your silence
or your services.
But perhaps
what you actually did
and forgot to tell us about,
was to burn
the British passports
you obtained for Mrs. Poole
and Ms. Danny Poole
but kept your own
to convince Karla's footpads
you thought it was still safe.
Then, probably,
you made travel bookings
in the name of the Poole family
for the same reason.
You doctored the Swiss passports
for Danny and her mother
and made other arrangements
for them...
like staying in Marseilles,
perhaps.
- [grunting]
[blows landing]
[whimpers]
Ugh.
[moaning]
- I don't know where they are,
but I'm sure
no harm has come to them.
Does that satisfy you?
- Maybe you should keep
a closer eye
on your own damn woman
and leave mine alone.
- No, Peter.
- [Spits]
- Perhaps it's just as well.
I shouldn't know
where you've hidden them,
so long as you don't try
to communicate,
unless, of course,
you want me to help in some way,
money or whatever.
- No need.
Let's trust each other,
shall we?
Are we friends again,
Mr. Guillam?
- It won't be long now.
Have you got all you need?
- Can I have my gun back?
- Yes.
Oh, why not, Peter?
' [sighs]
[door handle rattles]
- Do we buy that?
- Oh, yes.
I told you he'd been clever.
A little bit of the truth
is indispensable
in the games agents play.
You know that.
Ricki put his family
in safekeeping
and found his own way home.
He fooled the Russians.
If Karla had a deal with him,
do you think you and I
would be alive and well
and living in hope?
Not by now, I think.
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
[engine turning over]
II
[peaceful classical music]
II
Uh, let it breathe a little.
- Oh, and just leave it.
We'll pour it when we're ready.
Does anyone know
Karla's real name?
And how old is he?
- Another mystery.
Decades of his life
unaccounted for.
So many of the people
he's worked with
have a way of dying off.
He was in England
in 1936 and '41.
That's documented.
We can assume it was sometime
during that period
he recruited our mole,
Gerald.
I met him once...
in Delhi.
Oh, this was long before
we came to know him
as the legendary Karla.
In the mid-'50s,
Moscow Center was in pieces
on the floor,
wholesale purgings
and shootings.
And as a result?
Defection everywhere.
I became a kind
of commercial traveler.
The whole world
was my territory:
inspecting the goods,
fixing the terms,
disposing as seemed best,
on London's instructions,
of course.
Well, I found myself
off to India
where the authorities
had arrested,
at our request,
on some trumped-up
immigration nonsense,
a Mr. Gerstmann,
Karla's name at that time.
He was on his way back to Moscow
from San Francisco,
except that he didn't know
when he left California
that he was Moscow-bound.
He'd been told to rendezvous
with a Tass correspondent
in Delhi.
The message from the Tass man
was an airplane ticket and...
"Don't ask me
any questions, comrade."
Karla was in disgrace.
Summoned...
And doomed.
[bell rings]
There were two other things
he didn't know.
The first was that
we'd intercepted
the radio signal
directing him to Delhi.
The second was that
the San Francisco network
he'd organized
had been rolled up
hide and hair
the day he left.
[bells ringing]
Could we take those things
off his hands?
I only have to shout for you,
don't I?
[sighs]
Mr. Gerstmann.
You are the Cold War orphan.
If you go home to Moscow
as ordered,
you'll be either shot
or sent to die
in one of the camps.
Wouldn't you prefer to ask us
for protection?
We have no powers
of permanent arrest
and our arrangement
with the Americans
was that they hit your agents
and we make you this invitation.
I can't see
an alternative for you.
If you cooperate,
we can give you a new start,
a new identity,
seclusion,
a modest amount of money.
Now, why don't you start
by telling me your true name?
[clears throat]
Would you like a cigarette?
[smacking cigarette box]
I know you're a chain smoker.
Oh.
I know this is what you smoke.
Look
I'm not offering you wealth
or smart women
or your choice of fast cars.
I know you haven't any use
for those things.
And I'm not gonna
make any claims
about the moral superiority
of the West.
I'm sure you can see
through our values,
just as I can see through yours
in the East.
You and I have spent our lives
looking for the weaknesses
in each other's systems.
I'm sure each of us
has experienced
innumerable
technical satisfactions
in our wretched Cold War.
[people speaking indistinctly
in the distance]
But now your own side
is going to shoot you...
for nothing...
for misdemeanors
you have not committed
because of a power struggle
within your own hierarchy
because, probably,
of someone's treachery...
or sheer incompetence.
[sighs]
[sniffs]
I'm sure both of us,
when we were young,
subscribed to great visions...
but not anymore.
After all you've seen...
you can't still be committed
to that old grand design.
You know it's achieved nothing
except new forms
of the old misery.
Don't destroy yourself.
They're not worth it.
[sniffs]
Do you know
where your wife is?
I mean at this moment?
You have to think about her.
She'll have to make
a new life.
Do you have a friend,
one really good friend
who could look after her?
Uh, perhaps we could
get in touch with her secretly.
If you stay with us,
we might be able
to arrange something,
an exchange for someone
your people want returned.
But if you go back,
it can do her
nothing but harm.
She'll be cold-shouldered,
suspected.
The best she can hope for
is to be allowed to see you
before you're shot...
Another meaningless
firing squad.
Guard.
[bell rings]
[bell rings]
[shackles jangle]
- What did Control have to say
when you got back?
- I hoped to God
they do shoot him.
But they didn't.
His boss was the one
who faced the firing squad
as it turned out.
Mr. Gerstmann survived
and thrived...
how he thrived.
He went on to build his legend
and become the Karla we know,
the Karla who, all the time
he sat looking at me,
was no doubt thinking
of Gerald the mole.
Have you noticed, Peter,
that whenever I really trouble
of our acquaintances
with my questions,
he'll raise the matter
of my failure as a husband
to confound me?
Instructive.
- Ricki Tarr tried it twice.
- Unimportant in his case,
spite.
Well, that was sumptuous.
That boy, Fawn,
good at his judo, isn't he?
- Karate, George.
Judo is what Fawn would call
"Just your little cuddle,
Mr. Smiley."
[snaps finger]
- Well, I don't think
even Toby Esterhase's people
would follow us here.
