Smiley's People

Having watched the excellent, Original BBC adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy a few weeks ago, I've just finished viewing the sequel, Smiley's People.  If anything, Alec Guinness' Smiley has become even more dour and withdrawn, and the pace of the storytelling is positively glacial compared with present-day television dramas.  Nevertheless, it is completely compelling, hooking the viewer in early on then slowly spinning out its yarn in a very understated fashion.  This is spy drama as it's played out in reality - a chess game of patient, minor moves within a larger strategy, with many pawns of weak insights and powers and a grandmaster in the background pulling the strings - rather than the whizz-bang of Bond, Bourne, etc.  If you want to watch a pair of clever, thoughtful and layered drama's then these BBC adaptions of John Le Carre's novels are worth a viewing.