Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Wins BAFTAs for Best British Film, Adapted Screenplay

The British Academy Film Awards — the BAFTAs — were given out earlier today in a ceremony at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy taking two of the top awards.

The film was honored for Outstanding British Film and for Adapted Screenplay.

Based on the 1974 Cold War spy thriller of the same title (but with commas) by John le Carré, the film stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, who is tasked with finding a mole, a double agent, within MI6 … or the Circus as it is known within the agency. Supported by younger agent Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), Smiley parses Circus activities past and present. In trying to track and identify the mole, Smiley is haunted by his decades-earlier interaction with the shadowy Russian spy master Karla.

The mole's trail remains cold until maverick field agent Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy) unexpectedly contacts Lacon. While undercover in Turkey, Ricki has fallen for a betrayed married woman, Irina, who claims to possess crucial intelligence. Separately, Smiley learns that Control narrowed down the list of mole suspects to five men. They are the ambitious Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), whom he had code-named Tinker; suavely confident Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), dubbed Tailor; stalwart Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds), called Soldier; officious Toby Esterhase (David Dencik), dubbed Poor Man; and — Smiley himself.

Even before the startling truth is revealed, the emotional and physical tolls on the players enmeshed in the deadly international spy game will escalate …

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK last month, but won't be available to us in the US until March; it is available to pre-order. Watch a trailer for the film below.