Finding Camelot in Cookham - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Location

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As we continue to research these series, the gaps in our knowledge are beginning to melt away. The ‘Lexham Gardens’ safe house was a huge find and, once John Rundle had helped us locate that Holy Grail, it left only one major Tinker Tailor location for us still to find - Camelot.

We had no real leads at all to the location of the country mansion belonging to Sir Oliver Lacon. John Rundle was certain we would find the house and the golf course close together, as he felt sure these scenes would have been filmed at the same time. There were only a few clues to go on. In the television series, the house is referred to as Lacon's 'Hampshire Camelot', in the book it is his 'Berkshire Camelot'. As it turns out, the novel was correct.

A reverse image search of the above shot finally led us to this distinctive Edwardian property in Grange Lane, Cookham (see below) that had been on the market in 2015...

The 'lean to' conservatory has been demolished but another view of the rear of the property (below) shows a new conservatory has been added. However, the new conservatory does not extend towards the edge of the turret in the way the original one did.

If you compare the above photo with the screen capture below you can see just how wide the original conservatory was...

There was one further piece of photographic evidence from the house listing that clinched the location...

That brick fireplace is unmistakable...

I felt a location visit would be helpful to see if I could match up other elements that appear in the series. I learnt that the house was originally called 'The Grange' but it is now split into four properties. I spoke to the owner of one property, who had lived there for 25 years, and was aware that the house had appeared in Tinker Tailor. 

I was delighted to be able to match an important external feature on my visit. Check out the front door - I half expected Oliver Lacon to answer!

Sadly, it wasn't possible to confirm the precise location of the room where Tarr was debriefed. The owner of the property I spoke to explained that many of the internal rooms had been altered substantially when the property was divided into four houses. The debriefing room was large (see below), so it is possible the room might be split between two properties now.

In the photo below you'll notice two different styles of lattice window designs in the room...

You can see those two different styles replicated in another estate agent photo below, although this is obviously not the same room. The rather unusual 'block paving' lattice style is also seen on the front door and in several other screen captures below.

One aspect of the production that sets Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy apart from its peers is the calibre of the entire cast. It is worth taking a moment to credit the three actors supporting Guinness and Jayston in these scenes. In a small but important role the ever dependable Fawn is played by the excellent Alec Sabin. We are also introduced to Anthony Bate's fussy but precise Whitehall mandarin, Sir Oliver Lacon and Circus bad boy, Ricki Tarr played to perfection by Hywel Bennett. 

Bate's performance over the two series is superb. Lacon is calling the shots in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and setting the parameters of Smiley's investigation. When we meet him again in Smiley's People, Bate shows us a man who has rather lost a step - Lacon's broken marriage has clearly affected him and he is almost a bystander as events unfold.

Episode 2 of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy belongs unquestionably to Hywel Bennett. He is utterly believable as the renegade Circus scalp-hunter, Ricki Tarr. We can imagine Bennett's Tarr charming his way into just about any situation. Towards the end of the debriefing scene I particularly like the way Bennett makes his not-so-subtle joke about Smiley's 'official' marriage and his amused reaction to his boss, Guillam, being ticked off for not assuming the phone line may have been tapped.

At the start of the debriefing comes one of the most iconic passages of dialogue in the series. It is Tarr's response to Smiley asking if he is currently absent without leave from the Circus and on the wanted list: “I think I'm safe now. I've got a story to tell you. It's all about spies. And if it's true, which I think it is, then you boys are going to need a whole new organisation. Right? Shall I start with the day you sent me to Lisbon. Changed my life...you might find it's going to change all your lives.”

Bennett charismatically delivers these lines but credit must go to Arthur Hopcraft for this beautiful dialogue. It doesn't appear in this form in the novel and the lines spoken by Bennett are almost unchanged from the earliest draft of Hopcraft's screenplay. 

(For information, Chris will be focussing on the events in Portugal that appear between these scenes in Lacon's house in a new series of articles starting shortly.)

