le Carré's Circus, Explained

Examples

Download

• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979) - Explainer Subtitles (all 7 parts)
• Smiley’s People (1982) - Explainer Subtitles (all 6 episodes)

⚠️ The timings are matched to the UK releases (the 7-part Tinker Tailor and the 6-part Smiley’s People). These will not sync up properly to the American release.

Each track comes in two formats:

• .ass (🤭): explicitly styled (small, centered, lightly boxed text).
• .srt: most widely compatible (it works in virtually every player) but drops the custom styling.

When in doubt, use the .srt. Either manually load the subtitle file or rename it to match your video and put it in the same folder so your video player picks it up automatically.

Updates

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The Circus

The Circus

The headquarters and, by extension, the whole of the British Secret Service in le Carré’s novels. Named for its (fictional) home at Cambridge Circus in London.

Control

The ailing spymaster who runs the Circus at the outset of Tinker Tailor, known only by this title. Smiley’s chief and mentor.

The fifth floor

The top floor of the Circus, home to its senior management; shorthand for the leadership of the service.

Janitors

The Circus’ doorkeepers, duty staff, and porters who man the building.

Lamplighters

The section, based at Acton, that provides surveillance, watchers, couriers, transport, and safe houses. Run by Toby Esterhase; they do the legwork of physical observation and support.

Scalphunters

The section, based in Brixton, that carries out the jobs too dirty or dangerous for officers posted abroad: blackmail, abduction, burglary, assassination — the “wet” work. Peter Guillam runs them; Jim Prideaux was one.

Inquisitors

The interrogators and debriefers, based at Sarratt, who question defectors, returning agents, and suspects.

Babysitters

Bodyguards; officers assigned to protect someone.

case officer

the officer who runs an agent

chief hood

the top spy / intel officer (hood = operative)

dogs

surveillance watchers set to shadow you (spy slang)

fabricator

someone who invents & sells fake intelligence

ferrets

technicians who sweep a room for hidden bugs

juju man

witch-doctor; here, the boss who ran each region

London Station

the all-powerful foreign-operations arm of the Circus

magic circle

the inner group cleared for the secret

minder

a bodyguard or handler

our Joe

a recruited agent / asset (spy slang)

provocateur

incites others into acts that discredit / entrap them

resident

a spy posted long-term in a foreign country

resident clerk

a Foreign Office live-in out-of-hours duty officer

security mob

MI5, Britain’s domestic security service

talent spotters

scouts who spot people worth recruiting

The opposition

Moscow Centre (the Centre)

Headquarters of Soviet intelligence (the KGB); the Circus’ principal adversary.

Karla

The legendary spymaster of Moscow Centre’s Thirteenth Directorate, Smiley’s personal nemesis, and the man who ran the mole inside the Circus. “Karla” is a workname; his real name is never given.

The cousins

The Americans; the CIA.

Tradecraft

Tradecraft

The collective techniques of espionage: surveillance, secret communication, recruitment, concealment, and clandestine meetings.

Legend

A fabricated life-history and cover identity, detailed enough to survive scrutiny.

Dead letter box (DLB) / dead drop

A prearranged hiding place where one agent leaves material for another to collect later, so the two never have to meet.

Cut-out

An intermediary — a person or a dead drop — placed between two parties so that neither can betray the other directly.

Crash meeting

An emergency meeting called outside the normal schedule when something has gone wrong.

Honey trap

The use of a sexual or romantic relationship to seduce, compromise, or recruit a target.

Coat-trailing / dangle

Deliberately trailing a person or piece of bait in front of the opposition to provoke a recruitment approach.

Chickenfeed

Genuine-looking but low-value or doctored intelligence fed to the other side to build up a double agent’s credibility.

Reptile fund

A secret pool of untraceable money kept for paying agents and financing operations off the books.

Blown

Exposed; an agent, identity, or operation whose cover has been compromised.

Moscow Rules

The most stringent tradecraft, reserved for the most hostile ground, where the opposition is assumed to be watching everything.

