Director: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Toby Jones
Certificate: 15
Release Date: Monday 30th January
RRP: £19.99

"I'm retired." Those are the first words spoken by George Smiley (Oldman), and they don't occur until 15 minutes in. But even before then we've spent enough time with Tinker Tailor's hero to know what he's about. We see him forced out of MI5 ("The Circus") alongside the paranoid chief, Control (Hurt), and follow him home during the muted opening credits. Throughout, Smiley says nothing.

It's a hugely effective sequence that sees allegiances change, powers shift, and paperwork go up and down in a lift. Welcome to Tomas Alfredson's take on John le Carré's world. It's a quiet, tense, and stylish place to be betrayed. How British.

"There's a mole. Right at the tippy top of The Circus..."

If you haven't spent at least 5 minutes this year pretending to be the slippery Simon McBurney, you're probably more normal than me. But his undersecretary Oliver Lacon is just one of the cast members who relish the enigmatic dialogue of Peter Straughan (The Debt, The Men Who Stare at Goats) and Bridget O'Connor's winding adaptation of John le Carré's seminal novel.

It's hard to follow for many - the beginning is way too jumpy - but combined with Tomas Alfredson's impeccable visuals, this slow-burn story of betrayal and decay is a sumptuous bit of cinema (here's our Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy review). Which is why the Tinker Tailor Soldier Screenplay makes the Christmas reading list in our Advent Calendar this week.

For those who appreciate Gary Oldman's almost total lack of speech, but want to memorise his electrifying monologue about Russian gangster Karla, it's perfect material for post-Boxing Day lunch. And for those sleepy relatives who still don't understand who the mole was, this streamlined version of the book is great for brief recaps - or just hitting them over the head with.

Thanks to Focus Features and their sexy awards campaign, you can download it for yourself. To read the Tinker Tailor Soldier Screenplay, head this way.

Director: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Toby Jones
Certificate: 15

"I'm retired." Those are the first words spoken by George Smiley (Oldman), and they don't occur until 15 minutes in. But even before then we've spent enough time with Tinker, Tailor's hero to know what he's about. We see him forced out of MI5 ("The Circus") alongside the paranoid chief, Control (Hurt), and follow him home during the muted opening credits. Throughout, Smiley says nothing.

It's a hugely effective sequence that sees allegiances change, powers shift, and paperwork go up and down in a lift. Welcome to Tomas Alfredson's take on John le Carré's world. It's a quiet, tense, and stylish place to be betrayed. How British.

The new Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy quad poster turned up in my inbox over the weekend - and it's awesome. Here it is, because sometimes Mondays need cheering up:

Read on for the other new Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy character posters. They're also excellent, mainly because they feature Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong and Tom Hardy. (Sorry John Hurt, Toby Jones and Ciaran Hinds - no posters for you.)

Tomas Alfredson's take on John Le Carre's novel is out in cinemas on Friday 16th September. Head this way to watch the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy trailer - or read our review of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Well, that's that settled.

The new Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy trailer is here, and it's officially brilliant. What with the first Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy trailer and the phenomenal Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy poster/word search, it's scientific fact that anything Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy related improves the world by 27.3%.

Oh, there were no doubt some people on the internet who complained after the last trailer (FOOLS), probably about there not being enough Benedict Cumberbatch or Tom Hardy to drool over. Well, the new video has both - and even more Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Simon McBurney to boot.

All of that and some of Henry Jackson's score for X-Men: First Class? Optimum are hitting all the right buttons with Tomas Alfredson's adaptation of the John le Carré novel. Particularly the button marked "awesome".

The campaign for Gary Oldman's Oscar starts here. Or, you know, when someone actually starts that campaign. 

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is released on Friday 16th September. Read on for the full video, or head this way to see the other Tinker trailer.

As if you needed an excuse to stare at Gary Oldman for 10 minutes:

 

George Smiley's face is the best word search ever. These are the words to find:

Mole, Karla, Witchcraft, Tinker, Poorman, Beggarman, Tail, Smiley, Circus, Scalphunters, Polyakov, Agent

(The answers to the wordsearch are here.)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is out on Friday 16th September. Head this way to see the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy trailer - or read our review of Tinker, Tailor.

Director: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong
Certificate: 15
Release Date: Friday 16th September

Set in the 1970s, TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY finds George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a recently retired MI6 agent, doing his best to adjust to a life outside the secret service. However, when a disgraced agent reappears with information concerning a mole at the heart of the Circus, Smiley is drawn back into the murky field of espionage. Tasked with investigating which of his trusted former colleagues has chosen to betray him and their country, Smiley narrows his search to four suspects - all experienced, urbane, successful agents - but past histories, rivalries and friendships make it far from easy to pinpoint the man who is eating away at the heart of the British establishment.