The food's well below
the standard
they've come to expect.
- So Karla's fireproof.
He can't be bought,
and he can't be beaten.
- Not fireproof,
because he's a fanatic.
I may have behaved
like a soft dolt,
the very archetype
of a flabby Western liberal,
but I'd rather be
my kind of fool than his.
One day,
that lack of moderation
will be Karla's downfall.
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
[engine turning over]
He's never touched radio
since the debacle
in San Francisco.
Cut it right out
of his handwriting.
His agents
aren't allowed near him.
- That's something else
you and Karla have in common.
- Yes, I am prejudiced
against radio men:
tiresome breed-
overstrung, unreliable.
What's the other thing?
- Well, the cigarette lighter.
I assume he still has it.
- As far as I know, Peter.
- Sorry, George.
- Not at all.
How do you feel, Peter?
- I'm all right.
- After Delhi, you know,
Control gave me
three months' leave
without the option.
When this is over,
I hope you'll take it easy
for a while.
We're not quite there,
but nearly.
Peter, have you got
the hand brake on?
[car horn blaring]
[clock ticking]
[siren blaring]
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
[groans]
II
II
[birds chirping]
[car horn honks]
Operation Witchcraft.
Alleline to Minister:
"Extremely secret and personal.
'We spoke.
"Merlin, as you may have known
for some time,
"is not one source
but several.
It would do the treasury
no harm to learn..."
Percy was enjoying himself,
wasn't he?
"To learn that Merlin's
"10,000 Swiss francs a month
in salary
"and a similar figure
for expenses and running costs
"are scarcely excessive
when the cloth has to be cut
so many ways."
Then he adds,
"Nevertheless,
I regard it as paramount
"that knowledge of
the London House
"and the purpose
for which it is used
remain absolutely
at a minimum."
Well, in a sense,
Percy Alleline's
quite right about Merlin.
Of course, Merlin represents
several sources,
various departments
of Moscow Center
with Karla queuing them in
on the basis
of the most timely material
of the given moment.
Sometimes, he likes
to direct Circus attention
to a topical subject;
sometimes, to deflect it.
For example,
after Ricki Tarfs encounter
with Irina in Lisbon,
Merlin delivered
some vivid insights
on the ideological penetration
of the United States.
- But Karla doesn't know
what Tarr's done
with the information from Irina.
- Which brings us to
your interrogation by Alleline
and his reference to Tarr's
probable rollover here
in muddying pools, et cetera.
Merlin's message on Tarr,
lsuggesL
was that Ricki would be
trying to sell
to someone in London
on Karla's behalf
fictitious material
about a traitor in the Circus.
Nothing muddier than that,
is there?
Remember, Merlin
is totally believed.
So now we have
a clear connection
between Merlin and the mole.
And at the heart of this
beautifully symmetrical plot
is a house in London
for which the treasury paid
£60,000.
Plus another 10
for making it more
to Merlin's liking,
or Gerald's.
' [sighs]
Fascinating, George.
Thank you.
And how do you suggest
I explain to my minister,
least painfully,
that Merlin's a fraud
and he'll have to tell
the Americans so?
He's devoted to Merlin.
- Impress upon him
that whatever he's buying
from the Americans with
Merlin's discredited currency
is going straight to Moscow
via Gerald the mole.
That should do the trick.
- This document is not one
you've asked me to bring.
It arrived only today.
Source unknown.
According to
a recently released prisoner
from Lubyanka jail,
Moscow Center
held a secret execution
in the punishment block
in March.
The victims were three
of its own functionaries.
All were shot
in the back of the neck.
One was a woman.
- Ricki Tarr mustn't know.
It's vital
he gets no wind of this.
God knows what he'd do
or not do
if he found out Irina was dead.
And we may need to make
further use of him.
- Do you really believe
all that guff
about Tarr
being in love with her?
The little homestead
in the Highlands?
The avenging lover?
The honorable Ricki Tarr?
- He may feel compelled, Peter.
Everybody has a loyalty
somewhere.
He mustn't know.
- I agree.
Now, George,
I've brought what I could find
on Jim Prideaux,
such as it is.
- Thank you.
- Prideaux and Bill Haydon were
really very close, you know.
I didn't realize.
- Yes.
Thank you.
Operation Testify.
We still need to understand
what happened
or, rather, why it happened.
The file you borrowed, Peter,
does at least
give us a nudge
in the right direction.
I think I know
who to talk to next.
Your day was hardly wasted.
- I am glad of that, George.
- We've traced Prideaux.
He's become a teacher.
Thursgood Preparatory School
for Boys.
It's in the west country.
- Right.
- Three, two, one, go!
[boys yelling]
[engine rumbling]
[boys yelling over each other]
[boys yelling]
[boys yelling]
All: Put the brake on.
Gear in neutral.
Switch off ignition.
- Please, sir?
How long, sir?
What's my time, sir?
- Timekeeper,
time please, Rhino.
- Please, sir.
How long?
- Well, done, Roach.
Knew you would
second time round.
- Sir, how long?
- Now then, Jumbo.
See that man?
Who is he, then?
Is he number four?
- No, sir.
- Anybody seen him before?
All: No, sir.
- He's not staff,
and he's not village,
so who is he,
a beggar man, thief?
- Tinker tailor soldier sailor.
All: Rich man, poor man,
beggar man, thief.
- Why doesn't he look this way?
Something funny about that.
Here's a bunch of boys
burning up a car
around a playing field
and he doesn't even
give them a glance.
You would, wouldn't you?
All: Yes, sir.
- Doesn't he like boys?
Doesn't he like cars?
Doesn't even look at that car.
Best Britain ever made
in years out of production.
[bird squawking]
All right, gather around.
Come on.
All right, now,
anybody sees him again,
let me know,
or any other sinister bodies,
understand?
All: Yes, sir.
- Don't want juju men
wandering around
pretending they don't know
we exist.
First glimpse, tell me.
All right?
- Yes, sir.
- You know, Jumbo,
no hold with odd bods
wandering around a school,
last place I was at,
we had a whole gang broke in.
Cleared the place out:
house cups, money,
boys' watches.
Nothing's sacred
to types like that.
We don't want him
swiping the Alvis.
