Smiley's People (1982) s01e06 Episode Script
Smiley's Lighter
How are you today, Counsellor? Oh, thank you.
Well.
I hope you enjoyed your little excursion | to the country on Friday.
The old city of Thun | is not sufficiently appreciated, I believe, by members of our diplomatic community here.
In my opinion, it is to be recommended | not only for its antiquity but also for its banking facilities.
You agree? My name is Kurt Siebel, sir.
I am chief investigator | to the Kantonalbank, Berne, in Thun.
We have certain questions relating to | Dr Adolf Glaser's private account with us.
You would do well to pretend to know me, eh? Please do not be alarmed.
If you could spare us an hour, sir, | I am sure we could arrange matters without troubling your domestic | or your professional position.
Please.
There are irregularities, Counsellor.
Grave irregularities.
We have a dossier upon your good self | which makes lamentable reading.
If I placed it before the Swiss police, | not all the diplomatic protests in the world would protect you | from the most acute public embarrassment.
What irregularities? | Who is this Glaser you speak of? I am not Glaser.
I am a diplomat, Grigoriev.
The account you speak of | has been conducted with total propriety.
As commercial counsellor, I have immunity | and the right to own foreign bank accounts.
There is also the delicate question | of your marriage, Counsellor.
I must advise you | that your philanderings in the embassy have put your domestic arrangements | in grave danger.
(CAR ENGINE STARTS) Remember, go easy.
No speeding.
| No laughing.
It's a Bernese Sunday.
(GRIGORIEV GROANS) (DOOR CLOSES) (GRIGORIEV GRUNTING) Where am I? I demand to know where I am.
I am a senior Soviet diplomat.
I demand to speak | to my ambassador immediately.
I have been kidnapped.
I am here against my will.
If you do not return me to my ambassador, | there will be a grave international incident.
You want ransom? You are terrorists? If you are, why don't you bind my eyes? | Why do you let me see your faces? You must cover them! | I want no knowledge of you! I demand! I demand! You are Counsellor Grigoriev | of the Soviet embassy in Berne? Grigoriev.
I am Grigoriev.
| Yes, well done, I am Grigoriev.
And who are you, please? Al Capone? | Why do you rumble at me like a commissar? Since we cannot afford to delay, I must ask you to study the incriminating | photographs on the table beside you.
Photographs? What photographs? How can you incriminate a diplomat? I demand to telephone my ambassador now.
I would advise the counsellor | to look at the photographs first.
When he has looked, | he is free to telephone whomever he wants.
Kindly start at the left.
The photographs are arranged from left to right.
The telephone is at your disposal, Counsellor.
Copies of these photographs will receive | generous distribution within 48 hours unless something is done to prevent it.
You will appreciate that the Swiss authorities | do not take kindly to misuse of their passports, least of all by diplomats.
They are also sensitive when it comes | to infringement of their banking laws.
Your womanising won't go down too well | in Moscow either, will it? How is Madame Grigorieva these days? Will she be pleased by a sudden home posting, followed by premature retirement | to some inclement part of Russia? You and all your family.
No car.
No privileges.
Unpersons.
Sit down.
We have also, of course, to consider | the effect of these photographs and reports upon certain organs of Soviet state security, | haven't we? Certain directorates of Moscow Centre.
| Special directorates.
We have to consider | whether exile is sufficient punishment for one who has so gravely bungled | his instructions.
Oh, yes.
At what time do you expect Madame Grigorieva | to return from her mushrooming expedition? We don't want you to be missed at home, do we? You are spies? You are Western spies? We are officials.
That's all you need to know.
When you have done as I ask, | you will walk out of here a free man.
Neither your wife nor Moscow Centre | will be any the wiser.
Now, please tell me at what time | your family returns from Elfenau.
(GROANS) Don't do that again, you hear me? I don't speak to scum like you! | What are you, eh? Polish? Magyar? I don't speak to anti-party elements.
| I am Russian.
- Don't do it again.
| - (GROANS) Oh, Grigoriev! You fool! You are so weak.
So weak.
Why didn't you say no? | You are a fool and a clown! You should be in the asylum instead of the girl.
| You are an idiot! You fool! Regarding your wife and children, Counsellor.
She will be home at one o'clock.
But perhaps she will be late? Oh, she's never late.
Then begin by telling me of your relationship | with the girl called Alexandra Ostrakova.
Huh! You hear that, Magyar? Ostrakova.
He asks me about some girl called Ostrakova.
| I know of no such person.
I am a diplomat.
Release me.
| I have important engagements.
Alexandra Borisovna Ostrakova.
So called.
A Russian girl, but she has a French passport.
Just as you are a Russian | but have a Swiss passport, Counsellor.
How did you come | to be involved with her, please? - I need vodka.
| - Give him a glass.
One only.
Involved? Do you think I am so base | I sleep with mad girls? I was blackmailed, pressured.
Always pressured.
(SMILEY) Take the bottle outside.
- I was in Moscow.
| - The date, please, Counsellor.
Give the date when you were in Moscow.
| Please give the date at all points.
- August.
| - Of which year? Which year? I say August, he asks me which August.
Huh! I was recalled to Moscow | for an urgent economic conference.
Wait.
Go on.
I had arranged to pass two days | in the apartment of a girl called Evdokia, formerly my secretary.
Her husband was away on military service.
Unfortunately I was prevented | from adhering to these arrangements by intervention of Moscow Centre.
(PHONE RINGS) We are advised your wife has returned home.
It's now become necessary | for you to telephone her.
Telephone her? You will kindly tell her | you are unavoidably delayed.
I tell this to my wife? | You think she will believe me? She will report me to my ambassador.
| "Ambassador, my husband ran away! Find him!" Each Thursday Krassky brings your weekly | instructions from Moscow, does he not? Your commissar, he knows everything, eh? If he does, why doesn't he speak | to Grigorieva himself? You are to adopt an official tone | with her, Counsellor.