Head this way to read our Tinker, Tailor review.

"There's a mole. Right at the top of the circus..."

Just when you thought 2011 was looking dull and nothing would ever make you feel all Smiley again, up pops the international teaser trailer for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. And it's flipping perfect. PERFECT, I say. 

Adapted from the seminal John le Carré spy novel - already transformed into that classic BBC series starring Alec Guinness - the film follows George Smiley sneaking about inside MI6 trying to uncover a mole. The most exciting thing? It's directed by Let the Right One In's Tomas Alfredson. Oh, and George Smiley is played by Gary Oldman. And Colin Firth is in too.

I could go on. Actually, it's far easier if I just write a long list of awesome things. You can fill in the gaps with squees of excitement. John le Carré. Gary Oldman. Tomas Alfredson. Colin Firth. Tom Hardy. Mark Strong. Toby Jones. Benedict Cumberbatch. John Hurt. September 16th.

Released exclusively over at the Guardian, the trailer (complete with sinister strings on the soundtrack) is pretty much 80 seconds of perfection. A perfect story of subterfuge and double-crossing? Oh yes, this could even be better than Channel 5's classic reality TV series The Mole. And that had helicopters. And a really cheesy opening credits sequence.

Read on for the full Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy video. Sadly, you'll have to wait over two months to find out if George Smiley identifies the mole, the traitor, the insider, the saboteur. Oh wait, that's the intro to the Channel 5 series again. Read on to see a video of that as well.

Rango has wrangled the UK Box Office ahead of The Adjustment Bureau, with an opening of £1.64m. Phillip K. Dick's sci-fi story came in second with £1.36m.

It's a solid start for Gore Verbinski's Western, which risked opening at the end of half-term after achieving the highest opening of 2011 so far in the US ($38m). It was a hard sell, too, given the adult-friendly nature of the gun-toting cartoon, but Paramount will be pleased to walk off with CGI stetson held high.

The timing of Rango's release was key. If it did open a week earlier, it would have faced tough competition from Yogi Bear, Gnomeo & Juliet and Tangled - all of which saw drops close to 70% as kids headed away from the multiplexes and back to school. As a result, Rango is now the animated film with the most screens in the UK (suck on that, Disney's Tangled, down in 12th place).

The King's Speech swept the BAFTAs last night, in a largely predictable run of results that saw Tom Hooper's drama take home seven awards - surprise, surprise.

The British movie's haul began as Alexandre Desplat bumped Hans Zimmer off the favourite spot to nab Best Original Music. The deluge continued from there, with Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush all picking up gongs, the latter upsetting predicted contender Christian Bale - proof once and for all that Bow Ties are better than Crack Addicts.

Other pleasant surprises saw David Fincher claim Best Director for The Social Network (an award that I saw heading Tom Hooper's way), while Fincher's Facebook movie continued to pick up another two awards: Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. And yes, Aaron Sorkin's speech was typically brilliant.

Inception also took home three golden masks, each for technical categories, while Natalie Portman nailed Black Swan's only gong and Roger Deakins deservedly won Best Cinematography for True Grit - a film which will fare far stronger on its home turf at the Oscars. Sadly, The Deaks wasn't there to collect, but that just gave Hailee Steinfeld a chance to pick up a trophy on his behalf. Aww, bless her little gun-toting cotton socks.

Meanwhile, Alice in Wonderland cemented its awards status in Make-Up and Costume departments (that's the BAFTA Award-winning Alice in Wonderland to you), Toy Story 3 inevitably dominated Best Animated Film. The remaining prizes went to Four Lions - Best Debut Director for the absent Chris Morris - and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which deservedly walked home with Best Foreign Film.

And then, just to top things off, The King's Speech grabbed Outstanding British Film to boot. In case we hadn't got the hint already. And yet, for all the complaints of the BAFTAs being too obvious this year, it was hard to whine when Colin Firth took to the stage to and outdid last year's infamous Fridge Man Speech (when he won for A Single Man).

The only highlight that rivalled that was Rosamund Pike failing to read an autocue and opening her awards envelope before she'd even announced the nominees. If she doesn't host the BAFTAs next year, I'll be very disappointed.

Read on for the full list of winners - including Christopher Lee and Harry Potter.