[growls] It's irreplaceable,
thanks to socialism.
Color of hair, Jumbo?
- Sort of light-colored, sir.
- Height?
- About the same as you, sir.
- Age?
- Well...
hard to say, really, sir.
- Go as he was,
at that distance.
But you would know him again,
Jumbo, for sure.
Best watcher in the unit,
Jumbo Roach is, eh?
Long as he keeps
his specs clean.
[animal screeches]
' [sighs]
[sighs]
[sniffles]
[choir warming up]
[animal screeches]
[Organ music]
[choir singing]
II
II
[whimpering slightly]
[gasps lightly]
[whimpering slightly]
[exhales sharply]
[animal screeches, dog barking]
[footsteps rustling in leaves]
[dirt crunching]
[animal screeches]
- [gasps]
[groans in pain]
Please, sir.
- Oh, it's you, Jumbo.
- I broke my leg, sir.
- Oh, dear.
Hm, can you get UP?
Now, slowly.
Slowly.
Fell off the bricks,
did you, Jumbo?
Let's have a look.
Ah, nothing broken.
Just a graze.
Matron will soon put that right.
One thing gives you
a good excuse
for getting in late,
missing evensong.
Tripped over in a lane,
is that what you will tell her?
We've got a secret,
haven't we?
I can trust you.
I know that.
We're good at keeping secrets,
loners like you and me.
- Is it because of that man?
Would you shoot him?
Are you working undercover
like Bulldog Drummond
in the book?
Some of the boys
wanted to call you Bulldog,
but we thought Rhino was better,
bigger than a Bulldog.
- I, uh...
I used to be a soldier, Jumbo.
What you saw just now,
that's a souvenir.
You know, it's like this.
How I got it,
they're both secrets.
I keep 'em to myself.
You understand, don't you,
Jumbo, eh?
- Yes, sir.
- Knew you would.
Knew you would.
Good night, Jumbo.
- Night, sir.
Thank you, sir.
[train whistle whines]
[animal screeches]
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
- Well, well,
long time no see.
- Hello, Sam.
- Care for it?
Very impressive.
- [chuckles]
[phone rings]
It's better than selling
washing machines anyway.
It's a bit odd
putting a dinner jacket on
at 10:00 in the morning,
of course.
[phone rings]
Reminds me of diplomatic cover,
come to think of it.
[chandelier clinking]
Believe it or not,
it's straight,
if it makes you change.
We get all the help we need
from the arithmetic.
- I'm sure you do.
- My employers might let me
invest a few pennies of my own
before too long.
They're tough boys,
but very go-ahead, you know,
rather like we were
in the old days.
So...
what can I do for you?
- 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.
- Hm.
Writing your memoirs, George?
- We are reopening the case.
- Who's this "we," old boy?
- Lacon called me and with
the Minister's blessing.
I can give you
a telephone number to confirm,
although I'd prefer not.
- All power corrupts,
but some must govern,
and in that case,
Brother Lacon
will reluctantly scramble
to the top of the heap.
- The record's been filleted.
Of what there is on the file,
the most useful piece
of information
is that you were duty officer
that night.
- Yes.
Yes, I'd just come back
from Tokyo,
a three-year stint.
Nobody seemed to have
any plans for me,
so I thought I'd push off
to the south of France
for a month's leave.
And then old Mendel,
Control's minder,
picked me up in the passage
and marched me off
to see Control.
The whole place felt weird.
There was nobody about,
except the radio
and code people.
That harridan,
Molly somebody or other,
was monitoring,
a busy little body.
- Molly Purcell.
- You were in Berlin,
Bill Haydon was up-country,
and Percy Alleline
was in Scotland.
Control seemed to have
cleared the decks.
My God, he was a shock.
I'd heard he wasn't
his old self anymore,
but I hadn't been prepared
for this.
It was like opening
a coffin lid.
He didn't waste time
on any pleasantries.
- I need somebody good
to man the switchboard.
He's got to be an old hand.
I could bring in somebody
from one of the outstations,
but you're better,
because you've been away
for so long,
away from the in-fighting
and the vendettas
around this place...
You don't know
what I'm talking about.
That's good.
Just do exactly what I tell you.
There could be a crisis tonight.
I've got a man
doing a special job.
It's of the utmost importance
to this service.
The service, it's for us.
It could change everything
for us.
Your job tonight
is to act as cutout,
cutout between me
and whatever goes on
in the rest of the building.
If anything comes in,
radio signal, phone call,
letter, anything at all,
no matter how trivial it seems,
you are to wait,
wait until the coast is clear,
and then bring it
straight to me by hand, Sam.
You don't use
the internal phones.
You don't put anything down
on paper for future reference.
Is that understood?
And when it's all over,
you're not to breathe
a word about it.
Never.
Not to anybody.
Not to Smiley.
Not to Haydon.
Not to Bland.
Nobody.
- What if I have to
send out something?
- Only what I tell you.
- The defensive weaknesses,
have I think cost them
the match,
which could now be sewn up
by Paul Mariner...
[can cracks open]
Or by Woods-
two are still down-
or by Mirren
or by Woods.
And in the end, by none of them.
Unbelievable.
Paul Mariner
has completely blanked,
and he deserves a great deal
better than that,
because I think by a shade,
he's my man of the match.
- Bullocks.
[door handle rattles]
[clock bells chime]
[clock ticking]
[sighs]
[phone ringing]
This is duty officer.
Hm?
Right.
Yes, I see.
Yeah, well,
I have to call you back.
It all sounds very unlikely.
[knock at door]
- Collins?
This is urgent.
- Well, it's open.
- There's all hell broken out
in the Czechoslovakia.
Half of it's coded,
but there's enough that isn't.
- Prague or Brno?
- Brno.
[phone rings]
- Yes'?
Damn it, Molly.
Keep listening.
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
Control.
Oh, Control.
The resident clerk
from the foreign office
came on first with a story
from Reuters' head man
in London.
Molly picked the same thing up
on the radio.
And Reuters and a couple
of Fleet Street papers
have already had another go
at the foreign office.
They're saying
that a British spy
has been shot in Brno.
The Czechs are telling the world
about an act
of gross provocation
by a Western power.
They haven't
named the dead man yet.
