>>Jackie Weaver got a best supporting actress nomination for her portrayal of the grandmother of a Melbourne crime family - definitely not a cute little girl!
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>>See you enjoyed 'The spy who came in from the cold', we really enjoyed 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'. Some who haven't read the books found it hard to follow but my wife hadn't and she loved it also.
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>>Borgen is a Danish series that follows the rise of a woman to the Danish prime ministership. Beautifully written and riveting performances.
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>>Have recently really enjoyed Kevin Spacey in 'House of Cards'. I was always surprised that there hadn't been a US remake of the BBC original. if you can find the original trilogy , Ian Richardson's portrayal of the diabolical Francis Urquhart is truly memorable.
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>Watched the US HofC in a marathon the day it came up on Netflix <g> I was a big fan of the Ian Richardson original and have watched it a couple times. Loved them both.
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>There are 2 versions of Tinker Tailor. The original was a three part ( I think ) version with Alec Guiness as Smiley. Really liked that one. The second was a 2 hour version with Gary Oldham. Did not care for that nearly as much mostly because the short format does not lend itself to telling a story that complex. (nor, for that matter did the first one but at least they had more time)
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>One of my favorite spy series of all time is Len Deighton's (what do you call a trilogy of trilogies?) Bernard Samson books,
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>https://www.goodreads.com/series/65594-bernard-samson
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>Grenada Television did a 12 episode series of the first three. Very hard to do them justice but the casting was quite good.
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>I think Deighton is one of the most under-appreciated writers of the genre and often I prefer him to LeCarre who can sometimes get a little too obscurantist for his own good.
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>Some good Michael Caine movies were made of Deighton's earlier Harry Palmer books ( Funeral in Berlin etc ) but I think the Samson books are his best.

Len Deighton better than John LeCarre! Heretic!