Peter Egan Remembers...A Perfect Spy

POSTED BY CONTROL

Obviously this website is primarily focussed on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley's People but we do share a fondness and appreciation for the BBC's 1987 adaption of John le Carré's A Perfect Spy. 

With an excellent screenplay by Arthur Hopcraft, Jonathan Powell acting as Executive Producer and Claire Douglas returning as Film Editor (for six of the seven episodes) the series has a familiar feel to it. It does not involve Smiley or the Circus but it is all about spies, spying and betrayal. 

It features three outstanding performances from Peter Egan, Ray MacAnally and Rüdiger Weigang and the series is worth watching for these performances alone. It is shot entirely on film but I suspect the series had a smaller budget than Tinker Tailor or Smiley's People - this is reflected in production values that don't quite match up to those illustrious predecessors.

If you have not seen A Perfect Spy it is certainly worth taking the time to watch. The series is on BBC4 at the moment and available to stream on the iPlayer for the next three weeks (assuming you live in the UK and have a television licence). Accompanying the episodes on the iPlayer is a brand new fifteen minute interview with Peter Egan which can be found here.

Just before the series was screened in the United States in 1988, Egan gave a revealing interview to the LA Times about the art of 'doing nothing'. You can read that interview here.

It is a shame that the BBC have not yet given A Perfect Spy an upgrade to high definition. We live in hope of a blu-ray release one day though!