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 in?
Do you want to come downstairs
and handle it yourself?
- It's deniable
he had foreign documents.
No one could know he was British
at this stage.
There hasn't been time.
Even if he's not dead.
Find Smiley.
- He's in Berlin.
- Yes.
Well, anyone will do.
It makes no difference.
Tell Mendel
to get me a taxi.
[phone clicks]
- You sent Mendel home.
[siren blaring]
[intense instrumental music]
II
[flipping switches]
- He's been named.
- Hello?
Hello.
Hello.
Is that Mrs. Smiley?
[rattling]
[machine whirring]
You got my message, then.
- Why did you leave it?
- 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?
- I saw the tickertape
at the club.
I gather it has been some
god-awful shooting party.
Tell me.
Czechoslovakia, right?
- Jim Prideaux's been shot.
Look, the Czechs haven't got
his real name yet.
They're using his work name,
Ellis.
- Jim?
Shot dead?
- Well, we're not sure.
That was the first flash.
Since then, the word used
is simply "shot."
What the Czechs are saying,
that Prideaux-
Ellis,
traveling on false papers
and assisted by
Czech counterrevolutionaries,
tried to kidnap a Czech general,
unnamed,
in a forest near Brno
and smuggle him over
the Austrian border.
They say that further arrests
are imminent.
- Goon
- Well, according
to our military,
there are heavy
Czech tank movements
along the Austrian border.
Lacon's been on
and so has the minister.
They want to know,
'What the hell?" and 'Why?"
Now, I have put out
emergency calls
to Smiley, Alleline, Bland.
I'm glad to see you.
I'm sorry, Bill.
- All right, Sam.
Now, first thing we do,
you call this number.
It's Toby Esterhase's.
[paper tearing]
Tell him you're speaking
for me.
And he's to pick up
the two Czech agents
we've had our eyes on at
the London School of Economics
and lock them up now.
Straight away, Sam.
Jim's worth a lot more
than those two.
But it's a start.
I'd have a word with the chief
hood at the Czech embassy.
If they hurt a hair
on Jim Prideaux's head,
I'll strip
the entire Czech network
in this country bare.
And you can pass that on
to his master.
I'll make him the laughingstock
of the profession.
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
- I'm bound to say
Haydon was a treat to watch.
[sniffs]
I used to think of him
as a pretty erratic
sort of devil.
Not that night, believe me.
He virtually dictated
a press statement
for the foreign office
to put out.
And there it was
the following morning
in the Sunday papers:
"Proud radio
sensation revelations
dismissed with dignified scorn."
I found it good light reading
over breakfast at The Savoy.
- And then you went
to the south of France?
- Two lovely months.
- Did anyone question you again?
- Percy Alleline.
Well, he was acting chief
by then.
You were out on your ear,
and Control was in hospital.
Percy wants to know
how I'd come to be
doing duty officer
on the fateful night.
That chap, Masterman,
was down for it.
Well, I told him
what I had put to Masterman,
that I know that a kip
and a quiet weekend
in the Circus
would save me a bit of spending
money for the south of France.
Percy said I was a liar.
- And that's why they
sacked you?
For fibbing?
- Alcoholism.
There were
five empty beer cans
in the duty officer's
waste paper basket.
Well, there's a standing order
against booze on the premises.
So what was your offence,
George?
- Oh, I couldn't convince them
that I wasn't involved.
- Oh, well, if you want
anyone's throat cut,
give me a buzz.
- Sam, listen.
It was too late
for Haydon's club
to be still running tickertape,
wasn't it?
He was making love to Ann
that night.
You made a guess of that,
and you were right.
You telephoned her,
she told you he wasn't there,
and then as soon
as you'd rang off,
she pushed him out of bed,
and Bill turned up
an hour later
knowing about Czecho.
Not that you didn't tell Ann...
about Czechs.
[phone rings]
I'll find my own way down.
[phone rings]
- Mind how you go, George.
[door closes, phone rings]
[Song of Simeon]
- ♪ Lord ♪
♪ Now lettest thou ♪
♪ Thy servant ♪
♪ Depart in peace ♪
II
♪ According to Thy word ♪
II
♪ For mine eyes ♪
♪ Have seen Thy salvation ♪
II
♪ Which Thou hast prepared ♪
♪ Before the face ♪
♪ Of all people ♪
II
♪ To be a light ♪
♪ To lighten ♪
♪ The Gentiles ♪
♪ And to be the glory ♪
♪ Of Thy people ♪
♪ Israel ♪
II
♪ Glory be to the Father ♪
♪ And to the Son ♪
♪ And to the Holy Ghost ♪
♪ As it was
in the beginning ♪
♪ ls now and ever shall be ♪
♪ World without end ♪
♪ Amen ♪
is Poole.
P, double O, I, E.
All three of them.
Tarr told his woman,
so we understand,
in case of difficulties,
she should come to you.
- Sign this, Peter, would you?
Stupid bloody cabaret.
Percy gets more insufferable
every day.
[horn blaring]
- Get over, you sodden snail.
- Peter.
- Tan. That bastard, Tan.
- Peter, slow down.
Slow down.
- The file on Testify
seemed a bit thin.
I hope it was worth the sweat.
- Ricki Tarfs
not lied to us, Peter,
not in any material way.
He's simply done
what agents the world over do:
failed to tell us
the whole story.
On the other hand,
he has been rather clever.
- Are you actually pleased
with him?
- Well, yes.
We now know that Source Merlin
works to Moscow Center,
because that's where
Merlin's information
on Ricki Tarr
must have come from,
from Karla.
[intense instrumental music]
II
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
II
[car door shuts]
- Ricki's been
a lot better today, sir.
Not nearly so nervy,
paid at his football pools
this morning.
And this afternoon,
we planted some trees
in the garden.
And, uh, then this evening,
we had a nice game of cards.
- Has he been out alone?
- Oh, no, Mr. Smiley.
- Used the telephone?
- No, wouldn't dare, sir.
- Has he talked
about his daughter Danny
or her mother?
- Well, he did over the weekend,
sir,
but, well, he's sort of
cooled off about them since.
I think it's in view
of the emotional side.
- Did he ever mention
any arrangements
for meeting them again?
