A Perfect Spy
June 2006 Reviewed by: Charlotte Meyer Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Of the 17 novels written by John Le Carré, A Perfect Spy (1986) is the one he says he’d want "to be buried with," his "most intimate and personal." Adapted into this miniseries for British television in 1987, the novel tells how a double agent is created, tracing his formation from childhood to ultimate ruin, an education in deceit and betrayal.

In an interview with Salon, Le Carré explains why the characters in A Perfect Spy are so close to him: "I act like a gent, but I am wonderfully badly born. My father was a confidence trickster and a gaol bird." Magnus Pym, the central character, is raised by just such a father. Magnus, however, attains education, refinement, and respectability, unlike his shady father, and enters the British Foreign Service as a spy. He eludes his notorious father as best he can and rises in the ranks of espionage. Magnus thrives because he becomes a double agent, trading away British Cold War secrets for Russian ones, outmatching his father’s with his own lies and betrayal. He finds a substitute father in Axel, the only person to whom he is ever bonded, his Czech double agent.

This three-DVD set of A Perfect Spy requires serious viewers. Screenwriter Arthur Hopcraft crammed the 688-page novel into seven episodes. As a result, the story is full of abridgements the viewer must leap. The plot is intricate, the subplots many; Hopcraft has not dummied it down. The cast is large -- three young actors, progressively older, precede Peter Egan in the role of Magnus -- over 90 in all, if we include bit parts. But DVD technology is ideal for this kind of production. Viewing one episode at a time, using the remote to replay a confusing scene, skipping back to scenes in earlier episodes -- the process comes close to how we read a complex book.

In this case, the book is a little dog-eared; that is, the video sometimes looks faded, the colors a little worn. The audio, although not remarkable, is clear enough, even with the variety of accents.

The acting alone redeems all technical inadequacies. Magnus Pym’s moral crisis as he reaches the end of his rope is wrenching. The unraveling of his life of deception is powerfully acted by Peter Egan: his efforts to make his betrayals right, to throw money at the tragicomic funeral for the father he abandoned, to be good and generous to at least one person (the elderly landlady of the seaside rooming house he uses as sanctuary), to die with his story written out. Ricky Pym, his con-man father, is not easy to forget, since Ray McAnally plays him so brilliantly. Rudiger Weigang is remarkable as Axel, Magnus’s double agent. For seven episodes we engage emotionally with crooked, shameless characters. Only great writing and acting can evoke that identification.

Not much to be said for the special features. They are the usual BBC author biography and cast filmographies. But the DVD set is worth the price and the challenge.

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