Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Episode Guide

Episode: 1x01 | Airdate: Sep 10, 1979

Was George Smiley sacked after a scandal or is he merely retired? When he is summoned by the Cabinet watchdog for Intelligence Affairs, Smiley agrees to head the hunt for a Secret Service mole.

Episode: 1x02 | Airdate: Sep 17, 1979

Smiley is forced to go back over some very old ground when he is told a story about spies.

Episode: 1x03 | Airdate: Sep 24, 1979

In his search for the mole sitting at the heart of the Circus, Smiley sets out for Oxford to visit an invaluable friend.

Episode: 1x04 | Airdate: Oct 1, 1979

Smiley recalls the past - his involvement with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier and Poorman, and Karla - the legendary head of Moscow Circus.

Episode: 1x05 | Airdate: Oct 8, 1979

Smiley thinks that the time has come to call on Jim Prideaux, whose assignment to Czechoslovakia went disastrously wrong, with the mole at the heart of the Circus to blame.

Episode: 1x06 | Airdate: Oct 15, 1979

Smiley's investigation to snare the traitor at the heart of the Circus leads him to Jerry Westerby, a Fleet Street journalist.

Episode: 1x07 | Airdate: Oct 22, 1979

In the final part of John le Carre's classic story, George Smiley's search for the mole at the heart of the Circus finally comes to an end.

Episode: S01 Special | Airdate: Jan 2, 2023 (15 min)

Michael Jayston played George Smiley's right-hand man Peter Guillam in the BBC's acclaimed 1979 adaptation of John le Carré's classic spy tale.

As part of the BBC's Centenary of Drama, and over four decades on, Michael now looks back on the experience, recalling what it was like working on what is still considered one of the best television series ever made, and how he held his own acting alongside one of the finest acting talents of the 20th century, the great Sir Alec Guinness.