Anything about passports?
- No, sir.
- What has he talked about,
for God's sake?
- Well, mostly the Russian lady,
Irina.
Oh, he mentions her name a lot,
Irina.
He likes to read her diary.
He says he's gonna make
Moscow Center
swap the mole for Irina,
when the mole's been caught
and all this
has been cleared up.
And then he's gonna buy
a little place in Scotland.
Oh, and he says
he'll see me right too.
Get me a big job in the Circus.
I, uh...
I just listen, of course.
- Right.
[car doors opening]
You don't post those
football pool coupons,
do you, Fawn?
- Oh, no, Mr. Smiley.
- Well, let's hope
he doesn't have a win.
That would be expensive for us.
Thank you for your help,
Ms. Brimley.
Sorry to impose on you.
- He's gone to bed.
[maps]
[inhales and sighs]
I must ask you once more.
What did you do with
the two Swiss escape passports
you took with you to Lisbon?
- I told you.
Burned them.
' [sighs]
When you bought your fake
British passport in Istanbul,
a passport for yourself
in the name
of Richard Henry Poole,
did you buy any others
from the same source?
- Why?
Why should I?
- To protect your child
and her mother.
That seems quite reasonable.
After all, it wouldn't be
a very gallant act
to leave the woman
and the child you love
to the mercy of the Moscow hood
on your tail
while you escape
to all this VIP protection.
It's horrible to think of,
truly horrible to contemplate
the lengths Karla might go to
in order to obtain your silence
or your services.
But perhaps
what you actually did
and forgot to tell us about,
was to burn
the British passports
you obtained for Mrs. Poole
and Ms. Danny Poole
but kept your own
to convince Karla's footpads
you thought it was still safe.
Then, probably,
you made travel bookings
in the name of the Poole family
for the same reason.
You doctored the Swiss passports
for Danny and her mother
and made other arrangements
for them...
like staying in Marseilles,
perhaps.
- [grunting]
[blows landing]
[whimpers]
Ugh.
[moaning]
- I don't know where they are,
but I'm sure
no harm has come to them.
Does that satisfy you?
- Maybe you should keep
a closer eye
on your own damn woman
and leave mine alone.
- No, Peter.
- [Spits]
- Perhaps it's just as well.
I shouldn't know
where you've hidden them,
so long as you don't try
to communicate,
unless, of course,
you want me to help in some way,
money or whatever.
- No need.
Let's trust each other,
shall we?
Are we friends again,
Mr. Guillam?
- It won't be long now.
Have you got all you need?
- Can I have my gun back?
- Yes.
Oh, why not, Peter?
' [sighs]
[door handle rattles]
- Do we buy that?
- Oh, yes.
I told you he'd been clever.
A little bit of the truth
is indispensable
in the games agents play.
You know that.
Ricki put his family
in safekeeping
and found his own way home.
He fooled the Russians.
If Karla had a deal with him,
do you think you and I
would be alive and well
and living in hope?
Not by now, I think.
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
[engine turning over]
II
[peaceful classical music]
II
Uh, let it breathe a little.
- Oh, and just leave it.
We'll pour it when we're ready.
Does anyone know
Karla's real name?
And how old is he?
- Another mystery.
Decades of his life
unaccounted for.
So many of the people
he's worked with
have a way of dying off.
He was in England
in 1936 and '41.
That's documented.
We can assume it was sometime
during that period
he recruited our mole,
Gerald.
I met him once...
in Delhi.
Oh, this was long before
we came to know him
as the legendary Karla.
In the mid-'50s,
Moscow Center was in pieces
on the floor,
wholesale purgings
and shootings.
And as a result?
Defection everywhere.
I became a kind
of commercial traveler.
The whole world
was my territory:
inspecting the goods,
fixing the terms,
disposing as seemed best,
on London's instructions,
of course.
Well, I found myself
off to India
where the authorities
had arrested,
at our request,
on some trumped-up
immigration nonsense,
a Mr. Gerstmann,
Karla's name at that time.
He was on his way back to Moscow
from San Francisco,
except that he didn't know
when he left California
that he was Moscow-bound.
He'd been told to rendezvous
with a Tass correspondent
in Delhi.
The message from the Tass man
was an airplane ticket and...
"Don't ask me
any questions, comrade."
Karla was in disgrace.
Summoned...
And doomed.
[bell rings]
There were two other things
he didn't know.
The first was that
we'd intercepted
the radio signal
directing him to Delhi.
The second was that
the San Francisco network
he'd organized
had been rolled up
hide and hair
the day he left.
[bells ringing]
Could we take those things
off his hands?
I only have to shout for you,
don't I?
[sighs]
Mr. Gerstmann.
You are the Cold War orphan.
If you go home to Moscow
as ordered,
you'll be either shot
or sent to die
in one of the camps.
Wouldn't you prefer to ask us
for protection?
We have no powers
of permanent arrest
and our arrangement
with the Americans
was that they hit your agents
and we make you this invitation.
I can't see
an alternative for you.
If you cooperate,
we can give you a new start,
a new identity,
seclusion,
a modest amount of money.
Now, why don't you start
by telling me your true name?
[clears throat]
Would you like a cigarette?
[smacking cigarette box]
I know you're a chain smoker.
Oh.
I know this is what you smoke.
Look
I'm not offering you wealth
or smart women
or your choice of fast cars.
I know you haven't any use
for those things.
And I'm not gonna
make any claims
about the moral superiority
of the West.
I'm sure you can see
through our values,
just as I can see through yours
in the East.
You and I have spent our lives
looking for the weaknesses
in each other's systems.
I'm sure each of us
has experienced
innumerable
technical satisfactions
in our wretched Cold War.
[people speaking indistinctly
in the distance]
But now your own side
is going to shoot you...
for nothing...
for misdemeanors
you have not committed
because of a power struggle
within your own hierarchy
because, probably,
of someone's treachery...
or sheer incompetence.
[sighs]
[sniffs]
I'm sure both of us,
when we were young,
subscribed to great visions...
but not anymore.
After all you've seen...
you can't still be committed
to that old grand design.
You know it's achieved nothing
except new forms
of the old misery.
Don't destroy yourself.
They're not worth it.