Do not refer to Krassky by name, but suggest that he has ordered you to meet him | for an urgent discussion in the town.
If she protests, tell her it is a secret of state.
A secret.
A secret of state.
Hello.
It is Grigoriev.
Don't speak to me about food, woman! | I am not interested in mushrooms! Now, listen.
I shall be delayed by matters of state.
Matters of great urgency and importance.
I shall be delayed for several hours.
No, you may not know the reason.
Goodbye.
Thank you, Counsellor.
You were describing | how you were approached by Moscow Centre.
Kindly continue with your narrative.
"Well, Grigoriev," they tell me, | "you come with us.
We need you.
" In Moscow when they say that to you, | you do not say, "Call tomorrow.
" You go.
- And you went.
| - We drive.
- Hours.
All night.
| - In which direction? Oh, direction Kiev.
Then small roads through forests.
Up hills.
Flat fields.
Moonlight.
Oh, big Russian night.
Beautiful.
We drive through big gates.
Soldiers.
I ask my escort, "Is this a camp? What have | I done wrong? You are taking me to a camp?" They tell me to shut up.
We climb a hill.
On the hill, a small dacha.
A few lights, no luxuries.
"Who is this strange baron," I ask myself, "who can live in a hut and look at the world | without wishing to possess it?" Give me a cigarette.
And inside, this man.
Not a baron, a priest.
With a deep quiet in him.
Behind a desk.
Like you.
A man from himself.
Private in his mind.
"Grigoriev, I am a high official of state security.
"I am also a man like you.
"Sit down.
" I sit down.
Like now.
The room.
Barren as a prison cell.
A high official needs so little.
A man clearly of deep experience.
| I see it in his face.
You meet few men like that.
Smoking.
- Smoking what? | - Please? What did he smoke? | The question's plain enough.
A pipe? Cigarettes? Cigar? Ah.
Cigarettes.
American.
The room was full of their aroma.
Imagine the influence of such a man.
| To smoke American cigarettes in Russia.
And he gave you no name? No.
Describe the first topic | of your conversation with this man.
Ah.
Women.
He knew everything.
About my little Evdokia, | my plans to love her that weekend.
About typists.
Wives of certain comrades.
A ballerina in Leningrad.
He disposed of all this information | in the most disturbing details.
He smoked.
| He told my life clearly, without menaces.
"Grigoriev, you have no secret from me.
"I see into your very heart.
"But never mind.
Now you will be my ally.
"My soldier.
My friend.
"And I will reward you.
" He was like you.
Exactly.
First pressure, then the reward.
The friendship.
- Go on.
| - First I was to open a Swiss bank account.
Not in Berne, where I was known, but in Thun.
In the name of a Swiss subject, Glaser.
"But I am Soviet diplomat.
| I am not Glaser, I am Grigoriev.
" He hands me a Swiss passport | in the name of Adolf Glaser.
Every month this account should be credited | with several thousand Swiss francs.
Sir, you should observe his calmness, | his authority in all circumstances.
In chess game he would win everything, | merely by his nerves.
But he was not playing chess.
Sir, he was not.
So what was he playing? Make haste.
"Grigoriev," he says to me, "pay close attention.
" "In a private clinic in Switzerland, | not half an hour from the town of Thun, "is confined a young Russian girl suffering | from an advanced state of schizophrenia.
"Her name is Alexandra Borisovna Ostrakova.
"In the Soviet Union this form of illness | is not sufficiently understood.
"Diagnosis, treatment are too often complicated | by political considerations.
"In Switzerland a more enlightened attitude | is taken to these matters.
"Grigoriev, I speak to you as a father, | not a politician.
" "Comrade," I reply, "if this Alexandra Borisovna | is your child, you have my deep sympathy.
" He laughed.
I had misunderstood him.
"She is not my child | and my name is not Ostrakov.
Pay attention.
" I apologise.
| I feel the natural truthfulness of this man.
His warmth of heart.
His mercy.
You are a perceptive and kindly man, Grigoriev.
These qualities have not passed unnoticed.
Then he tells me a great secret.
"Grigoriev, in the whole history | of Moscow Centre, "there is no greater heroine | than Alexandra Borisovna Ostrakova.
"She has protected us against many enemies.
"She has mixed with the most dangerous elements "in order to deceive them | and report their conspiracies.
"She has given her very body | in the cause of the Revolution.
"Unfortunately, this experience | has now deranged her mind.
"She is an invalid.
"Help her, Grigoriev.
"Comfort her in her agony.
"Be a father to her.
" Your task.
What was your task? Well, to visit Alexandra | every week in her clinic.
To pay her fees from special bank account.
To speak to her physicians.
To be a father to her.
And, when courier Krassky calls, to give him | each week my report upon her condition and receive special instructions for next visit.
To place before her special questions | prepared for me by the priest.
And you agreed? I ask him first two questions for myself.
"Comrade," I said, | "why cannot this task be undertaken "by one of the many Swiss-based representatives | of our state security?" An excellent question.
How did he reply to it? "Comrade," he said.
"This matter is too secret.
"Even for the people of my own directorate, | too sensitive.
"As things are now, | if ever there should be a leak, "I shall know that Grigoriev alone | is the man responsible.
" I was not grateful for this distinction.
I should think not.
And what was your second question, Counsellor? "Has Ostrakova no parents? "Friends, relations of her own in Russia? "If our clinics are no good, | perhaps special arrangement could be made.
" And he replied? He became quiet.
For the first time, I would say, | he showed certain hardness.
"In secret operations," he told me, | "each may only know part.
"None but the Comrade Director himself | may know all.
" - And did you believe him? | - No, sir.
Why not? He had tears.
