>Actually two out of the three Smiley books by John LeCarre, ("Tinker,
>Tailor , Soldier, Spy" and "Smiley's People") were both made into excellent
>mini-series starring Alec Guinness. They are both well worth seeing,
>although I'm not sure if you can actually follow the plots without first
>reading the books.
Exactly. They weren't originally written for TV and they suffer in that the
plot complexity is almost impossible to reproduce, but can't be reduced
either without ruining the plot. I found the same trouble with the TV
production of Deighton's "Berlin Game". Granted the protagonist wasn't
supposed to be able to figure out what was going on, but then neither could
I, and as a result I got fed up with it after a few episodes. (But in that
particular instance I didn't like the book either.)
Tony Woodward (tony.woodward@nlc-bnc.ca)