ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the many colourful anecdotes surrounding the BBC's 1979 television adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, particularly concerning the involvement of John le Carré and leading actor Alec Guinness, as circulated in popular and biographical accounts. Firstly, it problematises the use of these stories in serious academic study, demonstrating how most can be traced back to the single source of le Carré and bear the hallmarks of his storytelling style. Secondly, however, it demonstrates ways in which such anecdotal material can be effectively combined with textual analysis and documentary sources through interrogating le Carré's recurrent complaint that Guinness in some sense ‘stole’ the character of George Smiley, combining sources to identify several respects by which Guinness's performance choices can be said to have influenced le Carré's concurrent writing of the character in Smiley's People.
