George Smiley coming to BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 will dramatize—sorry, will dramatise—John le Carré’s Smiley novels. Some of the BBC’s radio dramatizations have been excellent, some not so much, and I’m never quite sure whether it’s le Carré or Alec Guinness that I’m a fan of. Regardless, I hope to be able to give it a try.

[Mark Damazer, head of BBC Radio 4] announced that Radio 4 is to dramatise all eight of John le Carré’s Smiley novels.

The part of George Smiley, one of the most famous characters in spy fiction, was immortalised by Sir Alec Guinness in two BBC television adaptations.

No one has yet been chosen to play the role in the radio version, which will be broadcast next May, but Mr Damazer did not rule out the Shakespearean British actor Simon Russell Beale.

“I have always thought that the quality of Le Carré’s writing hasn’t been appreciated as much as it might,” he said. “He is a huge and considerable figure in late 20th and early 21’s century fiction. This will celebrate a great, great British writer who may not have won a Nobel but whose writing I think takes him way beyond genre fiction.”

via Jorn Barger

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