Tears in his eyes.
(SMILEY) Counsellor, whatever | your long-term plans may be, you will please remain at the embassy | for at least another two weeks.
- You are sending me back? | - If you do as I propose, you will find a warm welcome should you elect | to make a new life somewhere in the West.
What should I say? How should I explain? Next Friday you will on no account | visit the girl Alexandra.
You will tell your wife this was the substance | of today's meeting with the courier Krassky.
When Krassky brings your instructions | on Thursday, accept them normally.
- But you will not visit Alexandra.
| - And if I refuse? The priest will recall you, the Swiss will expel you, | Grigorieva will murder you and you will forfeit all chance | of a friendly reception in the West, alone or accompanied, as you wish.
Tidy up.
When will I see you again? You desert me? Leave me to this Magyar? This gentleman will take care | of all matters of detail.
Goodbye.
Goodbye, sir.
- Sir? | - Yes? Yes? What is it? Mr Smiley? - Yes? | - Your documents, sir.
What documents? Oh, those.
I don't think they'd constitute | a very grave breach of security, Skordeno.
Well? Where's the letter? Letter? I know of no letter.
What letter? From Krassky, bringing your instructions from | Moscow concerning your meeting with Alexandra.
Alexandra? Who is she? I want to speak to your master, the commissar.
| Makes a practice of kidnapping diplomats.
There are certain financial matters | to be arranged.
Magyar, tell the commissar that for this letter | from Krassky I require ten thousand dollars, cash.
I just told him.
- You did? | - Sure.
You know what he said? He said, "Fine, pay Grigoriev.
"First send the photographs | to every newspaper in Switzerland.
" Meanwhile, I send the priest a second set.
| And don't you ever again call me Magyar.
Give me the letter.
Oh, my friend.
Forgive me.
So much anxiety.
Grigorieva watches me.
My children watch me.
| You watch me.
Natasha watches me.
How? How does Natasha watch you? At the embassy she's asking questions.
"Each Friday where do you go? Why do you | take your wife? Where do you bicycle?" - When did she start asking this? | - Yesterday.
Magyar, this girl is a spy.
She is put there by the priest to watch me.
Everybody in the embassy tries to sleep with her.
| Why else does she sleep with me? - What have you told her? | - Oh, nothing.
Only that I have a secret mission.
Even too secret to tell her.
Jesus.
Jesus, Maria! Grigoriev! You will present my compliments | to the commissar? - Naturally.
| - You are my friend.
You know that? - My only friend.
| - Sure.
No problem.
No problem.
Oh, listen.
I want uniform.
Um you know what I mean? Not to wear now.
Later.
| I want to be colonel in the British army.
- You allow that? | - Hang on.
OK.
Later you have all the uniforms you want.
George, this is a madhouse.
How long can we hold the dam? | This guy is a total crazy.
- When does Krassky return to Moscow? | - Saturday, midday.
Tell Grigoriev he must arrange a meeting | with Krassky before he leaves.
On Saturday.
He should tell Krassky | he will have an important message for him.
An urgent letter to take to Moscow.
Sure.
Sure, George.
- Herr Lachmann.
| - Oh, yes.
Mother Felicity expects you.
- Thank you, Sister Beatitude.
| - Mother Felicity.
So you are Herr Lachmann.
Herr Lachmann is an acquaintance of Herr Glaser and Herr Glaser is this week indisposed.
Not so indisposed he could not telephone, | but so indisposed he could not bicycle.
Correct? - It is.
| - Please.
Do not lower your voice | merely because I am a nun.
We run a noisy house here | and nobody is the less pious for it.
- You look pale.
You have the flu? | - No.
No, I am well.
Then you are better off than Herr Glaser, | who has the flu.
- Have you met Alexandra before? | - No.
You are perhaps her father.
You are the absent Mr Ostrakov in disguise.
I have ceased to be surprised at anything.
I'm merely standing in for Herr Glaser.
Who is standing in for the parents.
| Good.
Now everything is clear.
You must be very careful with her, Herr Professor.
Sometimes she lives in the dark, and sometimes she sees too much.
Both are painful.
She has grown up in Russia.
I don't know why.
It's a complicated story, | full of contrasts and full of gaps.
If it's not the cause of her illness, | it is certainly, let us say, the framework.
- You do not think Herr Glaser is the father? | - No.
Nor do I.
Have you met the invisible Ostrakov? Oh, you've not.
Or does he exist? Alexandra assures me that he is a phantom.
Alexandra would have | quite a different parentage.
- Well, so would many of us.
| - (RINGS BELL) May I ask what you've told her about me? Everything I know.
Which is nothing.
You are a friend of Uncle Anton, | whom she refuses to accept as her uncle.
I have told her it is her father's wish | to have someone visit her every week.
She assures me her father is a brigand who pushed her mother | off a mountain at dead of night.
- (KNOCK AT DOOR) | - Come in, my child.
- Is Anton dead? | - No.
Anton has bad flu.
Anton says he is my uncle, but he is not.
He also pretends he has no car.
Where is your list? Anton always brings a list.
Oh, I have my questions in my head.
It is forbidden to ask questions without a list.
Questions out of the head | are completely forbidden by my father.
Who is your father? I saw your car.
- BE stands for Berne? | - Yes, it does.
What kind of car does Anton have? - A Mercedes.
A black one.
Very grand.
| - Why does he come to see me on a bicycle? Perhaps he needs the exercise.
No.
He has a secret.
Have you a secret, Alexandra? My secret is called Tatiana.
That's a good name.
Tatiana.
How did you come by that? Oh, it's forbidden to talk about it.
If you talk about it, nobody will believe you, | but they put you in a clinic.
But you are in a clinic already.
I appreciate your kindness, Herr Lachmann, but I know that you are | an extremely dangerous man.
More dangerous than teachers or police.