[sniffs]
Do you know
where your wife is?
I mean at this moment?
You have to think about her.
She'll have to make
a new life.
Do you have a friend,
one really good friend
who could look after her?
Uh, perhaps we could
get in touch with her secretly.
If you stay with us,
we might be able
to arrange something,
an exchange for someone
your people want returned.
But if you go back,
it can do her
nothing but harm.
She'll be cold-shouldered,
suspected.
The best she can hope for
is to be allowed to see you
before you're shot...
Another meaningless
firing squad.
Guard.
[bell rings]
[bell rings]
[shackles jangle]
- What did Control have to say
when you got back?
- I hoped to God
they do shoot him.
But they didn't.
His boss was the one
who faced the firing squad
as it turned out.
Mr. Gerstmann survived
and thrived...
how he thrived.
He went on to build his legend
and become the Karla we know,
the Karla who, all the time
he sat looking at me,
was no doubt thinking
of Gerald the mole.
Have you noticed, Peter,
that whenever I really trouble
of our acquaintances
with my questions,
he'll raise the matter
of my failure as a husband
to confound me?
Instructive.
- Ricki Tarr tried it twice.
- Unimportant in his case,
spite.
Well, that was sumptuous.
That boy, Fawn,
good at his judo, isn't he?
- Karate, George.
Judo is what Fawn would call
"Just your little cuddle,
Mr. Smiley."
[snaps finger]
- Well, I don't think
even Toby Esterhase's people
would follow us here.
The food's well below
the standard
they've come to expect.
- So Karla's fireproof.
He can't be bought,
and he can't be beaten.
- Not fireproof,
because he's a fanatic.
I may have behaved
like a soft dolt,
the very archetype
of a flabby Western liberal,
but I'd rather be
my kind of fool than his.
One day,
that lack of moderation
will be Karla's downfall.
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
[engine turning over]
He's never touched radio
since the debacle
in San Francisco.
Cut it right out
of his handwriting.
His agents
aren't allowed near him.
- That's something else
you and Karla have in common.
- Yes, I am prejudiced
against radio men:
tiresome breed-
overstrung, unreliable.
What's the other thing?
- Well, the cigarette lighter.
I assume he still has it.
- As far as I know, Peter.
- Sorry, George.
- Not at all.
How do you feel, Peter?
- I'm all right.
- After Delhi, you know,
Control gave me
three months' leave
without the option.
When this is over,
I hope you'll take it easy
for a while.
We're not quite there,
but nearly.
Peter, have you got
the hand brake on?
[car horn blaring]
[clock ticking]
[siren blaring]
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
[groans]
II
II
[birds chirping]
[car horn honks]
Operation Witchcraft.
Alleline to Minister:
"Extremely secret and personal.
'We spoke.
"Merlin, as you may have known
for some time,
"is not one source
but several.
It would do the treasury
no harm to learn..."
Percy was enjoying himself,
wasn't he?
"To learn that Merlin's
"10,000 Swiss francs a month
in salary
"and a similar figure
for expenses and running costs
"are scarcely excessive
when the cloth has to be cut
so many ways."
Then he adds,
"Nevertheless,
I regard it as paramount
"that knowledge of
the London House
"and the purpose
for which it is used
remain absolutely
at a minimum."
Well, in a sense,
Percy Alleline's
quite right about Merlin.
Of course, Merlin represents
several sources,
various departments
of Moscow Center
with Karla queuing them in
on the basis
of the most timely material
of the given moment.
Sometimes, he likes
to direct Circus attention
to a topical subject;
sometimes, to deflect it.
For example,
after Ricki Tarfs encounter
with Irina in Lisbon,
Merlin delivered
some vivid insights
on the ideological penetration
of the United States.
- But Karla doesn't know
what Tarr's done
with the information from Irina.
- Which brings us to
your interrogation by Alleline
and his reference to Tarr's
probable rollover here
in muddying pools, et cetera.
Merlin's message on Tarr,
lsuggesL
was that Ricki would be
trying to sell
to someone in London
on Karla's behalf
fictitious material
about a traitor in the Circus.
Nothing muddier than that,
is there?
Remember, Merlin
is totally believed.
So now we have
a clear connection
between Merlin and the mole.
And at the heart of this
beautifully symmetrical plot
is a house in London
for which the treasury paid
£60,000.
Plus another 10
for making it more
to Merlin's liking,
or Gerald's.
' [sighs]
Fascinating, George.
Thank you.
And how do you suggest
I explain to my minister,
least painfully,
that Merlin's a fraud
and he'll have to tell
the Americans so?
He's devoted to Merlin.
- Impress upon him
that whatever he's buying
from the Americans with
Merlin's discredited currency
is going straight to Moscow
via Gerald the mole.
That should do the trick.
- This document is not one
you've asked me to bring.
It arrived only today.
Source unknown.
According to
a recently released prisoner
from Lubyanka jail,
Moscow Center
held a secret execution
in the punishment block
in March.
The victims were three
of its own functionaries.
All were shot
in the back of the neck.
One was a woman.
- Ricki Tarr mustn't know.
It's vital
he gets no wind of this.
God knows what he'd do
or not do
if he found out Irina was dead.
And we may need to make
further use of him.
- Do you really believe
all that guff
about Tarr
being in love with her?
The little homestead
in the Highlands?
The avenging lover?
The honorable Ricki Tarr?
- He may feel compelled, Peter.
Everybody has a loyalty
somewhere.
He mustn't know.
- I agree.
Now, George,
I've brought what I could find
on Jim Prideaux,
such as it is.
- Thank you.
- Prideaux and Bill Haydon were
really very close, you know.
I didn't realize.
- Yes.
Thank you.
Operation Testify.
We still need to understand
what happened
or, rather, why it happened.
The file you borrowed, Peter,
does at least
give us a nudge
in the right direction.
I think I know
who to talk to next.
Your day was hardly wasted.
- I am glad of that, George.
- We've traced Prideaux.
He's become a teacher.
Thursgood Preparatory School
for Boys.
It's in the west country.
- Right.
- Three, two, one, go!
[boys yelling]
[engine rumbling]
[boys yelling over each other]
[boys yelling]
[boys yelling]
All: Put the brake on.
Gear in neutral.
