No schoolboy antics for Oldman’s Smiley

Back in the early 1980s, fans of John le Carré were disappointed when the BBC, following up their successful adaptation of T inker Tailor Soldier Spy,decided to skip The Honourable Schoolboy, the middle novel in the Karla trilogy, and move straight on to Smiley's People.It has always been assumed that, being largely set in Hong Kong, Schoolboywould have stretched the corporation's resources.

If Gary Oldman, star of the recent Tinker Tailorfilm, is to be believed, le Carré followers are about to see history repeat itself. "I think they're whispering now that they might do Smiley's People," he said at the Gotham Awards in New York. "Not so much as a sequel, because there's a book in the middle actually, but we've set up the world and we'll revisit."

The decision is understandable. Smiley is only a supporting player in The Honourable Schoolboyand his near absence from any quasi-sequel to Tinker Tailorwould seem a little odd.