Burn

leverage used to coerce someone into cooperating (spy)

all-stations trace

a records check sent to every overseas station

appreciation

a formal military assessment or analysis

cleft stick

split stick used to carry a written message by runner (dated)

Counsellor

a senior embassy diplomat (rank below ambassador)

D-notice

official UK request to the press not to publish on security grounds

diplomatic bag

a sealed official pouch, exempt from customs

escapes

emergency false passports for fleeing (spy jargon)

first flash

the first urgent intelligence signal

head of chancery

an embassy’s senior administrative diplomat

lace-curtain

extremely discreet, undetectable surveillance (spy)

Queen’s Messengers

Britain’s official diplomatic couriers

rolled up

(of a spy network) captured / dismantled

scalped

killed / taken out (spy slang)

soft route

unwatched, low-risk travel route (spy jargon)

Source Merlin

The supposed high-level Soviet source said to be behind the Witchcraft material.

spike

to bug a place with hidden microphones

Witchcraft

The operation, championed by Alleline, that delivered seemingly priceless Soviet intelligence to the Circus — material so good it bought political favour. In truth it was chickenfeed planted by Karla to protect and promote his mole.

work name

a spy’s operational cover-name / alias

Places

Brixton

The south London base of the scalphunters.

Brno

city in Czechoslovakia, near the Austrian border

canton

a Swiss state / province

Sarratt (“the Nursery”)

The Circus’ training school in Hertfordshire, where new officers are trained and burnt-out agents are debriefed and recover.

Soviet & Eastern-bloc terms

collegium

the ruling council of the Soviet intelligence service

commissar

a Soviet Communist Party official

dacha

a Russian country house

Dzerzhinsky Square

Moscow site of KGB headquarters

Iron Curtain

the Cold War divide between Soviet East and West

Lubyanka

KGB headquarters & prison in Moscow

Magyar

a Hungarian

Oberbaumbrücke

a bridge crossing between East & West Berlin

patronymic

a name taken from one’s father (e.g. Borisovna)

Tass

the official Soviet state news agency

uprising of ‘68

1968 Prague Spring, crushed by Soviet invasion

British institutions, schools & culture

Admiralty

Britain’s naval command / government dept

Ascot

a famous British horse-racing course

Britain-can-make-it

evoking the 1946 “Britain Can Make It” industry exhibition

Bulldog Drummond

a 1920s British fictional action hero

Burglar Bill

a stock British burglar figure (children’s-story character)

Callot

Jacques Callot, 17th-century French printmaker

Chelsea pensioner

a red-coated retired British soldier

Cotswolds

a scenic, rural region of England

don

a senior university teacher

Eton

an elite, costly British boarding school

evensong

evening church service, often sung (Anglican)

Fleet Street

the British national newspaper press

Foreign Office

UK ministry for foreign affairs (≈ US State Dept.)

Fortnum’s

Fortnum & Mason, a posh London store

head boy

top-ranking pupil at a British school; here, the boss

Home Office

UK ministry for domestic / interior affairs

Laughing Cavalier

a famous 1624 Frans Hals portrait

Lord’s

London’s most famous cricket ground

Matron

the nurse / head of pupil care (British school)

nonconformist

a Protestant outside the Church of England

prefect

a pupil given authority over others (UK schools)

prep school

British private school for younger children

redbrick

a non-elite British university (not Oxford/Cambridge)

Remembrance Day

UK holiday honoring the war dead (Nov 11)

Roedean

an elite English girls’ boarding school

The Savoy

a famous luxury London hotel

sea lords

the Royal Navy’s most senior officers

Securicor

a British private security company

Travellers’

an exclusive London gentlemen’s club

West Country

rural southwest England (Devon / Cornwall)

Westminster

an elite London private school (not Parliament here)

Whitehall

shorthand for the British government

Money & betting

betting tout

someone who sells horse-racing tips (British)

bob

a shilling; old British money slang

death duties

British inheritance tax

football pools

a UK soccer-results betting game

guinea

old British coin = 21 shillings (£1.05)

packet

a large sum of money (British slang)

quid

one pound (British slang for money)

standing order

automatic recurring bank payments (British)

under starter’s orders

(British, from horse racing) lined up and about to begin

British slang & everyday words

Alvis

a defunct British luxury car brand

Atlantic man

pro-US, transatlantic-alliance minded

bairn

a small child, baby (Scots)

bird

a girlfriend / woman (British slang)

blue movies

pornographic films (dated slang)

bobbies

British police officers (slang)

boiler suits

one-piece work coveralls (British)

bollocks

rubbish / nonsense (British slang)

