For more than half a century, film and television makers have been drawn to the novels of John le Carré. The 2016 serialisation of The Night Manager, soon to re-emerge as a co-production between Amazon Prime and BBC TV, was the latest in a long line of TV treats inspired by le Carré’s prose.

Alec Guinness’s portrayal of George Smiley, the donnish, bespectacled spook who wouldn’t look out of place in a rural rectory, remains a defining performance of the television age.

Less well known than Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) and Smiley’s People (1982) - both starring Guinness - is BBC TV’s third le Carré adaptation, A Perfect Spy, first shown as a seven-episode series on BBC Two in 1987.

The screenplay is written by the late Arthur Hopcraft, a former sports journalist who also brought Dickens’ Bleak House and Hard Times to the small screen. Those who have read A Perfect Spy, the most autobiographical of le Carré’s books, will need no reminding of its complexity. The author never underestimates the reader’s intelligence, shifting the narrative constantly as past and present are woven together in a story that, at times, can be confusing.

Locations switch between London, Oxford, the Home Counties, East Anglia, European cities including Bern and Vienna, and the island of Corfu.

Turning this massive book into a cogent screenplay was itself a considerable feat. Hopcraft did it with exemplary skill by taking the novel to pieces and rearranging it chronologically. Wisely, he drew extensively on le Carré’s often spellbinding dialogue.

This was a smart move as the author rarely wrote as well as he did in A Perfect Spy. And le Carré never wrote badly. Not for nothing did Philip Roth describe A Perfect Spy as “the best English novel since the war”.

Arguably, le Carré’s characters have never been as rich, and Hopcraft’s dramatisation brings many of them vividly to life. No fewer than four actors are cast as the eponymous perfect spy, Magnus Pym, whose life story is told from early childhood to middle age: Nicholas and Jonathan Haley, who play Pym as a boy, Benedict Taylor (the teenage Pym) and Peter Egan as Pym the man.

We watch agog as this quintessentially charming middle-class English man double deals his way through life, corrupted beyond redemption by his amoral father, Rick (Ray McAnally), a conman of epic proportions. Sadly, McAnally died aged 63, two years after A Perfect Spy was shown.

This is no conventional TV spy yarn, but rather a masterly and disturbing study of human frailty and betrayal. At the heart of it lies Pym’s deeply conflicted relationship with “his old Dad”.

Rick surrounds himself with a court of criminals and a steady supply of “lovelies”. This is a seedy world that is not without its humour. His chutzpah is such that – despite having a criminal record, including a stretch inside – he still stands as an MP.

By today’s lavish Netflix-inspired production standards, the production values cannot match those of contemporary spy thrillers such as the brilliant Slow Horses, so don’t expect sumptuous set pieces or much in the way of glamour and a sense of place.

A Perfect Spy is focused firmly on the mostly brilliant acting. Huge credit to director Peter Smith. Both Egan and McAnally are superb as their very different qualities jump out of the screen. Both inhabit their parts totally.

Pym’s recruiting officer, Jack Brotherhood, is depicted with just enough menace by Alan Howard, and German actor Rüdiger Weigang shines as Axel, aka Poppy, the Czech double agent Pym can’t get out of his system.

Mention must also be made of the late, great Peggy Ashcroft, cast superbly as Pym’s surrogate mother, Miss Dubber, whose modest, welcoming Devon boarding house Pym takes refuge in.

There have been two subsequent BBC Radio adaptations of A Perfect Spy. I wouldn’t be surprised if a streamer was developing a new version for TV. If that were to end up only half as good as this version, it would still be
a must-watch. 

A Perfect Spy is available on BBC iPlayer