Oh no- they're raping Smiley

Rating: 3/10 (26 February 2013)

I've just watched the film of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and having watched the wonderful 1979 TV series and read the wonderful book, I can honestly say that watching said film reminded me very much of the South Park episode where having watched Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull they are forced to watch Indie being repeatedly raped using famous harrowing film rape scenes.
I don't want to put everyone off seeing the film if they haven't previously seen the TV series or read the book, but I would say not to bother if you have because you will only be in for a severe disappointment.
It's been a while since I spent £3 in a worse way. Benedict Cumberbatch was embarrassing and Colin Firth could not hold a candle to Ian Richardson's farts as Bill Haydon; gone is the charm and is replaced by a horrid public school bully. You learn so little about any of the mole suspects that you really couldn't care less which one of them it is. Although, surprisingly, Mark Strong, usually seen in poor quality programmes for ITV is not bad as Prideaux.
More importantly, Le Carre without trade craft is not really Le Carre and I found the spies' Christmas do particularly ludicrous in this respect; according to previous versions Control is so-called because his cover is so deep no one (apart from Smiley, Maybe) knows his name. Very disappointed!