Original subtitles

Don't you worry about me, Werner. You think you're going to be picking me out

the sea in little pieces.

Nothing worse is going to happen to me, I hope, than a very severe attack at

six.

Major Erich Dennis.

All right, you can damn well swim.

Come on, sirs.

Enrollment is all about telling lies to very highly skilled liars.

There are no surprises on the boat, Samson.

Are you working out our fuel consumption to see if we might reach Sakhalin

Island?

Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of Russian crew that would help us on our way.

No one else there.

Except the automatic pilot.

Biedermann has all the equipment.

I think you need a drink.

Still drinking vodka orange?

Wonderful, isn't it?

Still drink scotch?

Still allergic to both?

Only one person in the world knows that.

It's all down in our files now.

Excuse me, but you've gone to an awful lot of trouble if all you want's a

fishing lesson.

The backyard of the PAA.

One always has to be cautious.

This may be their backyard, Mr. Spittish, but I can assure you there's

you'll end up in American hands.

I don't understand.

What gives you the idea of wanting to end up in anyone's hands?

I'm straight, H .E .B.

Karima with no complications.

There's no one in the world with no complications.

Then he's here.

Why have you gone to all this trouble to talk to me alone?

Because I thought you were offering me your defection.

Thank you.

Good.

Sure. Thanks.

There isn't a fish in the sea that some other fish isn't trying to eat.

Well, Mindy, why me?

You're the great white that London seems to want to catch, Mr. Stennis. You've

been targeted.

Starred as an exceptional enemy agent.

Is that so?

Come on.

Don't tell me you were sent as the only British agent who could recognize me.

No, I think I was sent as the only British agent you'd recognize.

Why should I want to defect?

Is London so stupid to think I resent the arrival of Fiona in Berlin?

She's a very smart lady.

Your wife.

By the way, Mr. Steddy, are you married?

You know damn well I'm married.

You mean you if I say that I fool around with girls.

It's better to fool around with girls than sitting in my small little house

watching West German television every time.

All the things my wife wants and can't get.

Yes, I would imagine the KGB would classify that as domestic instability.

You're right.

They give you a black mark and send you on a leadership course on Sahelene

Island.

No wine, no women, cold showers and long run.

A hundred miles to the mill now.

Sounds like a very strong argument for marital fidelity.

Yes, until you get bored with it.

Are you offering me divorce as a motive for defection?

Yeah.

If this was a serious negotiation, you would be expecting me to defect with

-class material.

That would be the only price acceptable.

In return for which?

Oh, money.

New identity?

How? Usual thing.

Vote?

Pretty young girl. A clean debauch.

Very neat.

Who's pulling whose leg, Mr. Stenner?

And what kind of material would London expect?

Well, they'd expect you to break a network.

A real network, not just a list of names who've already flown the coup, not

leaving a forwarding address.

That would just make everybody bad -tempered, and they'd start to think he

still on salary from Boston. It would make everything crystal clear.

I'm not instructed to offer specific terms. You do understand.

Why indeed should you?

Has our conversation not been entirely theoretic?

I shall write.

It takes a minimum of three people to play charades, Mr. Stenner.

I'm told Dana Fulgman's a very good player.

You will communicate nothing of our conversation to your embassy in Mexico

No, possible.

Except to say that terms were offered to me and refused.

You can tell them to wire that back.

To London, the usual coding.

Usual coding?

My colleague, Pavel Moskin, will then find out where I've been.

Your embassy in Mexico is not as secure as it believes it's supposed to be.

You can have that on property.

Thanks.

A gesture of good faith.

Who knows, maybe even a down payment.

Don't trust him, Bernie.

That's not the reason why, Bernie. You know the way London expects us to work.

I don't trust him. I don't distrust him.

He's probably feeling exactly the same about us.

He's probably wondering if we aren't trying to lead him into the jam pot and

him drowned by his own side.

Did he look to you as if he was vitish?

