Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (TV Mini Series)

Flushing Out the Mole (1979)

Ian Richardson: Bill Haydon

Quotes 

• Jim Prideaux : Don't look around, Bill.

  Bill Haydon : Oh, it's you, Jim. Come to say goodbye? Nice of you. I'm glad to see you haven't lost your touch. Must be in pretty good shape.

  Jim Prideaux : Why did you get me back?

  Bill Haydon : I couldn't leave you rotting in a Czech prison.

  Jim Prideaux : Russian. Why didn't Karla finish me off? Was that out of delicacy to you?

  [Haydon says nothing] 

  Jim Prideaux : Wasn't that, was it? You both thought that a corpse might create a lot more fuss than just another repatriated harmless cripple, didn't you?

  Bill Haydon : The shooting wasn't part of the plan, Jim!

  Jim Prideaux : No, not the shooting... but everything else.

  [Jim breaks Haydon's neck] 

• Bill Haydon : Do you know what's killing Western Democracy, George? Greed... and constipation... moral, political, aesthetic. I hate America very deeply. The economic repression of the masses, institutionalised. Even Lenin couldn't foresee the extent of that. Britain... oh dear... No viability whatever in world affairs.

• Bill Haydon : I still believe the secret services are the only real expression of a nation's character.

• Bill Haydon : What do you want to know?

  George Smiley : Oh... why? How? When?

  [Bill starts laughing and crying at the same time] 

  Bill Haydon : Why? You ask that? Because it was NECESSARY, that's why! Someone had to!

  [pause] 

  Bill Haydon : We were bluffed, George. You, me, even Control. Those Circus talent spotters, all those years ago. They plucked us when we were golden with hope, told us we were on our way to the Holy Grail... freedom's protectors!

  [laughing and sobbing] 

  Bill Haydon : My God! What a question... "Why?"

• [on his affair with Ann] 

  Bill Haydon : The thing with Ann was Karla's idea. He always believed that if there was ever any threat, it would come from you. He said you were quite good. But you had this one weakness: Ann. It was a double-fix, actually. On the one hand, you wouldn't be likely to think of me as a Circus traitor if you were preoccupied with wondering what we got up to in bed. And if it were known around the place that I was her lover, then it was bound to look like personal vengeance if you ever did suggest that I might be the mole. So, he suggested, well, not to strain it, but if possible... join the queue. Point?

  George Smiley : [almost inaudibly]  Point.

• Oliver Lacon : You know, George, one thing perplexes me more than anything else about the mole conspiracy: well, Karla conceived Operation Witchcraft primarily as a means of placing poor Percy Alleline on Control's throne. But why didn't Karla want Haydon to simply take over the Circus himself? Well, surely it would have been much easier to arrange, with all of Bill's acknowledged accomplishments.

  [cut to Haydon and Smiley walking the grounds of the detention camp] 

  Bill Haydon : No, no. It was a perfect setup: Percy made the running, I slipstreamed behind him, Roy and Toby did the legwork. Being in charge would have bogged me down. All the admin, the dinners in Whitehall, hobnobbing with the set...

  George Smiley : Never happened to Control.

  Bill Haydon : A natural recluse, Control. I couldn't have behaved that way and gotten away with it. Much better for me to remain the freewheeling subordinate, the laughing cavalier. No, no, George, Karla and I agreed: I'd have been wasted as Chief. Could have done it, of course.

  George Smiley : Of course.

• Bill Haydon : Really, the pettiness of our inquisitors! They're utterly incompetent. They actually believe I know the names of Karla's other moles around the world. Idiots! I can't talk to people like that.

• Bill Haydon : They tell me I could be away tomorrow, or the day after at the latest. Can you make sure any mail gets forwarded from my club? Oh, and the balance of my salary, of course.

  George Smiley : I will. Anything else?

  Bill Haydon : Oh, yes. Nearly forgot. You got a pen somewhere?

  [Smiley tosses his pen at him] 

  Bill Haydon : Thanks.

  [writes a cheque] 

  Bill Haydon : Girlfriend. Give her this. I'm away on work of national importance... maybe for years, so she can forget me. And I can't take her with me, can I? Even if I could, she'd be a bloody millstone. Oh, and there's one particular boy.

  [writes an address] 

  Bill Haydon : A cherub, but no angel. Haven't seen a lot of him. You better give him a couple of hundred - can you do that, out of the reptile fund?

  George Smiley : I would think so.

  Bill Haydon : Good.

  [puts Smiley's pen in his pocket and leans back in his bunk] 

  Bill Haydon : Oh, God, I'm tired...

  George Smiley : My pen, please!

  Bill Haydon : ...What? Oh!

  [chuckles and returns Smiley's pen] 

  Bill Haydon : Certainly. Sorry.

• [Haydon is battered and bruised and has had blood on his shirt. Smiley begins his interrogation of Haydon] 

  George Smiley : Lacon assures me there's been no coercion. I hope that's true?

  Bill Haydon : Oh yes. No complaints, George. Bit of a nosebleed, keep feeling dizzy. I'm sure it's just the excitement of it all.

• Bill Haydon : Scotch, a bloody big great one.

• Bill Haydon : Do you mind if I finish my drink, George?

• Bill Haydon : Very proper, George! Don't want anything irrelevant, do we? Very tidy, George!

  [Smiley palms his gun] 

• Bill Haydon : [leaving]  All the best, Percy!

• George Smiley : Did you expect Control to send Jim Prideaux?

  Bill Haydon : Well... obviously we needed to be certain Control would rise to the bait. We had to send in a big gun to make the story stick, and we knew he'd only settle for someone outside London Station, someone he trusted.

  George Smiley : And someone who spoke Czech, of course.

  Bill Haydon : Naturally. It had to be a man who was old Circus, to bring the temple down a bit.

  George Smiley : Yes, I see the logic of it. It was, perhaps, the most famous partnership the Circus ever had: you and him, back in the old days. The iron fist, and the iron glove. Who was it coined that?

  Bill Haydon : I got him home, didn't I?

  George Smiley : Yes. That was good of you.