10 September 1979. The first part of the BBC TV seven-part drama series, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, was broadcast. It starred Alec Guinness as George Smiley, and was based on John le Carré's 1974 spy novel. Le Carré said the series was his favourite adaptation of his work. ( )

This was an odd one for me. I went into Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with very high expectations, and unfortunately they weren't met. It's hard to pinpoint what I think was wrong with it. The book is hard to follow at times, yes, but no more so than a bunch of other books. It tells a complicated story in a very straight-forward way, without dropping many hints as to what parts are especially important, but again, that is a style of story-telling that can work very well. Relative to other books I found this one to be "hard work", but I generally don't mind that at all if they payoff was a great story, which this undoubtedly is. For me it just wasn't a great read.

I think the problem is that the book didn't make me feel anything, and it didn't even seem to try. Significant moments which could have been the source of suspense, emotion, or both were simply recounted as if they were the minutes of a committee-meeting. This is obviously an intentional style, but for me it didn't really work. A thing I did like was the way the characters, and their relation to each other, was built up mainly through implications and dialogue rather being explicitly spelled out. It gave a satisfying feeling of a painting gradually appearing. And, again, the story is interesting. Interesting enough to have the potential to be really exciting and thrilling. To me it just wasn't.

However, this is probably one of those books I will find myself thinking about for a while, and that's something. ( )