The Little Drummer Girl

Mm

... on its head, right? Uh, it started with Lady Macbeth, then Midsommar, and even, even something like Little Drummer Girl, which by the way, is having a resurgence.

I know.

So exciting to see that.

So what happens in ...

It happens in The Little Drummer Girl, which a John Le Carré novel that was adapted into a film in the early '80s and more recently, um, into a TV show starring, um, among others, Florence Pugh, but directed by Park Chan-wook interestingly So The Little Drummer Girl does that.

Speaking of John Le Carré, there's also his book, The Night Manager, which was also adapted, um, into a series, uh, I think by the BBC, and is now getting a second season starring Tom Hiddleston.

And I think we're getting this-- Bridge of Spies is doing that aspect.

I'm basically just doing a book about the history of John le Carré adaptations on television because people kept asking me to write articles about them and do conference papers about them.

And eventually I just sat down and realised that I just had enough material that I could just do the definitive account of all the le Carré television adaptations from Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn in 1966 to The Little Drummer Girl in 2018 and beyond.

So that is currently in progress.

Excellent.

You get his, around that time, they announced that they're doing a new TV version of The Spy Who Came From the Cold.

That slides into development hell, but it inspires Le Carre to do a new smiley novel, A Legacy of Spies, which has loads of flashbacks set in the Cold War.

We get the TV version of The Little Drummer Girl set in the late 1970s.

And Le Carre spends like the last year of his life in Covid lockdown writing a new collection of George Smiley short stories, still unpublished.

And?

... we both had a moment, like, he, firstly Drew was like, "Holy shit, that exists?" And I'm like, "Yes." And the box set, for anyone, the Little Drummer Girl 4K collector's edition box set is one of the most beautiful box sets I think I've ever seen in my life.

I was gonna surprise you with this.

Oh.

Yeah.

And didn't they, oh no, Little Drummer Girl was also adapted recently.

But they don't show that, you know, it's like with James Bond, you know, anytime you hear someone on the radio tour, you know, from MI5, MI6, they're like, that isn't how it works.

It's a lot more boring.

It's very, again, very well written.

And then I saw two Park Chan-wook's TV shows, which are both spy dramas based on novels, The Little Drummer Girl, which is very hard to access, and The Sympathizer, which came out a few years ago.

There, if, even though I'm not a huge Park Chan-wook fan in terms of his, like with the movies, I'm not the biggest fan of that.

He is a master of imagery and his visual direction is truly otherworldly.

Given the fact it was an early novel of his, that anybody else, you got another shot to write more novels.

I still can't figure out if the problem with Little Drummer Girl is the book or me.

That's a good, I

mean.

I know you're a fan of his, too.

And when you read a John le Carré book or watch one of his adaptations... for the first like i this is fresh in my mind because i watched um two le carre things in the last week right first i watched the adaptation of the little drummer girl right um which is from a few only a few years ago now um And it's a six, I think it's maybe an eight-parter on, you can get it on BBC iPlayer.

And it's got, what's her name? Fantastic actress from the Avengers movies and Florence Pugh.

okay it's a brilliant adaptation of one of his most popular books right

yeah

and and then yesterday afternoon i watched the film the russia house which has sean sean connery Michelle Pfeiffer the fife right and that's it that that was made in 1990 and that's another adaptation upon which it's less good less good than the little drummer girl but still an enjoyable watch and one thing that I've learned these books and these films these TV shows is when nothing's explained for the first half almost He's doing it on purpose.

That's the point.

He's making you be patient.