A Perfect Spy

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.