Novelists can be shits (and may be the better for it)

Writers of my generation are comparing the BBC’s version of Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy – the highpoint of the golden age of British television drama in my view – against the new film.  You can see the 1979 series now because rather magnificently, if not perhaps legally, someone has put it on YouTube. The film, which is also well worth seeing, is hours shorter and has less time to develop characters. Most strikingly, although it tries to be faithful to the novel, the atmosphere is different in subtle ways. When the BBC adapted le Carré, we were still living in the novel’s world.  Today’s film is historical fiction. That it works, superbly in some scenes, confirms that the Smiley trilogy will survive well into the 21st century. A great story is one that new generations can reinterpret. On this test, le Carré is a great writer, and literary editors have greeted the film’s release by offering him generous tributes.