Smiley's People UK Blu-ray Release

It always seemed likely that the BBC would release 'Smiley's People' on Blu-ray in the UK, after last year's release of 'Tinker Tailor'. They duly obliged on the 9th November 2020 with a product to match the design and style of 'Tinker Tailor'. 

The product includes a twelve-page booklet (written by yours truly!) with plenty of unseen images and lots of previously unpublished detail about the series.

In terms of extras we have the same John le Carre/John Irvin interview that was on the DVD release (which by rights is more relevant to 'Tinker Tailor' than 'Smiley's People', but it's still nice to have it).

There is also a short extra about the restoration, which details the work undertaken on this release. For those that are interested this text appears on the screen explaining what they did: -

'Smiley's People' has been restored from a mixture of 16mm A & B roll original negatives, Colour Reversal Internegative (CRI) and Interpositive (IP). The image quality varies across all three formats with the original negative being the best source available.

Where the negatives were not available the CRI and IP masters were used to cover the missing shots.

Each format contained multiple film related artefacts such as softer images and colour and density fluctuations which became amplified on formats that are not the original negatives.

Thousands of instances of film dirt have been removed and each shot has been stabilised, colour corrected and sharpened where needed for consistency.

These new episodes have been reframed and exported as new High Definition masters.

So to the episodes themselves. I must confess I am not technically minded, so I shall just explain how they look to me. Yes, this is a massive step up from the DVD release. No, it isn't perfect! My biggest complaint would be that the overall image looks too 'smooth' - plenty of detail but very little grain which to my eyes diminishes the filmic look of the production. 

I think the reason the results are good but not perfect can be found in the explanation about the various sources used for this restoration. The original negative was not always available, so they were working with inferior sources to plug those gaps. That's said, it's a perfectly acceptable upgrade and I'm very grateful for it. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone debating whether to not to purchase.

Perhaps we will be fortunate enough to be treated to 'A Perfect Spy' this time next year.

'Smiley's People' is available to purchase from Amazon in the UK here.