Although Alec Guinness won widespread praise for the BBC television adaptation of John le Carre's cold war thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979), Anthony Bate had a hand in its success too. He played Oliver Lacon, the civil servant who persuades the former MI6 intelligence officer, George Smiley, portrayed by Guinness, to track down the mole at the head of the British intelligence community.
SOURCE: The Stage at 12:18PM on June 29, 2012