SMILEY'S PEOPLE

"You're an old spy in a hurry, George. You always said those were the most dangerous!" "Oh, they are, Toby.  They are"--Smiley's People

Yesterday there was no memoir group because of the holiday.  I was going to see Doctor Dolittle at the Yonge & Dundas in the afternoon, but when I got there I had to wait in this huge queue with all these people going to see Black Panther, so I decided to wait till tomorrow night.

On the way back I stopped at Bay St. Video and rented Smiley's People, the BBC miniseries of John Le Carre's Tinker, Sailor, Soldier, Spy sequel.  Alec Guinness is a phenomenal George Smiley--he knew how to act beneath the surface!  Le Carre is one writer who got the Cold War right, with all the sordid, banal details of the spying trade.  Bernard Hepton, a brilliant Thomas Cranmer in The Six Wives of Henry VIII, turned up in the third episode, as did Beryl Reid as an agent whose phenomenal memory MI5 relied on to retain all the information they couldn't write down. (I could imagine having a job like that...)

Tonight at opera rehearsal we staged all the chorus scenes in The Magic Flute.  We'll start working with the soloists next week.

Last night I dreamed of being in a convertible with Marilyn Monroe. (I've never been in a real convertible!) I also dreamed of wishing to be home in my Toronto house, which I don't think I've dreamed of before.