Favorite Scene

“I just have one bit of confusion, why when meeting Toby in the stairwell did they both put their hands in their coats like they had guns?”

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It surprises me how viewers observe details that I have never noticed. The above is one of them. When both Smiley and Toby have entered the basement room, Toby leans against the closed door, his right hand still inside his expensive jacket. They look at one another for a long moment.

In the novels, le Carre emphasises Toby’s hand gestures, possibly to suggest his Hungarian background, and I think this is where the clue lies. My first thought was that the mutual tucking of the right hand within their garments might be some sort of signal, possibly of a Masonic nature, but upon reflection I think this unlikely. The conclusion I have reached is that it is merely a mutual or sympathetic gesture. After all, they have known one another for a long time - they have “stolen some horses together” to use Toby’s phrase.

However, there is one more possibility. Toby glances up the stairwell as he greets "Mr Angel," in a loud voice, so that the Receptionist can hear every word. The gesture may mean, "be on your guard" as she is insecure. The gesture indicates drawing of a weapon across the body in the Sarratt approved way. Who knows?

This is a truly beautiful scene - one of the most memorable in the series for me. It follows the text of the novel closely. And it is my belief that the Director was familiar with Toby’s gesticulation with his little hands, hence the gestures when he describes trade during the summer as being outstanding, whereas, in the autumn the fluttering of the palms indicates things were quieter, and like the camel they had to live off their hump!

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Since writing the above, yet another possibility has been drawn to my attention. While listening to a programme on BBC Radio 4, it was commented upon that a common mode of greeting in some former Russian states, and in particular Tajikistan,* is the placing of the right arm across the chest with the hand on the heart. Why a Hungarian and an Englishman should resort to such a gesture, I do not know, but apparently it is an alternative to saying, "Good Morning!"

* if, like me, you were not quite sure where Tajikistan is, I was obliged to look it up courtesy of Google Maps and found it lay on the northern border of Afghanistan - now we all know where that place is, don't we?

It has been decades since I saw this in its original release, but what I remember most are the scenes which show one character giving a long, mostly uninterupted, speech (which I vaguely remember from my drama courses is often called an "aria," even if not in an opera). I remember Grigoriev, describing how he had been pressured and manipulated into working for Karla, there may have been one or two others, but most of all I remember Toby Esterhase, his misgivings, his obvious and sincere concern for Smiley, his world-weariness, his background of experience, and his warning, "You do not buy photographs from Otto Leipzig, you don't buy Degas from Signor Benati."