A new adaptation of classic spy author John le Carré’s work is on the way with Matthew Macfadyen taking on the role of le Carré’s iconic George Smiley for A Legacy of Spies, the last Smiley novel the author wrote before his passing in 2020.
George Smiley is le Carré’s most recurring protagonist through many of his novels. A member of MI6, more commonly referred to as The Circus in le Carré’s novels, Smiley was a very intelligent man whose job it was to seek out Soviet spies and instigators and often turn them into double agents. He was first introduced in Call for the Dead, but had a supporting role in The Spy Who Came in From The Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, the latter the first in a trilogy known as The Quest for Karla. Smiley has previously been played onscreen by Rupert Davies, Alec Guinness and Gary Oldman.
A Legacy of Spies picks up on the threads of A Spy Who Came in From The Cold as well as the Karla trilogy, focusing on the consequences from Smiley and his protégé Peter Guillam’s operations in the Cold War. The book (which you can read our review here) was published in 2017 and was le Carré’s first Smiley novel in 25 years. The synopsis for the book reads:
Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old Service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinized by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justifications.
Interweaving past with present so that each may tell its own intense story, John le Carré has spun a single plot as ingenious and thrilling as the two predecessors on which it looks back: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In a story resonating with tension, humor and moral ambivalence, le Carré and his narrator Peter Guillam present the reader with a legacy of unforgettable characters old and new.
The Ink Factory will produce the series as the rights holder to many of le Carré’s works. They have previously adapted The Little Drummer Girl, The Night Manager and A Most Wanted Man. The company is also set to develop The Spy Who Came in From The Cold as a miniseries.
Ink Factory’s co-founder Stephen Cornwell and Clarissa Ingram are writing the series with Silo creator Graham Yost executive producing.
Macfadyen most recently starred in Deadpool & Wolverine as well as HBO’s drama Succession. He is also known for the Jane Austen adaptation Pride & Prejudice with Keira Knightley, which is set for a theatrical re-release this summer to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
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