MASS MEDIA

No Robert, don't get excited, it's nothing to do with that arcane service held in catholic churches.

I've just finished reading, watching and listening to John Le Carres Smiley's People.

This outstanding novel is the third in Le Carres 'Smiley' trilogy (even though the character George Smiley appeared in several of his earlier novels) - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 1974, The Honourable Schoolboy 1977 and Smiley's People 1979.

How I came about ingesting the novel in 3 forms is that I've recently been doing my reading on iPad, downloading for free novels from the library via the app Overdrive. This is excellent and there are so many titles available.
I downloaded and read Le Carre's The Night Manager while watching the series on replay TV.
I'd not long since re-read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy so decided to do the third in the trilogy.
I had re-read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in UK and, not at the same time but thereabouts watched the 1979 TV series and the later 2011 film based on the novel.

This time, as I had the novel in hardback form, I downloaded the talking book version of Smiley's People and watched the  1982 DVD of the 6-part series of the same - all virtually simultaneous. I would try and keep roughly to the same chapters of each so that a common thread was running.

The Old Girl thinks I'm potty but hey, I liked it.

With Smiley's People, as with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy the directors and script writers of the TV series and talking book didn't deviate very much at all from the original novel (unlike The Night Manager). This made it much easier to keep the 3 forms of the novel going.

I've finished all 3 now on the same day. Bloody good.

I'm pissed off that the TV producers who created that excellent 6 part series of Tinker tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley's People, didn't produce the middle one in the trilogy - The Honourable Schoolboy.
From what I've read it was down to cost as most of The Honourable Schoolboy is set in Hong Kong, Laos and Cambodia with Italy and England as an add-on. Fools. They had all the original excellent cast (Alec Guinness as Smiley), and appreciative and waiting audience but they were too parsimonious. If they'd made it they would surely have recouped the expense.

At least the third in the series was excellent and made only a couple of years after the first.

The film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which was made only a few years ago was also pretty good (not as good as the TV series) and had Gary Oldman as Smiley. I was hoping that the producers would have had sense to make a trilogy but there' been no sign of that yet.