Audio Books : Thriller : MP3/Variable : English
The Complete Smiley by John le Carre

Call for the Dead - A Murder of Quality - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - The Looking Glass War - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - The Honourable Schoolboy - Smiley's People - The Secret Pilgrim

BBC Radio 4 presents dramatisations of all eight of John le Carré's George Smiley spy thriller novels, with Simon Russell Beale playing George Smiley throughout.

Source: BBC iPlayer.

LAME, variable bitrate. Encoded by EAC with command line -V 6 --vbr-new %s %d

Fully tagged with artwork included.

I have split the ninety-minute episodes in two so they will fit onto audio CDs.

Total run time: 18 hours 54 minutes.


1) Call For the Dead

2.30-4.00pm, Saturday 23 May 2009

London, the late 1950s. A disenchanted Smiley is engaged in the routine job of security vetting. When a Foreign Office civil servant commits suicide not long after being cleared of Communist sympathies, Smiley investigates - and uncovers a deadly conspiracy with its roots in his own wartime past. Dramatised by Robert Forrest. One ninety-minute episode, split into two parts.


2) A Murder of Quality

2.30-4.00pm, Saturday 30 May 2009

A public school in the early 1960s. When the wife of one of the masters is found bludgeoned to death, Smiley, out of loyalty to an old friend, finds himself investigating her death - an investigation that lifts the lid on a world of hidden passions and murderous hatreds. Dramatised by Shaun McKenna. One ninety-minute episode, split into two parts.


3) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

3.00-4.00pm, Sundays 5, 12, 19 July 2009

The height of the Cold War. It is 1962, only months after the building of the Berlin Wall. Alec Leamas, a hard-working, hard-drinking British intelligence officer, finds his network in East Berlin is in complete tatters. All his agents are either on the run or dead, victims of the ruthlessly efficient East German counter-intelligence officer Hans-Dieter Mundt. Leamas is recalled to London. Dramatised by Robert Forrest. Three one-hour episodes.


4) The Looking Glass War

3.00-4.00pm, Sundays 20, 27 September 2009

When word reaches The Department, an ailing section of British military intelligence, that Soviet missiles are being installed close to the West German border, former spy Fred Leiser is lured back from retirement to investigate. But the world has changed since The Department's glory days during the Second World War. The harsh realities of the Cold War now prevail, and there is no place for heroes. Dramatised by Shaun McKenna. Two one-hour episodes.


5) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

3.00-4.00pm, Sundays 29 November, 6, 13 December 2009

Part 1 of the Karla Trilogy. George Smiley, wrestling with retirement and disillusionment, is summoned to a secret meeting with a member of the Cabinet Office. Evidence has emerged that the Circus has been infiltrated at the highest level by a Russian agent. "Find the mole, George. Clean the stables. Do whatever is necessary." Reluctantly Smiley agrees, and so embarks on a dark journey into his past - a past filled with love, duplicity and betrayal. Dramatised by Shaun McKenna. Three one-hour episodes.


6) The Honourable Schoolboy

3.00-4.00pm, Sundays 24, 31 January, 7 February 2010

Part 2 of the Karla Trilogy. Smiley, now head of the Circus, must rebuild trust in the shattered organisation. He is also determined to destroy his nemesis, Karla, and his spy networks. He recruits Jerry Westerby, occasional spy, occasional news reporter, full-time romantic - The Honourable Schoolboy of the title - and despatches him to the Far East, where, amidst the corruption and decay of former colonies, a new battle is about to begin. Dramatised by Shaun McKenna. Three one-hour episodes.


7) Smiley's People

3.00-4.00pm, Sundays 11, 18, 25 April 2010

Part 3 of the Karla Trilogy. When a Russian émigré is found murdered on Hampstead Heath, Smiley is called out of retirement to exorcise some Cold War ghosts from his clandestine past. What follows is Smiley the human being at his most vulnerable and Smiley the case officer at his most brilliant; and it takes to a thrilling conclusion his career-long, serpentine battle with the enigmatic and ruthless Russian spymaster Karla. Dramatised by Robert Forrest. Three one-hour episodes.


8) The Secret Pilgrim

3.00-4.00pm, Sundays 13, 20, 27 June 2010

The Berlin Wall is down, the Cold War is over, but the world's second oldest profession is very much alive. Smiley accepts an invitation to dine with the eager young men and women of the Circus' latest intake; and over coffee and brandy, by flickering firelight, he beguilingly offers them his personal thoughts on espionage past, present and future. In doing so, he prompts one of his former Circus colleagues into a searching examination of his own eventful secret life. Dramatised by Robert Forrest. Three one-hour episodes.