# What is the best John le Carré screen adaptation?

> Cold War mole hunts and modern arms dealers, from slow BBC serials to glossy features.

*By YPB Team · Published October 20, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-john-le-carre-screen-adaptation*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979)** — score 1000/1000
   The BBC serial with Alec Guinness as Smiley, still treated as the benchmark adaptation.
2. **Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)** — score 763/1000
   Tomas Alfredson's film with Gary Oldman as George Smiley hunting a Soviet mole inside British intelligence.
3. **The Tailor of Panama** — score 560/1000
   The 2001 spy comedy with Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush.
4. **The Night Manager** — score 485/1000
   The 2016 series with Tom Hiddleston as a hotel manager recruited to infiltrate an arms dealer's circle.
5. **The Little Drummer Girl** — score 397/1000
   The 2018 miniseries with Florence Pugh as an actress recruited by Israeli intelligence.
6. **A Perfect Spy** — score 397/1000
   The 1987 BBC serial of le Carré's semi-autobiographical novel.
7. **Smiley's People** — score 397/1000
   The 1982 BBC sequel in which Alec Guinness's Smiley faces his Soviet counterpart, Karla.
8. **The Spy Who Came in from the Cold** — score 291/1000
   The 1965 film with Richard Burton as a burned-out British agent on a final mission in East Germany.
9. **The Constant Gardener** — score 291/1000
   The 2005 thriller with Ralph Fiennes investigating his wife's death and a pharmaceutical conspiracy in Kenya.
10. **The Russia House** — score 291/1000
   The 1990 film with Sean Connery as a publisher drawn into a Cold War espionage plot.
11. **Our Kind of Traitor** — score 291/1000
   The 2016 thriller about a couple who become entangled with a Russian money launderer.
12. **A Most Wanted Man** — score 0/1000
   The 2014 film with Philip Seymour Hoffman as a German intelligence operative in Hamburg.

Tags: movies, books, thriller, spy, john le carré