The BBC’s 1982 BAFTA-winning adaptation of Smiley’s People to BritBox UK later this week (July 14th).
Based on the final novel in John Le Carre’s Smiley versus Karla trilogy, the six-part series sees Sir Alec Guinness return as spymaster George Smiley who is once again roused from retirement following the murder of a Soviet defector.
Smiley’s investigation eventually leads him to a final reckoning with an old nemesis, the Soviet spymaster known only as ‘Karla’ (Patrick Stewart).
The series also stars Beryl Reid, Eileen Atkins, Barry Foster and Michael Byrne and won four BAFTAs, including Best Actor (Guinness) and Best Actress (Reid).
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – Guinness’s first outing as Smiley – is already available to stream on the service.
Also coming this week is the 2013 version of The Lady Vanishes which stars Tuppence Middleton, Tom Hughes, Keeley Hawes, Alex Jennings and Stephanie Cole.
Based on Ethel Lina White’s The Wheel Spins, the one-off drama shares its name with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1938 adaption of the same novel (also available on BritBox) though it stays much closer to the source material.
Iris Carr, a young socialite befriends an older woman while travelling by train. But soon, the woman disappears. Will Iris be able to find her?
BritBox costs £5.99 per month or £59.99 for an annual subscription and later this year is due to be folded into ITVX, a new service replacing the existing ITV Hub catch-up app, which will offer a wider mix of ad-supported and subscription content, with ITV promising to offer “as much of our content as possible available in HD”.
Subscribers to ITVX will get access to BritBox content plus ad-free versions of the ITVX line-up. Pricing for the new service has yet to be confirmed but ITV says BritBox customers on annual plans will have their existing prices honoured.
Update: BritBox say the arrival of Smiley’s People has been delayed by “a couple of months”.
A restored HD version of the series is available to buy on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk.*
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