Day 4: Friday Night at the Circus

Me? Rock and Roll? There are many things I could justifiably claim about myself, however, this is not one of them. In case you (for some strange reason) don’t believe me let me tell you how I spent my Friday night. Having had my last day at my (old) job you may have expected celebrations galore, but alas not. I took the dog for a walk and then sat watching a film with a bag of frozen carrots on my ankle.

I should probably explain at this juncture that I hurt my ankle last weekend whilst in St Andrews. I don’t just put bags of frozen veg – it was peas last weekend (diversity matters) – on my joints for kicks.

Back to the point. I decided that if I was going to sit in and watch a film on a Friday night (and subsequently bore you with it today)  then I was at least going to watch a decent one. Well, luckily whilst sitting resting my ankle last weekend I got bored and started shopping on Amazon, the result being a copy of Tomas Alfredson’s masterful 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy dropped through my door on Wednesday morning. This was one of best films I saw last year. Actually, it was by far my favorite film of last year. It is absolutely fantastic, with an incredible cast lead by the amazing Gary Oldman. If you haven’t seen it, well where were you for the last third of last year? You need to go watch it. Although perhaps indulge my ego and finish reading this first. Please.

However, in languishing all sorts of praise on it – I’m not the only one, google it if you’ve had your head in the sand for the last 6 months (I think this is about the only way you could have missed it), there are plenty of gushing 5 star reviews out there – it should be said that you can have the best actors/director/crew in the world, but the story and the characters are king. If you’ve enjoyed the film and haven’t gone back to le Carré novels yet, then I would clear your diary and make your way to your local bookshop. Escaping to the strangely contemporary, Cold War espionage ‘reality’ of George Smiley will not let you down.

I’m quite a fan, not sure if it shows. Here’s hoping that the rest of the Karla trilogy are not too far away. Now where are those frozen sprouts?

Cr