Mother Felicity is too close to God.
She doesn't know that God is somebody | who has to be ridden and kicked like a horse until he takes you in the right direction.
But you, Herr Lachmann, you represent the forgiveness of the authorities.
Yes, I'm afraid you do.
- Are you God? | - No, I'm just an ordinary person.
Mother Felicity says that in every | ordinary person there is a part that is God.
I've heard it said too.
You're supposed to ask me | whether I've been feeling better.
Are you feeling better, Alexandra? My name is Tatiana.
Then how does Tatiana feel? Tatiana is the daughter of a man | who is too important to exist.
He controls the whole of Russia, | but he does not exist.
When people arrest Tatiana, | her father arranges for her to be freed.
He does not exist but everyone is afraid of him.
Tatiana does not exist either.
What about Tatiana's mother? She was punished.
That is to say, she was not obedient to history.
She was mistaken.
People should not attempt to change history.
It is the task of history to change people.
Did Tatiana ever meet her father? A man used to watch the children walk to school.
And then? From a car.
He would lower the window | but he looked only at me.
- And did you look at him? | - Of course.
How else would I know he was looking at me? What was his manner? Did he smile? - (RINGS BELL) | - He smoked.
Feel free, if you wish.
Mother Felicity likes a cigarette sometimes.
Well, it's only natural, isn't it? Smoking calms the conscience, so I am told.
I would like to come with you in your car.
I require your gentleness.
- I love you.
| - (DOOR OPENS) Thank you, Herr Professor.
Sasha.
(SOBS) (SISTER) Alexandra! Come back! Sister Agnes! Help us, please! Bad girl! Go back in! (SMILEY) The young woman known | as Alexandra Ostrakova is your daughter.
You arranged for | her illegal departure from Russia by pretending she was a secret agent | of the Thirteenth Directorate.
You stole public money | and misused the resources of your service.
You caused the murders of two men, | in England and in West Germany.
I do not ask what you did | to the wretched Oleg Kirov.
Any one of these offences | would ensure your death at the hands of your rivals in the collegium.
There is also the question | of what may be done with your daughter now that her true identity is known.
It is possible that she is curable, I am told.
With the right treatment, here in the West.
| In the East it's different, as you know.
But what will happen once | she is deprived of money and proper papers? She will become a perpetual and ailing exile, | ferried from one public hospital to another.
I do not need to imagine her solitude, or yours.
I have seen her.
When we met in Delhi, | I urged you to come to the West.
I promised you, within reason, a decent life.
If you do that now, | if you cooperate in your interrogation, you will be resettled in the usual way and | your daughter's future in the West will be secure.
By your actions, | you have disowned the system that made you.
You have placed love above duty.
The ground on which you once stood | is cut away.
You have become a citizen of no-man's-land.
I send you my greetings.
- Maybe he'll just | - He won't.
He can't.
Sure.
Tell Grigoriev to put it in another envelope | before handing it over to Krassky.
Make it look like the usual weekly report.
He's already got it prepared.
George There's nothing more to say.
OK, boys.
Mr Smiley has a few days to kill, | so take care of him, eh? Don't get in his way but make sure | he doesn't slip in the snow.
Right? - See you, George.
| - See you too, Toby.
(PHONE RINGS) - Ja? | - Telefon aus England.
- Von wem? | - Für Mr Standfast.
In Ordnung.
- Standfast speaking.
| - Berlin.
Next Thursday.
- I see.
Where will the package be delivered? | - Oberbaumbrücke.
Ah, yes.
| That's where he would choose, I suppose.
- It's the safest.
| - Yes, it's natural.
- Good luck, sir.
| - Thank you.
Berlin.
Thursday night.
It's on.
(SHOUTING IN GERMAN) (TURKISH MUSIC) What cover will he use? Something humble.
Something that fits in.
Those that pass here | are mostly old-age pensioners, I gather.
What do old-age pensioners want here? Some visit dependants.
Some work.
I didn't enquire very closely, I'm afraid.
We pensioners tend | to keep ourselves to ourselves.
(STRICKLAND SINGS TO HIMSELF) George.
If he comes, he'll come on time.
- Why did we get here two hours early? | - We owe it to him.
Nobody else is on his side.
- More coffee, George? | - No, thank you, Peter.
No, I don't think so.
No.
No more coffee.
- Perhaps I'll order something for the rent.
| - Rent? Oh, of course.
God knows what they live on.
Kaffee, bitte.
When did you say the baby was due, Peter? Not for five months.
And fatherhood becomes you? Yes, I think so.
Abroad, you know, | with allowances, maids and stuff.
- Quite.
| - (BICYCLE BELL) It's only a possibility.
Don't get excited.
| Just a slim chance.
That's all I'm saying.
George, listen.
Good luck, eh? But keep calm.
| Be like Karla, remember? Aye aye.
(SHOUTING IN GERMAN) George, quick.
We're hoping the package | will be along very shortly, sir.
The van has left the warehouse and we can | see it heading towards the firm's premises.
I'd say that in about 30 seconds' time we should | be sending you a telegram of congratulation.
Oh, George, you genius! You angel! - How far? | - 50 yards and closing.
He limps.
Did you know that? | He trails the left foot.
He must have had a stroke.
He's carrying something.
A knapsack.
30 yards.
Lord, he's cool! (SHOUTING IN GERMAN) No! No, keep moving.
Move, come on.
Shift.
Come on, shift.
Come to uncle.
- That's it.
That's it.
| - Oh, my dear God.
That's my baby! Nice and easy.
Take it easy.
(DISTANT SHOUTING IN GERMAN) (FOOTSTEPS) Get back! Back to your posts, damn you! George.
You've got to look.
George, all your life.
Fantastic! Take care, George.
Go well, you hear me? Come on, old friend.
It's bedtime.