Switch off ignition.
- Please, sir?
How long, sir?
What's my time, sir?
- Timekeeper,
time please, Rhino.
- Please, sir.
How long?
- Well, done, Roach.
Knew you would
second time round.
- Sir, how long?
- Now then, Jumbo.
See that man?
Who is he, then?
Is he number four?
- No, sir.
- Anybody seen him before?
All: No, sir.
- He's not staff,
and he's not village,
so who is he,
a beggar man, thief?
- Tinker tailor soldier sailor.
All: Rich man, poor man,
beggar man, thief.
- Why doesn't he look this way?
Something funny about that.
Here's a bunch of boys
burning up a car
around a playing field
and he doesn't even
give them a glance.
You would, wouldn't you?
All: Yes, sir.
- Doesn't he like boys?
Doesn't he like cars?
Doesn't even look at that car.
Best Britain ever made
in years out of production.
[bird squawking]
All right, gather around.
Come on.
All right, now,
anybody sees him again,
let me know,
or any other sinister bodies,
understand?
All: Yes, sir.
- Don't want juju men
wandering around
pretending they don't know
we exist.
First glimpse, tell me.
All right?
- Yes, sir.
- You know, Jumbo,
no hold with odd bods
wandering around a school,
last place I was at,
we had a whole gang broke in.
Cleared the place out:
house cups, money,
boys' watches.
Nothing's sacred
to types like that.
We don't want him
swiping the Alvis.
[growls] It's irreplaceable,
thanks to socialism.
Color of hair, Jumbo?
- Sort of light-colored, sir.
- Height?
- About the same as you, sir.
- Age?
- Well...
hard to say, really, sir.
- Go as he was,
at that distance.
But you would know him again,
Jumbo, for sure.
Best watcher in the unit,
Jumbo Roach is, eh?
Long as he keeps
his specs clean.
[animal screeches]
' [sighs]
[sighs]
[sniffles]
[choir warming up]
[animal screeches]
[Organ music]
[choir singing]
II
II
[whimpering slightly]
[gasps lightly]
[whimpering slightly]
[exhales sharply]
[animal screeches, dog barking]
[footsteps rustling in leaves]
[dirt crunching]
[animal screeches]
- [gasps]
[groans in pain]
Please, sir.
- Oh, it's you, Jumbo.
- I broke my leg, sir.
- Oh, dear.
Hm, can you get UP?
Now, slowly.
Slowly.
Fell off the bricks,
did you, Jumbo?
Let's have a look.
Ah, nothing broken.
Just a graze.
Matron will soon put that right.
One thing gives you
a good excuse
for getting in late,
missing evensong.
Tripped over in a lane,
is that what you will tell her?
We've got a secret,
haven't we?
I can trust you.
I know that.
We're good at keeping secrets,
loners like you and me.
- Is it because of that man?
Would you shoot him?
Are you working undercover
like Bulldog Drummond
in the book?
Some of the boys
wanted to call you Bulldog,
but we thought Rhino was better,
bigger than a Bulldog.
- I, uh...
I used to be a soldier, Jumbo.
What you saw just now,
that's a souvenir.
You know, it's like this.
How I got it,
they're both secrets.
I keep 'em to myself.
You understand, don't you,
Jumbo, eh?
- Yes, sir.
- Knew you would.
Knew you would.
Good night, Jumbo.
- Night, sir.
Thank you, sir.
[train whistle whines]
[animal screeches]
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
- Well, well,
long time no see.
- Hello, Sam.
- Care for it?
Very impressive.
- [chuckles]
[phone rings]
It's better than selling
washing machines anyway.
It's a bit odd
putting a dinner jacket on
at 10:00 in the morning,
of course.
[phone rings]
Reminds me of diplomatic cover,
come to think of it.
[chandelier clinking]
Believe it or not,
it's straight,
if it makes you change.
We get all the help we need
from the arithmetic.
- I'm sure you do.
- My employers might let me
invest a few pennies of my own
before too long.
They're tough boys,
but very go-ahead, you know,
rather like we were
in the old days.
So...
what can I do for you?
- 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.
- Hm.
Writing your memoirs, George?
- We are reopening the case.
- Who's this "we," old boy?
- Lacon called me and with
the Minister's blessing.
I can give you
a telephone number to confirm,
although I'd prefer not.
- All power corrupts,
but some must govern,
and in that case,
Brother Lacon
will reluctantly scramble
to the top of the heap.
- The record's been filleted.
Of what there is on the file,
the most useful piece
of information
is that you were duty officer
that night.
- Yes.
Yes, I'd just come back
from Tokyo,
a three-year stint.
Nobody seemed to have
any plans for me,
so I thought I'd push off
to the south of France
for a month's leave.
And then old Mendel,
Control's minder,
picked me up in the passage
and marched me off
to see Control.
The whole place felt weird.
There was nobody about,
except the radio
and code people.
That harridan,
Molly somebody or other,
was monitoring,
a busy little body.
- Molly Purcell.
- You were in Berlin,
Bill Haydon was up-country,
and Percy Alleline
was in Scotland.
Control seemed to have
cleared the decks.
My God, he was a shock.
I'd heard he wasn't
his old self anymore,
but I hadn't been prepared
for this.
It was like opening
a coffin lid.
He didn't waste time
on any pleasantries.
- I need somebody good
to man the switchboard.
He's got to be an old hand.
I could bring in somebody
from one of the outstations,
but you're better,
because you've been away
for so long,
away from the in-fighting
and the vendettas
around this place...
You don't know
what I'm talking about.
That's good.
Just do exactly what I tell you.
There could be a crisis tonight.
I've got a man
doing a special job.
It's of the utmost importance
to this service.
The service, it's for us.
It could change everything
for us.
Your job tonight
is to act as cutout,
cutout between me
and whatever goes on
in the rest of the building.
If anything comes in,
radio signal, phone call,
letter, anything at all,
no matter how trivial it seems,
you are to wait,
wait until the coast is clear,
and then bring it
straight to me by hand, Sam.
You don't use
the internal phones.
You don't put anything down
on paper for future reference.
Is that understood?
And when it's all over,
you're not to breathe
a word about it.
Never.
Not to anybody.