In 2019 Michael Jayston recalled his experiences of filming these scenes in November 1978…

“There was a strike on, it was after an evening when he (Guinness) had taken the whole cast and crew out for a meal and he’d paid for the lot, but he got quite upset because Hywel Bennett and John Irvin had started quoting the Scottish play, which you don’t really do, or you shouldn’t. The next day Alec Guinness gets a problem with his eye, Hywel Bennett had to go to hospital and there’s a BBC strike on. The good news was I was stuck in this hotel with Alec Guinness, Anthony Bate and Hywel Bennett, although he (Bennett) was in hospital for some of the time. We had to be on call until 12 o’clock - at 12 o’clock we were broken for the rest of the day. ‘Do you fancy some Veuve Clicquot, Michael?’, Alec asked. So, we had a couple of Veuve Clicquots - that was for a whole week! We had some Veuve Clicquot and a meal in the evenings! I wished the strike was going to go on for another month or so (it did get slightly desperate and John Irvin was worried the series might not be completed) but eventually we were back working again. I said to Alec about a week later when we were back at work ‘I do miss those Veuve Clicquots’, he said ‘shhh…don’t tell anybody’.”

- Transcribed from an interview for the DVD The Doctors - The Colin Baker Years.

These scenes were due to have been filmed on the 25th and 26th November 1978 but Jayston's recollection of events means it is very difficult for us to be sure exactly when filming took place. Returning to our location, let's consider the satellite image below. John Rundle was quite correct in his assumption that we would find the house situated next to the golf course...

We can tell from the screen capture of the house at night (below), that the driveway entrance was originally much further down Grange Lane...

Another property has now been built on this land but Lacon and Smiley were able to walk from the back garden to join Grange Lane here. The screen capture below was taken just after Lacon closed the driveway gate.

The scene cuts here and continues after they have walked through another gate on to the golf course. 

Now be honest - had you noticed on previous viewings that Smiley and Lacon walk through two different gates in these scenes or had you only seen one? Eagle eyed viewers may have spotted that the driveway gate closes from right to left and the golf course gate closes from left to right. As we will see later, both men have actually walked down the road a bit between the two scenes.

This is the gate today (below) looking towards the golf course in the direction they were walking...

The gate is the same design as the one that appears in the series, although I highly doubt it is the same gate. The shot below is taken looking back at the entrance, with Grange Lane in the background. The crew would have been positioned on the grass on the right hand side as Smiley and Lacon walked through the gate. You will notice the foliage that was originally around the gate (visible in the earlier screen capture) has been almost entirely cleared...

As both men walk and talk they leave the path and make their way towards a green in front of the clubhouse. The large tree on the right of the screen capture below is no longer present on the course today...

But we can still roughly estimate the direction they were walking (below) and the view of the Chilterns on the horizon perfectly matches the above screenshot.

In the screen shot below we can see something of the clubhouse buildings...

From what we can make out behind Lacon and Smiley the clubhouse seems to retain a similar structure today...

If you are thinking of walking in Lacon and Smiley's footsteps at the very moment Smiley is charged with cleaning the stables, I can recommend a visit to this location. The Winter Hill Golf Club were very welcoming and happy for me to use their car park, take photos and walk through the gate on to the course. I also enjoyed a pleasant coffee and cake in the clubhouse before departing. 

Finally, the fully annotated satellite map below summarises all the key locations we have identified.

My thanks to the owner of one of the properties that was formerly 'The Grange', Winter Hill Golf Club, John Rundle and Chris for their help with this article. If you have any information about the filming of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or Smiley's People that would be of interest to visitors to this website, please drop us a line at guinnessissmiley@icloud.com

As I mentioned earlier we are off to Lisbon in the very near future, as Chris takes a deep dive into episode two and Ricki Tarr's fateful mission.

Screen captures (c) BBC 1979

Satellite images by Apple Maps

Other images were taken by the author