SMILEY'S PEOPLE - DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE UK AND US SERIES (PARTS FIVE AND SIX)
Following on from my previous posts looking at parts one and two and part three and four this post looks at differences between the fifth and sixth episodes of the US version of Smiley’s People and the UK version of the series. Although the timings of the US episodes are listed, it is not worth making any comparisons as the US version runs much slower due to frame rate differences.
Part Five (54 mins, 28 secs)
Shortened Scene
Enderby’s opening line at the start of the episode has been cut.
Missing Scene
Enderby’s entire conversation with Smiley in the ‘garden’ has been cut.
Missing Scene
When Smiley visits Ann his conversation with her housekeeper is missing.
Missing Scene
The scene of Smiley, Guillam and Ferguson closing down the safe house has been cut.
Missing Scene
The scene of Tatiana being told to wake up by one of the nuns is missing.
Part Six (54 mins. 33 secs)
Shortened Scene
There are many minor trims to Smiley’s interrogation of Grigoriev.
Missing Scene
Smiley’s conversation with Skordeno at the end of Grigoriev’s interrogation is missing.
Missing Scene
The subsequent meeting between Esterhase and Grigoriev has been cut entirely.
Shortened Scene
Smiley’s journey to meet Tatiana has been truncated.
Shortened Scene
Smiley’s conversation with the Sister at the Sanatorium has been trimmed.
Shortened Scene
Smiley’s wait for a message from Karla has been cut down.
Shortened Scene
The initial scenes as all the characters wait for Karla to cross the bridge in Berlin have been condensed.
Shortened Scene
Guillam’s conversation with Smiley in the café has been cut down quite significantly. We don’t see Guillam order ‘something for the rent’ or discuss the upcoming birth of his child.
Shortened Scene
After Guillam and Smiley leave the café the final scenes that show the characters waiting for Karla have been trimmed slightly.
Hi
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to thank you for this blog and these posts, I too love these series as well as the work of Le Carre and Guinness in general. When it comes to the differences between the US and British versions I agree the cuts are significant in this one, it's interesting that there are parts which aren't even in the deleted scenes on the US blu-ray (see here https://images2.imgbox.com/22/f5/sIytR4CO_o.png https://images2.imgbox.com/b5/47/ApfXKwqM_o.png for example), guess some of them were considered too minor but there are parts I think they should have at least put in the deleted scenes. Anyway, great news about the British version getting a blu-ray release finally! Thanks again.
Thanks for the feedback Otto. Your very detailed breakdown of the missing scenes are amazing. I agree, it's disappointing that all the deleted scenes were not included on the Acorn release. I always felt the shorter US version of Tinker Tailor was skilfully edited and works well but the US version of Smiley's People is hacked to pieces quite frankly. There are so many important scenes missing that it's only worth watching if you can't source a copy of the UK edition.
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