John le Carre
Born David John Moore Cornwell in 1931, le Carre studied at Oxford and taught at Eton before being recruited by the Foreign Office. He served in the British Embassy at Bonn, and later Hamburg, and was eventually approached by MI6. He was still in the service when he wrote his first novel in 1961, but his cover was eventually blown by the famous double agent, Kim Philby. Many years later, Le Carre would explore Philby's weaknesses in the guise of 'Gerald', the character hunted by George Smiley in 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'. The BBC's 1979 mini-series starring Alec Guiness as Smiley was reportedly le Carre's favourite screen adaptation of his work.
"Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes." - John le Carre
A Most Wanted Man (2014)
6.8/10
Director: Anton Corbijn
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Willem Dafoe, Rachel McAdams
It is a bitter sweet time to be a film lover as new films from the late Philip Seymour Hoffman continue to hit the screen. The latest of them is Anton... Read more
Our Kind of Traitor (2016)
6.2/10
Director: Susanna White
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Jeremy Northam, Stellan Skarsgard, Mark Gatiss, Damian Lewis, Nao...
While on holiday in Marrakech, an ordinary English couple, Perry (Ewan McGregor) and Gail (Naomie Harris), befriend a flamboyant and charismatic Russi... Read more
Smiley's People (1982)
8.7/10
Director: Simon Langton
Starring: Alec Guinness, Alan Rickman, Patrick Stewart, Bernard Hepton, Anthony Bate, Eile...
John Le Carre's government operative George Smiley comes out of retirement again when a former colleague is murdered. Using his keen intuition and esp... Read more
The Constant Gardener (2005)
7.4/10
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Starring: Pete Postlethwaite, Rachel Weisz, Ralph Fiennes, Bill Nighy, Danny Huston
Fernando Meirelles ('City of God') makes his English language debut with this enthralling, complex John Le Carre thriller. Deceptively sedate at firs... Read more
The Looking Glass War (1969)
6/10
Director: Frank Pierson
Starring: Christopher Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Richardson, Pia Degermark
Based on the best-selling novel by John Le Carre, this gripping Cold War espionage-thriller, stars Christopher Jones as Polish defector Leiser who, in... Read more
The Night Manager (2016)
8.2/10
Director: Susanne Bier
Starring: Hugh Laurie, Tom Hollander, Olivia Colman, Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Debicki
In Cairo at the height of the Arab Spring, hotel night manager Jonathan Pine receives a plea for help from the beautiful Sophie Alekan. As the mistres... Read more
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965)
7.7/10
Director: Martin Ritt
Starring: Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner
Perhaps the best of the Cold War spy movies. Good writing coupled with magnetic performances make it that rare film based on a novel that is the equal... Read more
The Tailor of Panama (2001)
6.1/10
Director: John Boorman
Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Pierce Brosnan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine McCo...
Sharply satiric spy tale, co-scripted by John Le Carre from his novel and directed by John Boorman. Pierce Brosnan is a less than ethical English age... Read more
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979)
8.6/10
Director: John Irving
Starring: Alec Guinness, Ian Richardson, Bernard Hepton, Joss Ackland
In this award-winning adaptation of John le Carre's novel, Sir Alec Guinness stars as spymaster George Smiley, a retired agent for the British Secret... Read more
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
7.1/10
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Ciaran Hinds, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Kathy Burke, Mark Strong, Sim...
There is a mole in MI6. When British agent Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy) discovers, courtesy of an affair, that there may be a Russian agent operating at a h... Read more