What, at my wife?

He's not asking the right questions, not yet.

That's a game, Bernie.

Being in the right place at the right time.

What's he doing in Mexico?

I bet he's not here for Biedermann.

Maybe he's here for Dickie Cryer and Silicon Valley.

Dickie Cryer?

I'll probably find Dickie Cryer on some expensive beach somewhere with a

cocktail in one hand and a pencil and paper in the other, making little

for the report he's going to write on a plane going home after he's picked my

brains.

I thought, tell me something I didn't know.

Look, if this finished thing works out, Dickie's going to take all the credit,

right?

If anything goes wrong, I get to blame.

Right?

God.

God, bloody mighty.

That tip tree, give it a wash, it'll be as good as new.

Oh, by the way, are you in charge of security at the embassy?

Yes.

Well, I think you'll find that the opposition have broken your Mickey Mouse

code.

Mickey Mouse?

They've been reading your signal traffic for at least three months.

Still in one piece.

Well, talk to me, Bernard. Talk to me.

It's our Cossack fraternity.

Unfortunately, Dickie, things are never quite that simple.

You mean we're wasting our time?

Yes, probably.

Is that all you can say out of five and a half thousand miles?

And ten days' hotel bill? I'm the one who's got to write a report on this

we get home to London.

Sitting up on the plane all bloody night, I suppose.

He's finished his approach, Dickie. He's hardly likely to give himself away in

the first five minutes. Well, are there any positive signs?

Yes, he's bored with his wife and a KGB frown on adultery.

So do we, Bernard. So do we.

Oh, I'd say.

Reminds me of that impersonal girl in the yellow submarine.

Who, Gloria?

Couldn't save me there already.

Work a bee, Dickie.

We all stick together, making honey?

Don't waste any time, do you?

No.

A fair bit of damage to my motor, Dickie.

Stick it to claim, Henry. Stick it to claim.

Well, thank you so much for all your support.

Has the intelligence department made up its mind yet?

Or are we still improvising?

Well, we do know that Stinnis is going to be back in Berlin next week.

I heard.

They want me back there too?

I want you there, Bernie.

With Zena.

He seems to trust her.

Trust or lust, Bernie?

What's the difference?

So you're asking your friend to pimp his wife?

For queen and country.

Fair enough.

Not my queen.

And not my country.

We've adopted you, Liebling.

Look, cuidado, cuidado.

All I am saying, Bernard, is that I have a report to sweat out, and I want to

know if we stand a 50 -50 chance.

Certainly no better.

Is he worth department time money?

She's really a potential defector, yes?

All right.

How much is he going to cost us?

Dickie, I doubt if money will come into it.

Men like Stennis don't get where they are without a fair amount of

indoctrination.

You mean he's a hard -nosed comic?

He's a establishment, but not necessarily a believer.

Look, a Major like Stimmy can barge into the office of any commander -in -chief

without even bothering to knock, and no one in the West has the kind of power he

can enjoy.

I'll bring him a comfortable life.

Yes, but I think we've probably seen enough of our own defectors to know what

kind of life that could be. Oh, really, Bernard? How can you compare the life of

a defector coming West to that of one going East?

All they have to offer is a perverted ideology and a medieval social system.

Seems to have attracted its fair share of voluntary followers.

We have a free society and a free press.

Or what those were.

Freedom to protest.

Within limits.

The freedom, Bernard, to say anything we damn well please.

The freedom, Richard, to start.

So, whose side are you on?

All I'm trying to tell you is that I don't think Spill's the kind of man

going to sell his soul for a waffle of hi -fi components and a microwave.

That's all.

Okay?

Doris? Hi, Daddy!

You're in the cupboard.

Hello, darling.

Hello.

Did you go on Ali's gun? Fuck you, silly. Where did you go, Daddy?

I went to Mexico.

Did you see Mummy?

Mummy's in Berlin, silly.

I'm not silly.

