The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas

by John le Carré

The complete collection of acclaimed BBC Radio dramas based on John le Carré's best-selling novels, starring Simon Russell Beale as George Smiley. With a star cast including Kenneth Cranham, Eleanor Bron, Brian Cox, Ian MacDiarmid, Anna Chancellor, Hugh Bonneville and Lindsay Duncan, these enthralling dramatisations perfectly capture the atmosphere of le Carré's taut, thrilling spy novels. 'Call for the Dead' is the first Smiley novel, which sees him looking into an apparent suicide only to uncover a murderous conspiracy; 'A Murder of Quality' finds Smiley investigating a murder in a private school; 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' introduces Alec Leamas, a British intelligence officer whose East Berlin network is in tatters; 'The Looking Glass War' features former spy Fred Leiser, lured back from retirement to investigate a claim that Soviet missiles are being installed close to the West German border; 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' is the first book in the Karla trilogy, and sees Smiley searching for a mole who has infiltrated the Circus; 'The Honourable Schoolboy' sees Smiley determined to destroy his nemesis, Karla, and his spy networks; 'Smiley's People' finds George Smiley called out of retirement to exorcise some Cold War ghosts from his clandestine past; and 'The Secret Pilgrim' sees Smiley invited to dine with the eager new recruits at the Circus. He offers them his thoughts on espionage and, in doing so, prompts a former colleague to re-examine his own eventful secret life.

Genres: Audiobook, Espionage, Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Crime

19 pages, Audible Audio

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

John le Carré, the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell (born 19 October 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England), was an English author of espionage novels. Le Carré had resided in St Buryan, Cornwall, Great Britain, for more than 40 years, where he owned a mile of cliff close to Land's End.

Le Carré died at Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, on 12 December 2020, aged 89. An inquest completed in June 2021 concluded that le Carré died after sustaining a fall at his home.

abridged from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Rupert Fenton]

I am a big John le Carre fan, and over the last 25 years, I have read all these books apart from a Murder of Quality. The classics are brilliant even if I have read them twice before listening. The Honorary Schoolboy which as a book was a bit of misstep is improved by the shortened adaption and the other minor works such as the Looking Glass War add a different perspective on the cold war narrative. The attraction of Carre's novels is the believable bureaucracy of spies and listening to all these books together make you feel that Smiley was real. A perfect set up to before reading A Legacy of Spies.

[Simon Fletcher]

I've loved listening to these dramatisations and Simon Russell Beal just seems to inhabit the character of Smiley in a way that neither Alec Guinness nor Gary Oldman did. Not better just different.

[Lee]

This is my first 'read' from Le Carre and indeed my first forage into the world of espionage and sadly I found it slow going and uneventful. I just couldn't connect with Smiley and found the imaginary conversations with his wife off putting and confusing. I'm sure he is an acquired taste.

Reading the other reviews I can see that Smiley has a loyal following, maybe I just picked the wrong way to have my first meeting with him....

I did finish these dramas.

[Arjun Iyer]

[The following is a review of the Karla stories from the collection]

Blurb: The spies who ASMR'd me

Before my 15th Birthday (or thereabouts) I had always considered myself a bit of an 'afficionado' when it came to espionage literature. At the time, after having read more than a few James Bond novels along with a healthy dose of Modesty Blaise and a bit of Simon Templar, I fancied my tastes in the genre to be rather refined and exclusive. And then George Smiley strolled into my literary landscape and disabused me of my elitist illusions. In my early 20s I found the Karla stories brought to life on-screen with Alec Guinness' impeccable performance as the reticent Chelsea pensioner. And just when I thought I had finally experienced everything there is to experience with regards to the world of George Smiley, in walks Simon Russell Beale and hits me with a heady dose of deja vu.

Much like the ailing Connie Sachs, I fell victim to Simon's evocative voice as George Smiley and it would be a disservice to the rest of the cast if I did not mention their contributions alongside Simon's to a most invigorating auditory experience. I had seen the life and triumphs of George Smiley in my mind's eye, through my physical eyes and now I've heard him perhaps at his most vulnerable & in his most human form.

If you've stared (as I have) to your monthly Audible charge and asked yourself 'Is it worth it?' then content like this should whisper in your ears that it is.

