#Best spy thriller shows series

#Best spy thriller shows series

The BBC One series is the most recent adaptation of a John Le Carré novel. In 2018, the novel was adapted for the second time into a miniseries for BBC, featuring Florence Pugh as Charlie, Michael Shannon as Martin Kurtz, and Alexander Skarsgård as Mossad agent Gadi Becker. For the movie, Charlie’s background was changed from British to American, keeping the rest of the plot the same. The Little Drummer Girl was first adapted in 1984 in a Hollywood feature directed by George Roy and starring Diane Keaton as Charlie. This novel sees a manipulative and deceitful female protagonist, a rare element in Carré’s stories. A scheming and strategic Israeli spy, Martin Kurtz uses Charlie’s radical, left-wing personality to infiltrate a group of Palestinians and kill a terrorist using a masterful plan. Set in 1979, this novel follows a young British actress Charlie, recruited by Israeli intelligence to work as a secret agent. Decades later, in 2011, a feature film with the same title featuring Gary Oldman as the spymaster was released and it earned two BAFTA awards and three nominations at the 2012 Academy Awards. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy remains a masterpiece creation of Carré's and was adapted for a television series in 1979 featuring Alec Guinness as Smiley. This novel, followed by The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People, makes the Karla Trilogy. In his search for the traitor, Smiley comes across double agents, counter foreign intelligence, and his long-time nemesis Karla, a KGB mastermind. But he’s soon brought back to dig up a mole within the intelligence service, who has been passing information from The Circus to Moscow.

The story follows George Smiley, who is forced to retire at the peak of the Cold War. But Smiley is brilliant and polite and his character was reportedly inspired by British Secret Intelligence Service officer Kim Philby, who coincidentally turned out to be a Russian spy and defected to the USSR in 1963. Instead, he’s a drably dressed, bespectacled, retired spymaster from MI6, also called The Circus (for its location at Cambridge Circus). This is the first book in the trilogy series featuring George Smiley. Here are our favorite picks from all John Le Carré’s novels (in order of publishing) that were turned into successful movies and series. The Byzantine, convoluted plots, high stake environments, and deceptive agents, as are iconic of Carré, make for the best spy thrillers that the world of cinema can experience. With recent releases of spy stories headlining the small and big screens, it’s only fair to pay homage to this literary legend and master of spy fiction. While his contribution to the world of literature took a major hit after his death in 2020, the legacy of John Le Carré remains in the form of brilliant cinema inspired by his works. In simple words, John Le Carré’s stories cannot be called just spy thrillers they are rich works of literature, that turned dangerous socio-political events into an artistic experience.

But that’s what makes Carré’s stories realistic, authentic, and relatable.

Varying between real and fictional people, Carré’s spies could range from refined to raw lone rangers to team players, and from idealists to morally questionable people that you would want to love and despise at the same time. For his fans, the allure of Carré’s work lies not in the impressive character or lifestyle of his agents, but more in the authenticity of those men and women. Serving in the MI5 and MI6 during the peak of the Cold War was the inspiration for most of his works, giving the world some legendary stories for over six decades. Born David John Moore Cornwell, the British/Irish author penned a host of bestselling novels, short stories, and more under the pen name of John Le Carré.