Now, look, what's this?

What is this thing about Mexico?

Mexico?

You know what they are? Have you ever seen them before? No.

They look like rums, but actually they've got holes in them.

You can stick them over your cover then.

Oh, that's great. Where are you?

Come sit here.

It's good.

Isn't Mummy in Berlin, Daddy?

Yes, Mummy's in Berlin.

She rang up.

She what?

Mexico's where they play football.

Mummy sent you her love?

Hi. Hi.

No sombrero for me, Bernie.

You're sleeping up as it is, Julian.

Oh, my God.

Yes.

Dickie had the entire contents of his interest sent to you.

Oh, uh, Brett wants to see you in his office.

11 o 'clock sharp, Bernard.

DG. First thing Monday morning.

And a bloke called Kimber Hutchinson kept calling.

He sounded like your bank manager.

He's my father -in -law, actually.

Yes, yes.

So I eventually gathered.

He's trying to summon you to a family meeting next weekend.

H .P .W .T.

What?

Julian McKenzie had passed for will travel.

Or would if he could.

I already told you, Julian, you're overqualified.

Cambridge firsts get recruited only for their brains.

Brains in here.

Cheers.

Cheers.

You, um... You probably heard I took a little of the load off Dickie Cryer's

shoulders while he was in Mexico.

For the time being.

Something to take the place of Brahms, is it?

Yes, sir, I suppose you must find yourself at a bit of a loose end.

I want to make it clear that although I'm senior to Dickie, that doesn't mean

he's not still in charge of the German desk.

Okay?

Okay. Okay.

Any observations on this guy, Stennis?

None, I'm sure, that Dickie hasn't already reported.

Off the record.

We made contact.

Who made contact?

Dickie makes it sound as though he'd negotiated with Stennis face to face.

No one's negotiated yet, Brad.

Do I have to drag every word out of you?

What did he say? How did he say it?

Well, if he defected, he'd be a good source. But the chances are it'll never

happen.

You're not saying drop the whole thing.

If you and Dickie and the department have got nothing better to do, go ahead.

It's time Dickie saw some experience at the sharp end of the business.

Is that job intended for me too?

You've never seen a real Russian close to.

Except there were cucumber sandwiches at embassy tea parties.

Stinnett is a real pro.

You'll enjoy talking to him.

There's some routine stuff here we have to go through, if you don't mind.

Should I mind?

Well, you might mind talking to me.

It's about your wife.

One of your remarks you made seemed to suggest that you might have suspected

Fiona and myself of having had an affair or something of that nature.

I appreciate the fact that you made no mention of your suspicions in your

interviews.

There were no grounds for your suspicions, I do assure you, but in

reports. Can't look bad.

These are recap questions from Mr. Barrett, Cabinet Office.

You never suspected your wife of working for the KGB prior to your mission into

East Berlin.

That is correct.

Not even if we go back?

Years and years?

Especially if we go back years and years.

She was my wife.

No suspicions?

None at all?

There's something you should remember, Brad. There's something you should all

remember.

Fiona was cleared by internal security and regularly vetted by the department.

My failure was no greater than the department's failure.

If I hadn't flushed her out... She'd still be working here and still passing

your secrets back to Moscow.

Our secrets? Let's rather say our secrets.

Unless you're also thinking of leaving us.

I don't mean to make things more difficult for you, Bernard, but the

family becomes a departmental issue... it has to be assumed that your private

and professional lives are somewhat out of control.

It's all very well for you sloping up here on a Sabbath. I've had to put up

it all weekend.

Tess is keeping as far away from her father as possible.

We only see her to eat and sleep.

Jane's in the garden.

Charlie! Charlie!

Come here!

Jane?

Hello?

Don't I have to be this?

I still can't believe what happened.

Where did we go wrong, Bernard?

Please don't go blaming yourself, Jane.

David's out galloping at the moment.

He's taken Fiona to hell.