[Nathan]

George Smiley is one of my favorite characters and Simon Russell Beale one of my favorite actors, so this is kind of review-proof for me.

The only thing keeping it from five stars is a creeping sameness to the material: Smiley takes down a Soviet agent and immediately suffers a kind of moral hangover in which he laments having to stoop to the tactics of his enemy, wondering aloud if both sides aren't really the same after all.

This "a plague on both their houses" stuff grates over time. One side is torturing dissidents and the other side is...what? Gauche? I found myself more drawn to Smiley's sometime-boss Control, who is refreshingly free of qualms or scruples — or, at least, of the need to discuss them. (I also fell in love with THE LOOKING-GLASS WAR, a nasty little story about a prank one intelligence service plays on another which shows Control at his Machiavellian best.)

[Greg Strom]

Sorry to say this gets a rare DNF in my book, so to speak. I didn't pay "tench" as sister likes to say, and only realized they were radio dramas as the first echoing phone rang. I do believe these are meant to be enjoyed and better appreciated if listened to in a sitting, not commuting 30 minutes at a time thus losing track of who's who and what's what. Seems for his most famous one "The spy that came in from the cold" George Smiley played a small role in, and ultimately the ending left me, well, cold. Thanks for nothing George! To be fair I will get the actual audiobooks and give them a go, though must say a few of the parts were well characterized, but the fight scenes and sound fx for much were more a distraction than plot enhancement.

[Norma]

( Format : Audiobook )
George Smiley on the BBC: all from start to finish.

Adapted from the original spy stories of the cold war period by John le Carre, and including the eight books based around the intellectual spy, George Smiley, these plays are superbly acted and delivered with full BBC excellence.

So good to reconnect with this superb character and the London intelligence services for which he worked via these plays
So good.

[Shatterlings]

I couldn’t stop listening to these plays based on the smiley books, they are so well done. The only story I knew before was Tinker, tailor but still enjoyed that. The honourable schoolboy was the weakest story, the other thing I didn’t really follow was the time span as characters mention they have known each other 20 years, it’s just not clear that there’s been that long between books.

[Jeffrey Livingston]

I loved it!, the unpredictable and believable plots, the way personal and professional lives influence each other in a tangled web, the jargon, the insidious impact of class, all of which is unique in this genre. I did at times find it difficult to follow and had to revert to Gemini for an explanation, which works well but remember to ask for no spoilers.

[Susan]

I read a number of le Carre’s books, many years ago, and returned to him recently via “A legacy of spies”. I’ve really loved immersing myself in this collection of radio plays. This is as excellent an introduction to Smiley’s world as it is an opportunity to revisit it.

[Sue Marsh]

George Smiley’s world is very downbeat and seems to be portrayed in shades of sepia, but the cast is excellent and Simon Russell Beale seems much more appropriate to me than Alec Guinness (but perhaps that’s a generational thing).

[Baron Deschauer]

I listened to these radio dramas like a man obsessed. Beautiful writing performed flawlessly. I am now a huge John le Carre fan!

[J]

Some were better adapted than others.

[Gregory Kellogg]

Wonderful stories, masterfully performed. While edited from the original books, the narrative does not suffer and after all these years the stories hold up well.

[Paddy]

Audiobook. Great nostalgic trip with the master!

[Ian Wilson]

A great collection well performed.

[Nomad nimrod]

I haven't read all the books but I thoroughly enjoyed this.

[Stephen Theaker]

Brilliant and engrossing, terrific acting. Listening to all these BBC Radio Collections, I'm starting to realise why people who listen to Radio 4 seem so clever and well-read.

[Iain Hamill]

Excellent audible version.

Best enjoyed when strolling late at night in the rain or ideally a thick fog! Also okay on the bus for the morning commute…

[Rachel England-Brassy]

I loved these audiobooks and highly recommend them to all fans of great writing and enthralling stories.

[eeKnud]

Well-written for a radio play, the acting consistently good throughout.

It did help to know the stories.

Glad I chose this as a summer read.

[Jeff Crosby]

Radio plays are disappearing, replaced I suppose by dramatized audio books. This collection was produced for the BBC. I have read all the George Smiley novels so this is not new ground.

Brian Cox portrays Alec Leamas in The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.

Ian McDiarmid is the lead in The Looking Glass War.

[Cheryl]

wonderful to enjoy these as an audiobook series