George Smiley
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George Smiley is a fictional character created by John Le Carré.
Smiley is an intelligence officer working for MI6 (often referred to as the Circus in the novels and films), the British overseas intelligence agency. He is the central character in the novels Call for the Dead, A Murder of Quality, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People, and a minor character in a number of others.
His address is 9 Bywater Street in Chelsea, London.
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[edit] Early Life
Although Smiley has no concrete biography beyond that offered briefly at the beginning of Call for the Dead, Le Carré does leave tantalising clues in his novels.
Smiley was probably born around 1906 to middle-middle class parents in the South of England, and attended a minor public school and an antiquated Oxford college of no real distinction (in the adaptation of Smiley's People, he refers to himself as a fellow of Lincoln College), studying modern languages with a particular focus on Baroque German literature. In July 1928, while considering post-graduate study in that field, he was recruited into the Secret Intelligence Service by his tutor Jebedee.
He underwent training and probation in Central Europe and South America, and spent the period from 1935 until approximately 1938 in Germany recruiting networks under cover as a lecturer. In 1939, with the commencement of World War II, he saw service not only in Germany, but also in Switzerland and Sweden. Smiley's wartime superiors described him as having 'the cunning of satan and the conscience of a virgin.' [1]
In 1943, he was recalled to England to work at MI6 headquarters, and in 1945 successfully proposed marriage to Lady Ann Sercombe, a beautiful, aristocratic, and libidinous young lady working as a secretary there. Ann would prove a most unfaithful and rather condescending wife. In the same year, Smiley left the Service and returned to Oxford. However, in 1947, with the onset of the Cold War, Smiley was asked to return to the Service, and in early 1951 moved into counter-intelligence work, where he would remain for the next decade. During that period, Smiley first met his Soviet nemesis, Karla, in a Delhi prison. Karla proved impossible to crack and managed to filch Smiley's lighter, a gift from his wife.
[edit] In the Novels
Smiley first appeared in Call for the Dead, Le Carré's debut novel. At the start of the novel, set in the very early 1960s, Smiley has fallen from grace and is working in a relatively menial intelligence job, security-clearing civil servants. At the conclusion of this book, he retired from the "Circus". He was pursuing a sedate life of scholastic research in German literature at a university in the West Country (probably Exeter) when he investigated a murder at a famous public school (Carne, based closely on Sherborne school) in Le Carré's next novel, A Murder of Quality.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold propelled Le Carré to international renown. In this, his third novel, Smiley is back in the "Circus" and may already have become one of top aides of "Control", the mysterious head of the organisation . His role was a very minor one however. The events in this book probably took place in 1962, although during this period Smiley's timeline became a little tangled.
Smiley appeared again in The Looking-Glass War, but only in a peripheral role, occupying the "North European desk". He subsequently rose up the ranks of MI6 in the late 1960s and early 1970s until he was the right-hand man of "Control", only to be eased out in November or December 1972 after the Prideaux fiasco in Czechoslovakia and "Control"'s death. The Circus was then run by Percy Alleline with Bill Haydon running 'London Station'.
When Le Carré wrote Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, he drastically revised the timeline of Smiley's early life. According to this new account, Smiley was recruited into MI6 in 1937, not 1928. This was probably done so that Smiley's advancing age would not become an issue in the subsequent novels Le Carré was planning for his protagonist. His colleague Peter Guillam also had his personal history revised, from being a near-contemporary of Smiley's who had trained with the Circus during World War II in the early novels to being his younger protégé and trusted deputy. (Ironically in the television adaptations of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Guillam, played by Michael Jayston, is portrayed as a relatively young character; but in Smiley's People Michael Byrne has him nearer to being a contemporary of Smiley).
In September or October 1973, the events of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy take place, with Smiley successfully managing to expose the long-term Soviet agent, or, as the books have it, "mole", codenamed "Gerald". The investigation revealed that Gerald, who was actually a senior member of the anti-Control faction which took over the Service the previous year, passed an enormous quantity of high-grade intelligence to the USSR. The anti-Control faction was discredited and Smiley became interim Chief of the Service in late November 1974 to clean up the resultant mess, rebuilding the organisation's headquarters by use of trusted old-timers like Guillam, Doc de Salis and Connie Sachs.