George, you won.
Did I? Yes.
Yes, I suppose I did.
Well.
I hope you enjoyed your little excursion | to the country on Friday.
The old city of Thun | is not sufficiently appreciated, I believe, by members of our diplomatic community here.
In my opinion, it is to be recommended | not only for its antiquity but also for its banking facilities.
You agree? My name is Kurt Siebel, sir.
I am chief investigator | to the Kantonalbank, Berne, in Thun.
We have certain questions relating to | Dr Adolf Glaser's private account with us.
You would do well to pretend to know me, eh? Please do not be alarmed.
If you could spare us an hour, sir, | I am sure we could arrange matters without troubling your domestic | or your professional position.
Please.
There are irregularities, Counsellor.
Grave irregularities.
We have a dossier upon your good self | which makes lamentable reading.
If I placed it before the Swiss police, | not all the diplomatic protests in the world would protect you | from the most acute public embarrassment.
What irregularities? | Who is this Glaser you speak of? I am not Glaser.
I am a diplomat, Grigoriev.
The account you speak of | has been conducted with total propriety.
As commercial counsellor, I have immunity | and the right to own foreign bank accounts.
There is also the delicate question | of your marriage, Counsellor.
I must advise you | that your philanderings in the embassy have put your domestic arrangements | in grave danger.
(CAR ENGINE STARTS) Remember, go easy.
No speeding.
| No laughing.
It's a Bernese Sunday.
(GRIGORIEV GROANS) (DOOR CLOSES) (GRIGORIEV GRUNTING) Where am I? I demand to know where I am.
I am a senior Soviet diplomat.
I demand to speak | to my ambassador immediately.
I have been kidnapped.
I am here against my will.
If you do not return me to my ambassador, | there will be a grave international incident.
You want ransom? You are terrorists? If you are, why don't you bind my eyes? | Why do you let me see your faces? You must cover them! | I want no knowledge of you! I demand! I demand! You are Counsellor Grigoriev | of the Soviet embassy in Berne? Grigoriev.
I am Grigoriev.
| Yes, well done, I am Grigoriev.
And who are you, please? Al Capone? | Why do you rumble at me like a commissar? Since we cannot afford to delay, I must ask you to study the incriminating | photographs on the table beside you.
Photographs? What photographs? How can you incriminate a diplomat? I demand to telephone my ambassador now.
I would advise the counsellor | to look at the photographs first.
When he has looked, | he is free to telephone whomever he wants.
Kindly start at the left.
The photographs are arranged from left to right.
The telephone is at your disposal, Counsellor.
Copies of these photographs will receive | generous distribution within 48 hours unless something is done to prevent it.
You will appreciate that the Swiss authorities | do not take kindly to misuse of their passports, least of all by diplomats.
They are also sensitive when it comes | to infringement of their banking laws.
Your womanising won't go down too well | in Moscow either, will it? How is Madame Grigorieva these days? Will she be pleased by a sudden home posting, followed by premature retirement | to some inclement part of Russia? You and all your family.
No car.
No privileges.
Unpersons.
Sit down.
We have also, of course, to consider | the effect of these photographs and reports upon certain organs of Soviet state security, | haven't we? Certain directorates of Moscow Centre.
| Special directorates.
We have to consider | whether exile is sufficient punishment for one who has so gravely bungled | his instructions.
Oh, yes.
At what time do you expect Madame Grigorieva | to return from her mushrooming expedition? We don't want you to be missed at home, do we? You are spies? You are Western spies? We are officials.
That's all you need to know.
When you have done as I ask, | you will walk out of here a free man.
Neither your wife nor Moscow Centre | will be any the wiser.
Now, please tell me at what time | your family returns from Elfenau.
(GROANS) Don't do that again, you hear me? I don't speak to scum like you! | What are you, eh? Polish? Magyar? I don't speak to anti-party elements.
| I am Russian.
- Don't do it again.
| - (GROANS) Oh, Grigoriev! You fool! You are so weak.
So weak.
Why didn't you say no? | You are a fool and a clown! You should be in the asylum instead of the girl.
| You are an idiot! You fool! Regarding your wife and children, Counsellor.
She will be home at one o'clock.
But perhaps she will be late? Oh, she's never late.
Then begin by telling me of your relationship | with the girl called Alexandra Ostrakova.
Huh! You hear that, Magyar? Ostrakova.
He asks me about some girl called Ostrakova.
| I know of no such person.
I am a diplomat.
Release me.
| I have important engagements.
Alexandra Borisovna Ostrakova.
So called.
A Russian girl, but she has a French passport.
Just as you are a Russian | but have a Swiss passport, Counsellor.
How did you come | to be involved with her, please? - I need vodka.
| - Give him a glass.
One only.
Involved? Do you think I am so base | I sleep with mad girls? I was blackmailed, pressured.
Always pressured.
(SMILEY) Take the bottle outside.
- I was in Moscow.
| - The date, please, Counsellor.
Give the date when you were in Moscow.
| Please give the date at all points.
- August.
| - Of which year? Which year? I say August, he asks me which August.
Huh! I was recalled to Moscow | for an urgent economic conference.
Wait.
Go on.
I had arranged to pass two days | in the apartment of a girl called Evdokia, formerly my secretary.
Her husband was away on military service.
Unfortunately I was prevented | from adhering to these arrangements by intervention of Moscow Centre.
(PHONE RINGS) We are advised your wife has returned home.
It's now become necessary | for you to telephone her.
Telephone her? You will kindly tell her | you are unavoidably delayed.
I tell this to my wife? | You think she will believe me? She will report me to my ambassador.
| "Ambassador, my husband ran away! Find him!" Each Thursday Krassky brings your weekly | instructions from Moscow, does he not? Your commissar, he knows everything, eh? If he does, why doesn't he speak | to Grigorieva himself? You are to adopt an official tone | with her, Counsellor.
