Hepton is Smiley!
I'm sure that many fans of 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' and 'Smiley's People' will remember the original BBC Radio adaptions in 1988 and 1990. Staring Bernard Hepton as George Smiley, these wonderful productions were originally released on audio cassette and are no longer commercially available.
The good news is that someone has kindly made a copy of both of these plays and uploaded them to Youtube. The adaptions are unique and differ significantly from the novels, tv adaptions and subsequent radio dramatisations with Simon Russell Beale. They are well worth listening to and Hepton is marvellous as Smiley.
If you haven't heard them before then it's worth making some time to enjoy them over this most unusual Christmas. Click on the links below to listen.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - BBC Radio 1988
Smiley's People - BBC Radio 1990
John le Carré 1931-2020 RIP
UPDATE 28th December 2020
It actually makes sense to also include with this post a link to this early BBC Radio adaption of 'The Honourable Schoolboy' which was broadcast in 1983. In this adaption Peter Vaughan plays George Smiley and Martin Jarvis plays Jerry Westerby.
I'm guessing the BBC decided to dramatise just the middle book in the Karla trilogy for radio as the television adaptions of 'Tinker, Tailor' and 'Smiley's People' were still fresh in the memory.
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