In 1975 or 1976, after the conclusion of "Operation Dolphin", which was described lengthily in The Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley retired again from the Service. In Smiley's People he was brought back in late 1977 to investigate the death of an elderly Estonian general, nationalist activist and erstwhile MI6 agent. A convoluted trail lead Smiley to discover a human weakness in his nemesis Karla, whom he persuaded to defect to the West in Berlin in December 1977. This triumph is the highlight of his career. Parenthetically, the fictional Karla is based on the real-life long-time head of KGB counterintelligence, Rem Krassilnikov.
Smiley popped up in various Le Carré novels as a bit player throughout the 1980s, lastly in 1989 when he appeared in The Secret Pilgrim chairing the "Fishing Rights Committee," a body set up to explore possible areas of cooperation between British and Soviet intelligence services.
[edit] Analysis
Le Carré introduced Smiley at about the same time as Len Deighton's unnamed anti-hero (Harry Palmer in the movie versions). This was a time when the critics and the public were welcoming more realistic versions of espionage fiction, in contrast to the glamorous world of Ian Fleming's James Bond.
Smiley is sometimes considered the anti-Bond in the sense that Bond is an unrealistic figure who relies on gadgets and is more a portrayal of a male fantasy than a realistic government agent. George Smiley, on the other hand, is quiet, mild-mannered and middle-aged. He lives by his wits and, unlike Bond, is a master of bureaucratic manoeuvring rather than gunplay. Also unlike Bond he is no a bed-hopper, in fact it is Smiley's wife Ann who is notorious for her affairs.
When Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was published, the reviewer of the Spectator described Smiley as a "brilliant spy and totally inadequate man".
Smiley is depicted as an exceptionally skilled spymaster gifted with a prodigious memory, a student of espionage with a profound insight into the weaknesses and fallibilities of humans. Though he has a strong moral conscience, he also understands the grisly and unethical aspects of his profession.
Despite his series of retirements, Smiley maintains an extensive range of aides and support-staff, both inside and outside the Service, extending even to "retired" police officers and former Service members. His fidelity to them and his strong character appears to promote genuine respect and loyalty to him.
Le Carré describes him as a somewhat short and fat man, who always wears expensive but badly fitting clothes (he "dressed like a bookie"). He also has a peculiar habit of cleaning his glasses on his necktie.
It is reported that Le Carré based the character George Smiley on his one-time Lincoln College, Oxford professor, the former Rev. Vivian Green - a renowned historian and author with an encyclopaedic knowledge.
[edit] In other media
Rupert Davies, of Maigret fame, played Smiley as a minor although important character in the film version of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, made in 1965, and which starred Richard Burton.
To all intents and purposes James Mason appeared as Smiley in The Deadly Affair, a film version of Call for the Dead, made in 1966 and directed by Sidney Lumet. For some reason the character was renamed Charles Dobbs.
Smiley's most famous portrayal, however, must be that made by Sir Alec Guinness in two highly successful TV series: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, made in 1979, and Smiley's People, made in 1982.
Denholm Elliott took the part in a less successful 1991 version of A Murder of Quality.
Bernard Hepton, who played the part of Toby Esterhase in the BBC television series, played Smiley in the BBC Radio series of both Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People, with Charles Kay taking the part of Esterhase.
[edit] Parody
In the popular TV comedy series The Two Ronnies, Ronnie Barker played George Smiley along the lines of Guinness' portrayal in a sketch called Tinker Tailor Smiley Doyle. This was a joint send-up of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Professionals TV show, with Ronnie Corbett playing a bungling version of Martin Shaw's Doyle. Barker's Smiley provides the brains to the brawn of Corbett's Doyle and actually comes out the better. He is shown as something of an obsessive tea drinker. The sketch guest-starred Nicholas Smith from Are You Being Served?. The name of Smiley's enemy Karla can be seen on a secretary's computer screen.
