But the Department has been moribund since the War, its resources siphoned away. In the past, the Circus handled all things political, while the Department dealt with matters military.

The Looking Glass War – It would have been an easy job for the Circus: a can of film couriered from Helsinki to London.

In the background is George Smiley, ready to make the game play out just as Control wants. Assuming the guise of an embittered and dissolute ex-agent, Leamas is set up to trap Mundt, the deputy director of the East German Intelligence Service – with himself as the bait.

As he faces the prospect of retirement or worse – a desk job – Control offers him a unique opportunity for revenge. For Leamas, the head of Berlin Station, the Cold War is over. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – In the shadow of the newly erected Berlin Wall, Alec Leamas watches as his last agent is shot dead by East German sentries.As Smiley takes up the investigation, he realizes that in life – as in espionage – nothing is quite what it appears. Reluctant to go to the police, Miss Brimley calls upon her old wartime colleague, George Smiley. Stella Rode, saying that she fears her husband is trying to kill her. She’s received a peculiar letter from Mrs. A Murder of Quality – Miss Ailsa Brimley is in a quandary.Why, then, did the man from the Foreign Office shoot himself in the head only hours later? Or did he? After a routine security interview, he concluded that the affable Samuel Fennan had nothing to hide. Call for the Dead – George Smiley apparently made a mistake.

What is known as The Karla Trilogy is the most important part of the George Smiley story, but his story started in 1961 in Call for the Dead. Geoge Smiley has been portrayed on TV, Radio, or Cinema by Rupert Davies (1965), James Mason (1966), George Cole (1978, 1981), Alec Guinness (1979, 1982), Peter Vaughan (1983), Bernard Hepton (1988, 1990), Denholm Elliott (1991), Simon Russell Beale (2009–2010) and Gary Oldman (2011). Smiley may be the most famous British spy after James Bond, but he was definitely another kind of spy. After all, even with a long career, being a spy required living in the shadows. Smiley wasn’t necessarily a central character each time he made an appearance in one of Le Carré’s books. He is a spy or, more precisely, a career intelligence officer with ‘The Circus’ – the British overseas intelligence agency. George Smiley is a fictional character created by John le Carré.

Let’s take a look at his previous apparitions.

I don’t know if you heard, but George Smiley is back after 27 years of absence. Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases from Amazon.

Le carre smiley trilogy