He's looking for someone to blame.

He's not going to give you an easy time.

Well, I just have to wear my thick skin that one time.

Bloody horse went lame.

Barnard!

David. Long way to come, just for Sunday lunch.

Yes, and I'm sorry I couldn't get here any earlier.

Where were you?

Bailey Moor.

Thought we were meant to be riding together.

I couldn't find you, Daddy.

Mac dropped a shoe at Clennell's Gap.

Practically had to carry the blighter home.

Rather heavy, I imagine.

Been thinking about that new place of yours.

Not what I'd call a sound investment.

I suppose you realise you're paying the equivalent of £150 ,000 per room.

Might look good on headed notepaper, but a penthouse these days is for American

PR. Or call girls.

Besides...

Inner cities are not the place for children anymore.

The days of Peter Pan are over.

Children?

Wouldn't you say so, Bernard?

Have to be frightfully careful how and where you bring up kids.

For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful.

You've discovered my little secret.

I would all start off in photographs.

Or Michelangelo would have used a camera at Sistine Chapel if he'd had a chance.

Thank

you,

Marjorie.

I can never draw horses.

It's not fair.

No artist loved horses as I do.

All knew so much about them.

Even tracing it off a photograph doesn't come right.

Maybe you should trace paintings, not photographs.

Trace the stubs, you mean. Not a bad idea.

Learn whatever his trick was.

It is all tricks, you know.

You've been jotting down your figures.

You don't look too happy.

Of course, I'm only guessing at your salary.

The equivalent, I thought, of a principal in the admin grades of the

service.

And Fiona had more or less the same, so that's halved your income for a start.

But you've also lost the benefit of her trust fund.

I've frozen all assets I can lay my hands on.

It strikes me you'll have to sell the house.

Find yourself a small service flat.

Bedroom, kitchen and living room. Maybe not even a kitchen.

I'll give you the names of a couple of house agents I know in London to do

business with.

Don't want to go to the first people you come across.

Too many Israelites in that line of business.

Oh, I forgot.

You like Jews, don't you?

No more than I like Scotsmen or Saudi Arabians.

Your specifications for the service flat left out of nursery.

That's coming to that, Bernard.

The children... I think you'll agree unreservedly about this... are the

most important single factor in this whole tragic business.

Yes.

I'm a socialist, Bernard.

Know that.

Never made a secret of the fact.

My father worked hard all his life and died at his workbench.

Something I can't forget.

Yes, but your father owned the workbench and the factory in which it was

situated.

But I've never had any dealings with communists.

And when I heard the owner had been working for the Russians all these

sent for my lawyer.

and disowned her.

I obliterated her from our lives.

You've got to say something about the children.

Fiona's gone for good. She's never coming back. It's no good holding on to

house in the hope you'll one day resume your life together.

If Fiona did come back, she would have an extremely long jail sentence to face.

Not to return home.

Oh, my God, yes.

That would be the final disgrace.

I don't say your own social attitudes had something to do with that change of

mind.

She was very well brought up, you know.

As I intend her children to be.

My wife and I have discussed the whole matter at great length.

We are prepared to have the children.

They will have their old nanny back.

And, of course, I can afford proper and discreet security precautions

indefinitely.

Naturally, you'll have access whenever you wish.

Thank you, David.

But I'm afraid I intend to keep the children with me.

And, uh...

there this weekend.

Still with my mother.

She's really far too old to help young children.

You see, Bernard, here in the country, we can offer them an almost idyllic

Well, we must admit they would like it here.

Grandparents do have rights, you know.

Think it over and don't say no.

I don't want to find myself fighting for custody of the children through the law

court.

I don't pay far too much money to lawyers as it is.

You'd be wasting your money, David.

The court will always give custody to the parents.

Don't be so sure.

I'm advised that my chances of legal custody are good.

It's just that I don't fancy paying a lawyer lots of money to tell the world

what an evil and irresponsible son -in -law I have.