Bolshie

Communist / left-wing (short for Bolshevik)

bonny

healthy and good-looking (British / Scots)

bounder

a cad; a dishonorable man (dated British)

call box

public telephone booth (British)

caravan

a towable trailer home / RV (British)

cheeky

brazenly impudent / bold (British)

chin-wag

a chat / natter (British slang)

the chop

getting fired / sacked (British slang)

chuck it in

to quit or give up (British slang)

chummy

the suspect or fellow in question (British police slang)

clever boots

the clever one / smarty-pants (British)

comic

the newspaper one writes for (journalists’ slang)

commercial traveler

a traveling salesman (dated British)

commissionaire

a uniformed doorman / attendant (British)

common-or-garden

ordinary, commonplace (British)

cosh and carry

a cosh is a bludgeon; a pun on ‘cash and carry’

crisps

potato chips (British)

Czecho

slang for Czechoslovakia

despatch box

locked case for a minister’s official state papers (British)

devilling

doing minor background or odd-job work (dated British)

diabolical liberty

an outrageous cheek / nerve (British)

en poste

serving in one’s official post (French)

factotum

a servant who handles all sorts of odd jobs

featherhead

a silly, scatterbrained person

fey

whimsical, eccentric, or oddly otherworldly (dated)

flannel merchants

smooth-talking bullshitters; all talk, no substance (British)

Flash Harry

a flashy, showy man (British slang)

fleshpots

places of luxury and sensual indulgence

flogged

sold off (British slang)

footer

football, i.e. soccer (dated British)

footpad

an old word for a street robber on foot

Frog

French / the French language (dated slang)

funk

a coward (dated British slang)

galloping major

blustering, horse-mad ex-cavalry officer (dated British)

gents

the men’s toilet (British)

harridan

a bossy, scolding old woman

having it off

having sex (British slang)

heavy mob

the muscle; tough enforcers (slang)

hols

holidays; vacation (British slang)

hugger-mugger

jumbled together in disorder; a confused muddle (archaic)

impedimenta

encumbering baggage — here, his girl and child

in his cups

drunk (dated)

in the pink

in excellent health (idiom)

Jonah

someone who brings bad luck (biblical)

kip

a sleep / nap (British slang)

lorry

a truck (British)

Ludo

a British board game (like Parcheesi)

made the running

(British idiom) set the pace; took the visible lead

minicab

a phone-booked private taxi (British)

mod cons

modern conveniences (British)

my Aunt Fanny

nonsense! / my foot! (British)

My hat

exclamation of surprise or disbelief (dated British)

nappies

diapers

natter

a chat; casual talk (British)

nervy

jittery, anxious (British — not the US ‘bold’)

odd bods

eccentric or strange people (British slang)

Persil white

spotlessly clean; innocent (from a British detergent)

piano

quiet, subdued (from the musical term)

pigs-in-clover

people wallowing in easy affluence (idiom)

pink gin

gin with bitters; a British drink

potty

silly, slightly crazy (British informal)

pound to a penny

almost certain; I’d bet on it (idiom)

prezzies

presents / gifts (British slang)

proles

the low-ranking common workers

removers

a moving / removals company (British)

Ronson

a brand of cigarette lighter

rum

odd, strange, peculiar (dated British)

shop-soiled

slightly tarnished, like used shop goods (British)

shopping

informing on someone (British slang)

shower

a contemptible, useless bunch (British slang)

slap-up dinner

a lavish meal (British)

solicitor

a British lawyer (paperwork, not courtroom)

splash

a big front-page news story (journalism)

squeeze-box

an accordion / concertina

Swan Vestas

a British brand of matches

teetotal

never drinks alcohol

tinpot

petty, trivial, third-rate

tisane

a herbal tea / infusion

topped

killed, murdered (British slang)

tripe

nonsense, rubbish (dated British)

tripping the light fantastic

to dance lightly to music

turned up trumps

came through; turned out well (British idiom)

whacked

exhausted (British)

without the option

compulsory; allowing no choice (dated British)

worth the candle

worth the effort or cost (dated idiom)

Wotcher

a greeting: hi / hello (British slang)

would be favourite

the best or most likely option (British slang)

zizz

a nap or short sleep (British slang)

émigré

an exile who fled the Soviet bloc