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Classic Serial

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Adaptations of works which have achieved classic status

Classic Serial: The Complete Smiley - The Karla Trilogy: Book 3: Smiley's People

Classic Serial: The Complete Smiley - The Karla Trilogy: Book 3: Smiley's People: Part 1

Book 3: Smiley's People

Part 1 The Complete Smiley - The Karla Trilogy

BBC Radio 4 - Classic Serial, The Complete Smiley - The Karla Trilogy, Book 3: Smiley's People, Part 1

Smiley investigates when a veteran Russian Ã©migrÃ© general is found dead on Hampstead Heath

When a veteran Russian Ã©migrÃ© general is found dead on Hampstead Heath, George Smiley is called out of retirement to exorcise some Cold War ghosts from his clandestine past.

Simon Russell Beale stars as the intelligence officer George Smiley in a three-part dramatisation by Robert Forrest of John le Carre's classic novel, first published in 1979 and the third in the celebrated 'Karla Trilogy' following 'Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy' and 'The Honourable Schoolboy.'

Part 1: At the end of 'The Honourable Schoolboy', in the mid-1970s, as a ruthless new broom swept through the secret corridors of Whitehall, spymaster George Smiley quietly left the Circus and vanished into private life. But a year or two later, when a veteran Russian emigre general is found dead on Hampstead Heath, Smiley is called out of retirement to exorcise some Cold War ghosts from his clandestine past. What follows is Smiley the human being at his most vulnerable, and Smiley the case officer at his most brilliant; and it takes to a thrilling conclusion his career-long, serpentine battle with the enigmatic and ruthless Russian spymaster Karla.

Ann Smiley ..... Anna Chancellor
Oliver Lacon ..... Alex Jennings
Chief Superintendant ..... Stephen Critchlow 
Lauder Strickland ..... David Bannerman 
Mikhel ..... Nigel Anthony
Mostyn ..... David Seddon
Old woman ..... Joanna Monro
Postman ..... Michael Shelford
Girl ..... Keely Beresford
Stella ..... Alison Pettitt
William ..... Piers Wehner

Producer Patrick Rayner

This episode is available until 3.00pm on Sunday 2nd May as part of the Series Catch-up Trial.

Classic Serial: The Complete Smiley - The Karla Trilogy

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Drama: Thriller

Dramatisation of John le Carre's classic novel, set in Berlin in the early 1960s

Dramatisation by Shaun McKenna of John le Carre's classic novel. George Smiley is called out of retirement to seek out a mole believed to be at the heart of the Circus

By John le Carre. George Smiley comes out of retirement to conclude his battle with Karla

Dramatisation of John le Carre's classic novel. George Smiley is called out of retirement to conclude his career-long battle with the enigmatic and ruthless Russian spymaster Karla

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The Complete Smiley - The Karla Trilogy

Book 3: Smiley's People

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