The Honourable Schoolboy

By: John le Carré

Narrated by: Anna Chancellor, Full Cast, Hugh Bonneville, Simon Russell Beale

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’. 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... Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a star cast including Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Steed and Anna Chancellor, this gripping dramatisation perfectly captures the atmosphere of le Carré’s intricate, intriguing novel, the second in the Karla trilogy.

Dramatisation at its best

I've listened to unabridged readings of Le Carre, watched movie adaptations of Le Carre, and even read some of his books too... enjoying all. These BBC dramatisations are pretty faithful to the characters and times in those tales. Personally - they are some of my favourite recordings and are worth listening to more than once, up there (for me) with the classic dramatisations of the Lord of the Rings and Sherlock Holmes featuring Clive Merrison.

Very good.

Beautifully done but was hoping to find an actual reading of the book. These dramatisations only take you so far into the book.

Disappointing

Haven't read or listened to any of le Carre's novels, but did hear a dramatization of a Murder of Quality, which I thought was quite good. In this one, I found the male voices to be awfully similar and I wasn't always sure who was speaking. Plotwise, I enjoyed the first half, but thought it degenerated into silliness with a ridiculously melodramatic ending. So I can't recommend this dramatization.