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The BBC productions of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley's People are blessed with supporting actors of the highest calibre. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy features some of the finest British actors of the era. Smiley's People boasts a stellar international cast, perhaps unrivalled by any television series since - take a glance at the IMDb credits for Curd Jürgens, Mario Adorf, Vladek Sheybal and Michael Lonsdale.
One of the highlights of the last two episodes of Smiley's People is the performance of Michael Lonsdale as Grigoriev. Grigoriev is a shifty character whose motivation is initially unclear. As Toby Esterhase describes him, “a trained hood Grigoriev isn't, no tradecraft, he's actually a complete catastrophe...but he's not straight either, he's...half-breed”.
It's a delight for the viewer to watch Grigoriev's mock outrage as he attempts to wriggle out of the accusations Esterhase, and then Smiley, confront him with. There is something almost childlike about the way he tells himself off for his stupidity in front of everyone. We quickly realise that Grigoriev loves being the centre of attention though - he positively revels in the limelight while telling the story of how he was courted by the chain-smoking 'priest'. The round of applause he gets from Toby's team for confronting Grigorieva is a funny moment.
Guinness and Lonsdale spar beautifully together on screen - in his diary Guinness remarked that Lonsdale was “marvellously good” in these scenes. They both were.
This article focusses on the locations where Grigoriev was snatched by Esterhase and his team and then interrogated by Smiley. We will also explore the location where Grigoriev gives Esterhase the letter from the courier Krassky.
Episode six opens in Bern and we pick up Grigoriev on the day of his abduction...
This beautiful location is quite easy to find by examining the buildings and infrastructure in the background of the screen captures above and below.
But on this occasion we do not need to do much research, as John le Carré describes where we are in great detail in the novel:
The old city of Bern is best described as a mountain, a fortress, and a peninsula all at once...Between the Kirchenfeld and Kornhaus bridges, the Aare runs in a horseshoe cut into a giddy cleft, and the old city roosts prudently inside it, in rising foothills of medieval streets, till it reaches the superb late-Gothic spire of the Cathedral, which is both the mountain’s peak and its glory. Next to the Cathedral, at the same height, stands the Platform, from whose southern perimeter the unwary visitor may find himself staring down a hundred feet of sheer stone face, straight into the swirling river. It is a place to draw suicides and no doubt there have been some. It is a place where, according to popular history, a pious man was thrown from his horse and, though he fell the whole awesome distance, survived by God’s deliverance to serve the church for another thirty years, dying peacefully at a great age. The rest of the Platform makes a tranquil spot, with benches and ornamental trees and a children’s playground—and, in recent years, a place for public chess. The pieces are two feet or more in height, light enough to move, but heavy enough to withstand the occasional thrust of a south wind that whips off the surrounding hills.”
Excerpt from Smiley's People.
With stunning views of the Aare, the Alps, and the Bernese Matte-Quartier, the Münsterplattform is a popular spot for a picnic, a game of boules or table tennis, or just some rest. Affectionately called “Pläfe” by the locals, the cathedral platform is located in the old town right next to the cathedral. Albert Einstein used to live just around the corner in the Kramgasse between 1903-1905.
Below is the location today, remembering of course that the use of a long focal length lens in the series foreshortens the buildings in the background, making them appear closer to the camera than they actually are.
There is no chess match in progress on this occasion and indeed in the photo below (taken from where Grigoriev was standing) we can see a table tennis table where the large board and pieces once stood.
As Esterhase moves to intercept Grigoriev, we see a building in the background behind him which is home to the Agricultural Service in Bern...
You can see this building in the contemporary photo below, along with the
Bern Casino, which is visible behind Grigoriev in the earlier screen capture. In the background of that shot and the opening shot of the series, we can see the
Bellevue Palace Hotel, which ironically is where Smiley is staying during his visit to Bern. We can also see the
Kirchenfeld Bridge in the photo below, which is behind Toby in the earlier screen shot. (These locations appear prominently in episode five and we will cover them all in more detail in our follow up to this article.)
As Esterhase & Co. escort Grigoriev out of the Münsterplattform, they head towards a gate in the north west corner...
Here is a contemporary photo from a similar spot below...
Beyond the gate we can see the cars parked in Münsterplatz ready for a quick get away...
And this is the gate today...
As the team prepare to bundle Grigoriev into the waiting cars...
...we can see what this location looks like now in the photo below.
Notice the architecture visible on Bern Münster Cathedral behind Skordeno in the image below...
We can see it again in the photo below, with the gate to the Münsterplattform also visible on the right. We only see the cathedral briefly in the background of these shots but it is worth highlighting that the Bern Münster Cathedral of St. Vincent is the largest and most important late medieval church in Switzerland. Construction began in 1421 with the steeple finally completed in 1893.
At this point let us identify the members of Toby's team who receive screen credits. The primary characters are Skordeno and de Lisky played by
Joe Praml and
Eugene Lipinski, respectively. Praml and Lipinski are part of the select group of actors who appear in both
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and
Smiley's People. While Praml reprised his role as Skordeno
, Lipinski played a Czech guard in
Tinker Tailor. Litzi Meinertzhagen, who drove the primary get away car, is played by
Marion Garai.
The above photo shows Litzi's reaction to the stomach punch Skordeno gives the unfortunate Grigoriev.
The cars then leave the Münsterplatz in the north west corner, turning left into Münstergasse past the Moses Fountain...
As we can see, the location has hardly changed in the intervening years.
The picture below was painted in 1800, before the upper tower of the cathedral was completed, but the location is instantly recognisable as the scene of Grigoriev's abduction over 180 years later!