And I don't suppose your department would exactly encourage you into a long

noisy legal wrangle, having gone to so much trouble this far, to hush the whole

thing up.

Where's George? Isn't he right?

George is being moody with me.

Usually means you're having an affair with someone, doesn't it?

I wouldn't tell you if I was.

You're a single available man now.

And one I've always loved and desired.

Good girl, Tessa.

I saw Giles Trent the night he was killed.

I told him goodbye, just like you said.

I think that cured me of men forever.

Yes, well, it's lucky you didn't walk up the stairs with him that evening. That

could have cured you of everything forever.

Bernard!

I had Fiona's Mercedes picked up while you were away.

Better to get rid of it.

Too many unhappy memories for you to want to use it, I'm sure.

Do you think of everything?

I do try.

Don't you dare give in to him.

He screwed my life up. He screwed Fiona's life up.

He's not going to screw up the life of your children as well.

Oh, Mother told me what he was going to tell you.

She's against it, but she won't fight it.

She gave up fighting him years ago.

So did Fiona.

Fiona joined the Communists instead.

Fiona spoke to the kids on the phone the other day.

Yes.

She spoke to you as well.

She doesn't want the kids to come here and she'll do anything to stop it.

She doesn't want them anywhere near him.

I think I'd kill my sister for hurting you so much.

It still hurts.

I came to offer you a lift back to London.

Some of us have Monday mornings catching up with us.

Only welfare meetings, Samson?

Welfare, sir.

Part of my job, I believe.

Isn't it?

You've been in the Caribbean?

Mexico, sir.

Precisely.

Successful hunt?

Too early to tell yet, sir.

Good.

I mean, I'm glad you're being cautious. Your father was always a cautious man.

Anything you want to say?

About Mexico, sir?

About anything.

No trouble.

Silas Gaunt.

He's always very concerned about the welfare of his protege.

Can be rather insistent about it.

I told him we could take some sort of child allowance out of contingency as a

temporary measure.

And, of course, we have a very good boarding school for all ages and sexes.

I'd rather keep my children at home.

Precisely.

Exactly what I said to him.

Samson can be a boring old fart, really.

Oh, no disrespect.

Fine brain.

Fine brain.

Too much solitude.

Oh,

there you are.

You might have financial problems, Samson, but you can't possibly commit

expenses like this anymore.

You have to itemize, correlate, justify, append receipts.

But they don't give receipts in Mexico, Moor.

We have new auditing systems.

The slimlining and reduction of unnecessary expenditure taxpayers'

We are not the BBC in our fountain. Good housekeeping essential.

I need these files signed out by registry, Mr. Sampson. I'm afraid

going on a floppy disk.

It's the point of computers, isn't it?

Yes, sir.

Call in Bernie Luff.

We're very democratic on the third floor.

You've got nothing better to do, Julian, than you can run that little lot along

to Dickie's.

Yes, sir.

That's quite a mess, sir.

It's probably in there.

Do you want to go sorting it out?

Third floor, that's operations.

Well, do you good to blink in the daylight?

Blink in the daylight?

You spend most of your life underground, don't you, in a yellow submarine?

Oh, yes.

Yes, it's awful. I'm afraid I got myself stuck with it.

Did you come into the department on computers?

No, no, language.

My parents come from Hungary.

Ah, they lived in Hungary.

My father came in 1965.

I was born in Weymouth.

And where do you live now?

Epson.

Well, it's quite a luxury to have fluent German on the desk.

Do you want to go sorting the rest of this out?

This is operations.

I'm attached to registry.

Well, I'll have a word with establishment if you like.

Anything to get my head above ground, sir.

Okay.

Yes, worker B's wearing Chanel number 19. Times there are changing, aren't

Dickie?

has summoned Frank over to give him a Berlin rundown on Stinnis.

Oh, you knew that, did you? Well, I guessed he would.