Do not refer to Krassky by name, but suggest that he has ordered you to meet him | for an urgent discussion in the town.
If she protests, tell her it is a secret of state.
A secret.
A secret of state.
Hello.
It is Grigoriev.
Don't speak to me about food, woman! | I am not interested in mushrooms! Now, listen.
I shall be delayed by matters of state.
Matters of great urgency and importance.
I shall be delayed for several hours.
No, you may not know the reason.
Goodbye.
Thank you, Counsellor.
You were describing | how you were approached by Moscow Centre.
Kindly continue with your narrative.
"Well, Grigoriev," they tell me, | "you come with us.
We need you.
" In Moscow when they say that to you, | you do not say, "Call tomorrow.
" You go.
- And you went.
| - We drive.
- Hours.
All night.
| - In which direction? Oh, direction Kiev.
Then small roads through forests.
Up hills.
Flat fields.
Moonlight.
Oh, big Russian night.
Beautiful.
We drive through big gates.
Soldiers.
I ask my escort, "Is this a camp? What have | I done wrong? You are taking me to a camp?" They tell me to shut up.
We climb a hill.
On the hill, a small dacha.
A few lights, no luxuries.
"Who is this strange baron," I ask myself, "who can live in a hut and look at the world | without wishing to possess it?" Give me a cigarette.
And inside, this man.
Not a baron, a priest.
With a deep quiet in him.
Behind a desk.
Like you.
A man from himself.
Private in his mind.
"Grigoriev, I am a high official of state security.
"I am also a man like you.
"Sit down.
" I sit down.
Like now.
The room.
Barren as a prison cell.
A high official needs so little.
A man clearly of deep experience.
| I see it in his face.
You meet few men like that.
Smoking.
- Smoking what? | - Please? What did he smoke? | The question's plain enough.
A pipe? Cigarettes? Cigar? Ah.
Cigarettes.
American.
The room was full of their aroma.
Imagine the influence of such a man.
| To smoke American cigarettes in Russia.
And he gave you no name? No.
Describe the first topic | of your conversation with this man.
Ah.
Women.
He knew everything.
About my little Evdokia, | my plans to love her that weekend.
About typists.
Wives of certain comrades.
A ballerina in Leningrad.
He disposed of all this information | in the most disturbing details.
He smoked.
| He told my life clearly, without menaces.
"Grigoriev, you have no secret from me.
"I see into your very heart.
"But never mind.
Now you will be my ally.
"My soldier.
My friend.
"And I will reward you.
" He was like you.
Exactly.
First pressure, then the reward.
The friendship.
- Go on.
| - First I was to open a Swiss bank account.
Not in Berne, where I was known, but in Thun.
In the name of a Swiss subject, Glaser.
"But I am Soviet diplomat.
| I am not Glaser, I am Grigoriev.
" He hands me a Swiss passport | in the name of Adolf Glaser.
Every month this account should be credited | with several thousand Swiss francs.
Sir, you should observe his calmness, | his authority in all circumstances.
In chess game he would win everything, | merely by his nerves.
But he was not playing chess.
Sir, he was not.
So what was he playing? Make haste.
"Grigoriev," he says to me, "pay close attention.
" "In a private clinic in Switzerland, | not half an hour from the town of Thun, "is confined a young Russian girl suffering | from an advanced state of schizophrenia.
"Her name is Alexandra Borisovna Ostrakova.
"In the Soviet Union this form of illness | is not sufficiently understood.
"Diagnosis, treatment are too often complicated | by political considerations.
"In Switzerland a more enlightened attitude | is taken to these matters.
"Grigoriev, I speak to you as a father, | not a politician.
" "Comrade," I reply, "if this Alexandra Borisovna | is your child, you have my deep sympathy.
" He laughed.
I had misunderstood him.
"She is not my child | and my name is not Ostrakov.
Pay attention.
" I apologise.
| I feel the natural truthfulness of this man.
His warmth of heart.
His mercy.
You are a perceptive and kindly man, Grigoriev.
These qualities have not passed unnoticed.
Then he tells me a great secret.
"Grigoriev, in the whole history | of Moscow Centre, "there is no greater heroine | than Alexandra Borisovna Ostrakova.
"She has protected us against many enemies.
"She has mixed with the most dangerous elements "in order to deceive them | and report their conspiracies.
"She has given her very body | in the cause of the Revolution.
"Unfortunately, this experience | has now deranged her mind.
"She is an invalid.
"Help her, Grigoriev.
"Comfort her in her agony.
"Be a father to her.
" Your task.
What was your task? Well, to visit Alexandra | every week in her clinic.
To pay her fees from special bank account.
To speak to her physicians.
To be a father to her.
And, when courier Krassky calls, to give him | each week my report upon her condition and receive special instructions for next visit.
To place before her special questions | prepared for me by the priest.
And you agreed? I ask him first two questions for myself.
"Comrade," I said, | "why cannot this task be undertaken "by one of the many Swiss-based representatives | of our state security?" An excellent question.
How did he reply to it? "Comrade," he said.
"This matter is too secret.
"Even for the people of my own directorate, | too sensitive.
"As things are now, | if ever there should be a leak, "I shall know that Grigoriev alone | is the man responsible.
" I was not grateful for this distinction.
I should think not.
And what was your second question, Counsellor? "Has Ostrakova no parents? "Friends, relations of her own in Russia? "If our clinics are no good, | perhaps special arrangement could be made.
" And he replied? He became quiet.
For the first time, I would say, | he showed certain hardness.
"In secret operations," he told me, | "each may only know part.
"None but the Comrade Director himself | may know all.
" - And did you believe him? | - No, sir.
Why not? He had tears.
Tears in his eyes.
