Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley's People - and An Englishman Abroad. They show you what spying is like, thanks to a haunting atmosphere of gloom, chill, nostalgia, displacement and a weird familiarity. What's missing? Only Kafka's The Trial... Scotland stands in for Russia in this brilliant play by Alan Bennett based on a true story told him by his friend Coral Browne. Browne made few films, but she was a great star of the English theatre in the 30s. This film gives us an idea of her impact. She was 45 when these events happened - and 70 when she played the part of herself, giving her Gertrude in Moscow and bumping into spy and traitor Guy Burgess. She is a diva - swanning around in fox furs with matching hat. The staff at the embassy are caricatured, but probably not overmuch. Some wonderful British character actors play the staff of the Jermyn Street gents' outfitters where she goes to buy Guy a new outfit. "And mum's the word?" "Madam - mum is always the word!" Only one silver-haired servitor refuses to make Guy any silk pyjamas, and gets sworn at for his pains. Browne was an Australian, and though she spoke like an English lady, offstage she swore like a trouper and everybody thought it was hilarious. But the core of the play is her strange date with Guy Burgess in his dingy flat. As in the Le Carre, you feel there is little to choose between Russia and the UK when it comes to drab surroundings, inadequate heating, boot-faced jobsworths, joyless relationships and tiny pockets of luxury. Charles Gray is great as her actor colleague (and wouldn't they have made a wonderful Gertrude and Claudius?). While Browne was filming this story, she discovered that her cancer had come back. She finished filming before she went to a doctor. She lived for another seven years.
Review of An Englishman Abroad