All these scenes were filmed on the 17th November 1981 and you can see the events set out on the map below...
But where to next? The exterior of the safe flat was a bit more difficult to pin down. Le Carré wrote in the novel that the team drove to Länggassstrasse but this location bears no resemblance to what we see on-screen.
John Rundle suggested looking to see if there were any clues in the shape of the road. It curved in both directions and the covered walkway meant we were probably looking for a street close by in the old town.
They brought Grigoriev to an address in Brunngasse, a semi-circular street in the north of the old town. We can match screen captures perfectly with recent Streetview images.
The car Grigoriev arrives in is a 1978 Audi 100 Avant GL 5E C2 (Type 43) and is featured on the IMCBd website. There is another shot of the street during Grigoriev's interrogation and this one enables us to match a whole host of architectural elements with the streetview image.
Grigoriev's arrival at the safe flat and the shot of the watchers outside was filmed on the 18th November 1981. We can see on the map below that the safe flat was just a short drive from the location where Grigoriev was abducted...
As Grigoriev was bundled through a door in the covered walkway though the trail went cold, as we could not find a match for the interior scenes.
We were obviously looking for an unusual and impressive room - but where? We decided to let the article rest here until there was more information.
Quite recently, we got lucky! We have been trying to decipher Sir Alec Guinness's handwriting for multiple entries in his diary, which has proved challenging. After considering lots of variations, we eventually hit on
Tite Street in Chelsea, where Guinness filmed on the 26th and 27th November 1981. It was our good fortune that the property in question had only recently been on the market - for those interested you would need a cool £12 million to call it home! An estate agent’s brochure afforded us a glimpse inside the property.
Check out the decor of the fireplace surround and ingelnook behind Grigoriev...
...and the paneling on the wall behind Smiley.
Both aspects remain unchanged in a photo from the brochure below...
Skylights have been added on both sides of the large windows since filming took place but otherwise the room is very recognisable. Also in the estate agent’s brochure is a floor plan which matches the geography on screen. We can see the stairs Grigoriev is brought up and the room where Millie McCraig was listening to the recording of the interrogation.
The house has quite a history too, as detailed in another estate agent’s brochure:
This Grade II listed house was first occupied by the celebrity portrait artist, Frank Miles, and his lodger, Oscar Wilde, who delightedly referred to Tite Street as the “Street of Wonderful Possibilities”. The house was a magnet not only for artists and the literati, but also members of high society who were attracted by its reputation for flexible morality and bohemian values. Lilly Langtry was a frequent visitor, as were many of the royal mistresses. Designed by celebrated architect, Edward Godwin in 1879, it is considered his masterpiece and one of the finest architectural examples of the aesthetic movement. The house retains many original features including a staircase with Japanese lattice-work design and a charming inglenook.
One quirk of the make believe world of television is that Smiley could have left his house in Bywater Street and walked to the safe flat in Bern in under 10 minutes. The fictional world can be very small.
Immediately following his interrogation, we see Grigoriev on screen for the last time as he hands over the letter from the courier Krassky - which takes us back to Bern. (Ironically, this was the first scene Lonsdale filmed for the series on the 12th November 1981.)
This may be the funniest scene in either series. Grigoriev tries to extort Esterhase, firstly for money and then, with his demand to become a Colonel in the British Army! Esterhase's reaction when Gregoriev says he has told Natasha that he has a "secret mission" is absolutely priceless. Bernard Hepton really shines in these exchanges.
The scene evokes a delightfully funny passage in the novel describing Grigoriev's tradecraft:
Grigoriev left his house at quarter to eight each morning and had a five-minute walk to the Embassy...Toby would make one car sweep down the road at seven-fifty exactly. If Grigoriev carried his brief-case in his right hand, Toby would know that nothing was happening. But the left hand meant “emergency,” with a crash meeting in the gardens of the Elfenau palace and a fall-back in the town. On the Monday and Tuesday, Grigoriev went the distance using his right hand only. But on the Wednesday it was snowing, he wished to clear his spectacles, and therefore he stopped to locate his handkerchief, with the result that Toby first saw the brief-case in his left hand, but when he raced round the block again to check, Grigoriev was grinning like a madman and waving the brief-case at him with his right. Toby, according to his own account, had “a total heart attack”.
Excerpt from Smiley's People.
The Esterhase/Grigoriev scene was filmed at the
Rosengarten (Rose Garden), which opened as a public park in 1913. It is a popular spot to take in the scenic view of the city.
We can match the above screen capture to a contemporary view from the same spot today...
Both men gaze out over the city...
The image below is taken from a similar location...
The
Restaurant Rosengarten opened in the 1960s and is visible in the background of the screen capture and the image directly above. You can see it in more detail below...
We can precisely pin down the location of Esterhase and Grigoriev courtesy of the screen capture below...
As Esterhase rises from the bench we can see two ornate urns on plinths (according to Mrs Control these are probably Victorian) and Grigoriev's Mercedes is parked between them. We can match this spot directly to the photo below...
...and the satellite view of the area looks like this:
Finally, let's pull back so we can see all the Bern locations covered at in this article.
In our follow up article to this piece, appropriately titled 'Return to Bern', we will focus on the remaining scenes filmed here for episode five of Smiley's People.
If you have any information about the making of
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or
Smiley's People that you think would be of interest to visitors to this website feel free to get in touch at
guinnessissmiley@icloud.com
Screencaps (c) BBC 1982
Streetview images and maps - Google and Apple
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