(SMILEY) Counsellor, whatever | your long-term plans may be, you will please remain at the embassy | for at least another two weeks.
- You are sending me back? | - If you do as I propose, you will find a warm welcome should you elect | to make a new life somewhere in the West.
What should I say? How should I explain? Next Friday you will on no account | visit the girl Alexandra.
You will tell your wife this was the substance | of today's meeting with the courier Krassky.
When Krassky brings your instructions | on Thursday, accept them normally.
- But you will not visit Alexandra.
| - And if I refuse? The priest will recall you, the Swiss will expel you, | Grigorieva will murder you and you will forfeit all chance | of a friendly reception in the West, alone or accompanied, as you wish.
Tidy up.
When will I see you again? You desert me? Leave me to this Magyar? This gentleman will take care | of all matters of detail.
Goodbye.
Goodbye, sir.
- Sir? | - Yes? Yes? What is it? Mr Smiley? - Yes? | - Your documents, sir.
What documents? Oh, those.
I don't think they'd constitute | a very grave breach of security, Skordeno.
Well? Where's the letter? Letter? I know of no letter.
What letter? From Krassky, bringing your instructions from | Moscow concerning your meeting with Alexandra.
Alexandra? Who is she? I want to speak to your master, the commissar.
| Makes a practice of kidnapping diplomats.
There are certain financial matters | to be arranged.
Magyar, tell the commissar that for this letter | from Krassky I require ten thousand dollars, cash.
I just told him.
- You did? | - Sure.
You know what he said? He said, "Fine, pay Grigoriev.
"First send the photographs | to every newspaper in Switzerland.
" Meanwhile, I send the priest a second set.
| And don't you ever again call me Magyar.
Give me the letter.
Oh, my friend.
Forgive me.
So much anxiety.
Grigorieva watches me.
My children watch me.
| You watch me.
Natasha watches me.
How? How does Natasha watch you? At the embassy she's asking questions.
"Each Friday where do you go? Why do you | take your wife? Where do you bicycle?" - When did she start asking this? | - Yesterday.
Magyar, this girl is a spy.
She is put there by the priest to watch me.
Everybody in the embassy tries to sleep with her.
| Why else does she sleep with me? - What have you told her? | - Oh, nothing.
Only that I have a secret mission.
Even too secret to tell her.
Jesus.
Jesus, Maria! Grigoriev! You will present my compliments | to the commissar? - Naturally.
| - You are my friend.
You know that? - My only friend.
| - Sure.
No problem.
No problem.
Oh, listen.
I want uniform.
Um you know what I mean? Not to wear now.
Later.
| I want to be colonel in the British army.
- You allow that? | - Hang on.
OK.
Later you have all the uniforms you want.
George, this is a madhouse.
How long can we hold the dam? | This guy is a total crazy.
- When does Krassky return to Moscow? | - Saturday, midday.
Tell Grigoriev he must arrange a meeting | with Krassky before he leaves.
On Saturday.
He should tell Krassky | he will have an important message for him.
An urgent letter to take to Moscow.
Sure.
Sure, George.
- Herr Lachmann.
| - Oh, yes.
Mother Felicity expects you.
- Thank you, Sister Beatitude.
| - Mother Felicity.
So you are Herr Lachmann.
Herr Lachmann is an acquaintance of Herr Glaser and Herr Glaser is this week indisposed.
Not so indisposed he could not telephone, | but so indisposed he could not bicycle.
Correct? - It is.
| - Please.
Do not lower your voice | merely because I am a nun.
We run a noisy house here | and nobody is the less pious for it.
- You look pale.
You have the flu? | - No.
No, I am well.
Then you are better off than Herr Glaser, | who has the flu.
- Have you met Alexandra before? | - No.
You are perhaps her father.
You are the absent Mr Ostrakov in disguise.
I have ceased to be surprised at anything.
I'm merely standing in for Herr Glaser.
Who is standing in for the parents.
| Good.
Now everything is clear.
You must be very careful with her, Herr Professor.
Sometimes she lives in the dark, and sometimes she sees too much.
Both are painful.
She has grown up in Russia.
I don't know why.
It's a complicated story, | full of contrasts and full of gaps.
If it's not the cause of her illness, | it is certainly, let us say, the framework.
- You do not think Herr Glaser is the father? | - No.
Nor do I.
Have you met the invisible Ostrakov? Oh, you've not.
Or does he exist? Alexandra assures me that he is a phantom.
Alexandra would have | quite a different parentage.
- Well, so would many of us.
| - (RINGS BELL) May I ask what you've told her about me? Everything I know.
Which is nothing.
You are a friend of Uncle Anton, | whom she refuses to accept as her uncle.
I have told her it is her father's wish | to have someone visit her every week.
She assures me her father is a brigand who pushed her mother | off a mountain at dead of night.
- (KNOCK AT DOOR) | - Come in, my child.
- Is Anton dead? | - No.
Anton has bad flu.
Anton says he is my uncle, but he is not.
He also pretends he has no car.
Where is your list? Anton always brings a list.
Oh, I have my questions in my head.
It is forbidden to ask questions without a list.
Questions out of the head | are completely forbidden by my father.
Who is your father? I saw your car.
- BE stands for Berne? | - Yes, it does.
What kind of car does Anton have? - A Mercedes.
A black one.
Very grand.
| - Why does he come to see me on a bicycle? Perhaps he needs the exercise.
No.
He has a secret.
Have you a secret, Alexandra? My secret is called Tatiana.
That's a good name.
Tatiana.
How did you come by that? Oh, it's forbidden to talk about it.
If you talk about it, nobody will believe you, | but they put you in a clinic.
But you are in a clinic already.
I appreciate your kindness, Herr Lachmann, but I know that you are | an extremely dangerous man.
More dangerous than teachers or police.
Mother Felicity is too close to God.