I'm not quibbling, Bernard, but Frank is German desk. It would have been usual

to clear through me.

Oh, damn it, I am quibbling. He must clear through me.

Dickie, the department are assessing Stinnis. He could end up costing a lot

money.

I don't think anybody's too worried about protocol at the moment.

What do you mean, money? Well, we already owe Werner a big fat fee.

Not of German funds, we don't. We sent them back to Berlin, Dickie. They were

the middle of a Mexican holiday.

You sent him back to Berlin. I merely said, you Xena of the Go -Between. I

not have establishments down on my head for overspending on unrelated expenses.

Oh, dear God, I've got a bloody head cold coming on.

All those changes in climate.

Dickie, you know, I think you ought to go home and lie down.

Get Daphne to make you a nice hot whiskey and lemon.

Yes, well, if you see Frank, you just tell him where German desk is situated.

It's Dickie Cryer, extension 610.

Oh, how are the kids, by the way?

Why on earth do you ask?

I don't know. Oh, yes, I do. Daphne asked me to ask you. And anything she

to help and all that sort of thing. And why don't you come to dinner on

Thursday?

Bring Chanel number 19.

Can we stay with Grandma another day? She's made chocolate pies, too.

There's plenty for you, too, dear.

We've been helping in the garden.

Yes. I see.

Mother.

Is everything... I'm all right, Mother.

Really.

Everything's fine.

I could have the children for two or three days if it's any help.

What are you doing?

Gamp rang up. He said you're going to go and see him and ride the horses.

Come on.

He just rang for a chat.

It won't be just a chat next time.

I'm afraid he's after custody of the children, Mother.

I suppose he wants you to back him up.

People get so dramatic, don't they?

Frank, Harrington's inside.

It's so nice to see him again.

Frank?

The office knew you were coming here to pick up the children.

Just trying to...

Figure out what's going on.

Nice to see your mother after so long. Listen, Dickie.

He's missed.

Dickie's a desk man. You're the file officer.

Brett Rensselaer?

Brett lost Brahms.

He's looking for another source.

He could hardly place Guinness all on his own, so he has to use Dickie and the

German desk.

Frank Harrington?

We've known each other a long time.

1945 in Berlin.

Your father was one of the first men to take his family out to occupy Germany.

I was touched by that moment.

So many of those chaps didn't mind at all leaving their wives.

They were leading the plush life of the conqueror.

There was nothing much you couldn't obtain for a price for a cigarette or a

of ration. But your father...

He wanted his wife and his son out there with him.

I respected him for that.

And a lot else.

What exactly are you trying to tell me, Frank?

I want all this to come out right for you.

For what?

You're bound to remain a prime suspect until cleared by first -class

corroborative evidence.

Listen, Frank, I was the Charlie that put the finger on my wife, remember?

The one who tipped her off in time for her to get away?

Perhaps that's how Moscow wanted it done.

To leave you still here, highly placed.

With a gilt -edged credential of having turned in your own wife.

What the hell are you getting at?

Playing devil's advocate, Bernard.

Let's just say...

If you were to show that you were unwilling or unable to enroll Stinnett,

might think that we didn't want us to get our hands on him.

They might then ask if you had something to fear from his evidence.

Has Fiona tried to get in touch with you?

having the same trouble.

Only mine won't go at all. I've got to be at St. Mary Abbots by half past or

Matron will kill me.

You couldn't give me a lift as far as the taxi, could you?

Uh,

yeah,

go on.

I'll pay.

I'm sorry to give you this trouble. I'd around my brother, but he'd be paying

cricket today.

Are you a cricket fan?

Me? No.

No, for one reason or another, I never learned at school, so I'm afraid my

knowledge of the game is somewhat limited.

It's a more violent sport than people realize. I'm surprised there haven't

more fatalities.

Fatalities? Well, wearing a helmet has helped, of course, but you see, a good

fast bowler has to have the killer...