Not to Smiley.
Not to Haydon.
Not to Bland.
Nobody.
- What if I have to
send out something?
- Only what I tell you.
- The defensive weaknesses,
have I think cost them
the match,
which could now be sewn up
by Paul Mariner...
[can cracks open]
Or by Woods-
two are still down-
or by Mirren
or by Woods.
And in the end, by none of them.
Unbelievable.
Paul Mariner
has completely blanked,
and he deserves a great deal
better than that,
because I think by a shade,
he's my man of the match.
- Bullocks.
[door handle rattles]
[clock bells chime]
[clock ticking]
[sighs]
[phone ringing]
This is duty officer.
Hm?
Right.
Yes, I see.
Yeah, well,
I have to call you back.
It all sounds very unlikely.
[knock at door]
- Collins?
This is urgent.
- Well, it's open.
- There's all hell broken out
in the Czechoslovakia.
Half of it's coded,
but there's enough that isn't.
- Prague or Brno?
- Brno.
[phone rings]
- Yes'?
Damn it, Molly.
Keep listening.
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
Control.
Oh, Control.
The resident clerk
from the foreign office
came on first with a story
from Reuters' head man
in London.
Molly picked the same thing up
on the radio.
And Reuters and a couple
of Fleet Street papers
have already had another go
at the foreign office.
They're saying
that a British spy
has been shot in Brno.
The Czechs are telling the world
about an act
of gross provocation
by a Western power.
They haven't
named the dead man yet.
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 in?
Do you want to come downstairs
and handle it yourself?
- It's deniable
he had foreign documents.
No one could know he was British
at this stage.
There hasn't been time.
Even if he's not dead.
Find Smiley.
- He's in Berlin.
- Yes.
Well, anyone will do.
It makes no difference.
Tell Mendel
to get me a taxi.
[phone clicks]
- You sent Mendel home.
[siren blaring]
[intense instrumental music]
II
[flipping switches]
- He's been named.
- Hello?
Hello.
Hello.
Is that Mrs. Smiley?
[rattling]
[machine whirring]
You got my message, then.
- Why did you leave it?
- 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?
- I saw the tickertape
at the club.
I gather it has been some
god-awful shooting party.
Tell me.
Czechoslovakia, right?
- Jim Prideaux's been shot.
Look, the Czechs haven't got
his real name yet.
They're using his work name,
Ellis.
- Jim?
Shot dead?
- Well, we're not sure.
That was the first flash.
Since then, the word used
is simply "shot."
What the Czechs are saying,
that Prideaux-
Ellis,
traveling on false papers
and assisted by
Czech counterrevolutionaries,
tried to kidnap a Czech general,
unnamed,
in a forest near Brno
and smuggle him over
the Austrian border.
They say that further arrests
are imminent.
- Goon
- Well, according
to our military,
there are heavy
Czech tank movements
along the Austrian border.
Lacon's been on
and so has the minister.
They want to know,
'What the hell?" and 'Why?"
Now, I have put out
emergency calls
to Smiley, Alleline, Bland.
I'm glad to see you.
I'm sorry, Bill.
- All right, Sam.
Now, first thing we do,
you call this number.
It's Toby Esterhase's.
[paper tearing]
Tell him you're speaking
for me.
And he's to pick up
the two Czech agents
we've had our eyes on at
the London School of Economics
and lock them up now.
Straight away, Sam.
Jim's worth a lot more
than those two.
But it's a start.
I'd have a word with the chief
hood at the Czech embassy.
If they hurt a hair
on Jim Prideaux's head,
I'll strip
the entire Czech network
in this country bare.
And you can pass that on
to his master.
I'll make him the laughingstock
of the profession.
[suspenseful instrumental music]
II
- I'm bound to say
Haydon was a treat to watch.
[sniffs]
I used to think of him
as a pretty erratic
sort of devil.
Not that night, believe me.
He virtually dictated
a press statement
for the foreign office
to put out.
And there it was
the following morning
in the Sunday papers:
"Proud radio
sensation revelations
dismissed with dignified scorn."
I found it good light reading
over breakfast at The Savoy.
- And then you went
to the south of France?
- Two lovely months.
- Did anyone question you again?
- Percy Alleline.
Well, he was acting chief
by then.
You were out on your ear,
and Control was in hospital.
Percy wants to know
how I'd come to be
doing duty officer
on the fateful night.
That chap, Masterman,
was down for it.
Well, I told him
what I had put to Masterman,
that I know that a kip
and a quiet weekend
in the Circus
would save me a bit of spending
money for the south of France.
Percy said I was a liar.
- And that's why they
sacked you?
For fibbing?
- Alcoholism.
There were
five empty beer cans
in the duty officer's
waste paper basket.
Well, there's a standing order
against booze on the premises.
So what was your offence,
George?
- Oh, I couldn't convince them
that I wasn't involved.
- Oh, well, if you want
anyone's throat cut,
give me a buzz.
- Sam, listen.
It was too late
for Haydon's club
to be still running tickertape,
wasn't it?
He was making love to Ann
that night.
You made a guess of that,
and you were right.
You telephoned her,
she told you he wasn't there,
and then as soon
as you'd rang off,
she pushed him out of bed,
and Bill turned up
an hour later
knowing about Czecho.
Not that you didn't tell Ann...
about Czechs.
[phone rings]
I'll find my own way down.
[phone rings]
- Mind how you go, George.
[door closes, phone rings]
[Song of Simeon]
- ♪ Lord ♪
♪ Now lettest thou ♪
♪ Thy servant ♪
♪ Depart in peace ♪
II
♪ According to Thy word ♪
II
♪ For mine eyes ♪
♪ Have seen Thy salvation ♪
II
♪ Which Thou hast prepared ♪
♪ Before the face ♪
♪ Of all people ♪
II
♪ To be a light ♪
♪ To lighten ♪
♪ The Gentiles ♪
♪ And to be the glory ♪
♪ Of Thy people ♪
♪ Israel ♪
II
♪ Glory be to the Father ♪
♪ And to the Son ♪
♪ And to the Holy Ghost ♪
♪ As it was
in the beginning ♪
♪ ls now and ever shall be ♪
♪ World without end ♪
♪ Amen ♪