She doesn't know that God is somebody | who has to be ridden and kicked like a horse until he takes you in the right direction.
But you, Herr Lachmann, you represent the forgiveness of the authorities.
Yes, I'm afraid you do.
- Are you God? | - No, I'm just an ordinary person.
Mother Felicity says that in every | ordinary person there is a part that is God.
I've heard it said too.
You're supposed to ask me | whether I've been feeling better.
Are you feeling better, Alexandra? My name is Tatiana.
Then how does Tatiana feel? Tatiana is the daughter of a man | who is too important to exist.
He controls the whole of Russia, | but he does not exist.
When people arrest Tatiana, | her father arranges for her to be freed.
He does not exist but everyone is afraid of him.
Tatiana does not exist either.
What about Tatiana's mother? She was punished.
That is to say, she was not obedient to history.
She was mistaken.
People should not attempt to change history.
It is the task of history to change people.
Did Tatiana ever meet her father? A man used to watch the children walk to school.
And then? From a car.
He would lower the window | but he looked only at me.
- And did you look at him? | - Of course.
How else would I know he was looking at me? What was his manner? Did he smile? - (RINGS BELL) | - He smoked.
Feel free, if you wish.
Mother Felicity likes a cigarette sometimes.
Well, it's only natural, isn't it? Smoking calms the conscience, so I am told.
I would like to come with you in your car.
I require your gentleness.
- I love you.
| - (DOOR OPENS) Thank you, Herr Professor.
Sasha.
(SOBS) (SISTER) Alexandra! Come back! Sister Agnes! Help us, please! Bad girl! Go back in! (SMILEY) The young woman known | as Alexandra Ostrakova is your daughter.
You arranged for | her illegal departure from Russia by pretending she was a secret agent | of the Thirteenth Directorate.
You stole public money | and misused the resources of your service.
You caused the murders of two men, | in England and in West Germany.
I do not ask what you did | to the wretched Oleg Kirov.
Any one of these offences | would ensure your death at the hands of your rivals in the collegium.
There is also the question | of what may be done with your daughter now that her true identity is known.
It is possible that she is curable, I am told.
With the right treatment, here in the West.
| In the East it's different, as you know.
But what will happen once | she is deprived of money and proper papers? She will become a perpetual and ailing exile, | ferried from one public hospital to another.
I do not need to imagine her solitude, or yours.
I have seen her.
When we met in Delhi, | I urged you to come to the West.
I promised you, within reason, a decent life.
If you do that now, | if you cooperate in your interrogation, you will be resettled in the usual way and | your daughter's future in the West will be secure.
By your actions, | you have disowned the system that made you.
You have placed love above duty.
The ground on which you once stood | is cut away.
You have become a citizen of no-man's-land.
I send you my greetings.
- Maybe he'll just | - He won't.
He can't.
Sure.
Tell Grigoriev to put it in another envelope | before handing it over to Krassky.
Make it look like the usual weekly report.
He's already got it prepared.
George There's nothing more to say.
OK, boys.
Mr Smiley has a few days to kill, | so take care of him, eh? Don't get in his way but make sure | he doesn't slip in the snow.
Right? - See you, George.
| - See you too, Toby.
(PHONE RINGS) - Ja? | - Telefon aus England.
- Von wem? | - Für Mr Standfast.
In Ordnung.
- Standfast speaking.
| - Berlin.
Next Thursday.
- I see.
Where will the package be delivered? | - Oberbaumbrücke.
Ah, yes.
| That's where he would choose, I suppose.
- It's the safest.
| - Yes, it's natural.
- Good luck, sir.
| - Thank you.
Berlin.
Thursday night.
It's on.
(SHOUTING IN GERMAN) (TURKISH MUSIC) What cover will he use? Something humble.
Something that fits in.
Those that pass here | are mostly old-age pensioners, I gather.
What do old-age pensioners want here? Some visit dependants.
Some work.
I didn't enquire very closely, I'm afraid.
We pensioners tend | to keep ourselves to ourselves.
(STRICKLAND SINGS TO HIMSELF) George.
If he comes, he'll come on time.
- Why did we get here two hours early? | - We owe it to him.
Nobody else is on his side.
- More coffee, George? | - No, thank you, Peter.
No, I don't think so.
No.
No more coffee.
- Perhaps I'll order something for the rent.
| - Rent? Oh, of course.
God knows what they live on.
Kaffee, bitte.
When did you say the baby was due, Peter? Not for five months.
And fatherhood becomes you? Yes, I think so.
Abroad, you know, | with allowances, maids and stuff.
- Quite.
| - (BICYCLE BELL) It's only a possibility.
Don't get excited.
| Just a slim chance.
That's all I'm saying.
George, listen.
Good luck, eh? But keep calm.
| Be like Karla, remember? Aye aye.
(SHOUTING IN GERMAN) George, quick.
We're hoping the package | will be along very shortly, sir.
The van has left the warehouse and we can | see it heading towards the firm's premises.
I'd say that in about 30 seconds' time we should | be sending you a telegram of congratulation.
Oh, George, you genius! You angel! - How far? | - 50 yards and closing.
He limps.
Did you know that? | He trails the left foot.
He must have had a stroke.
He's carrying something.
A knapsack.
30 yards.
Lord, he's cool! (SHOUTING IN GERMAN) No! No, keep moving.
Move, come on.
Shift.
Come on, shift.
Come to uncle.
- That's it.
That's it.
| - Oh, my dear God.
That's my baby! Nice and easy.
Take it easy.
(DISTANT SHOUTING IN GERMAN) (FOOTSTEPS) Get back! Back to your posts, damn you! George.
You've got to look.
George, all your life.
Fantastic! Take care, George.
Go well, you hear me? Come on, old friend.
It's bedtime.
George, you won.
Did I? Yes.
Yes, I suppose I did.