Mark Strong has played some pretty clear-cut villains in recent years so it's refreshing to go into a film with several shades of ambiguity hanging over his character.** Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy**'s Jim Prideaux, one of MI6's most seasoned campaigners, is one of the few senior agents not under suspicion when a Soviet mole is discovered at the heart of the Circus. But is he as upstanding as he seems?The new issue of **Empire **features a new shot of Strong's spook in action behind the Iron Curtain. It's hard to describe the context - or anything about the film - without straying into spoilers, but we can say that he's in Czechoslovakia on Operation Testify and that it's a flashback to a recent MI6 mission.
As regular readers will know, we're already putting our dacha on Tinker Tailor turning out to be one of the films of the year, British or otherwise. Fans of the wonderful BBC miniseries will be reassured by the remarkable talent on both sides of the camera, but perhaps even more so by the endorsement of writer John le Carré.
Le Carré is already batting away invidious comparisons with Alec Guinness's portrayal of George Smiley, the jaded spymaster charged with smoking out the Soviet agent: "I identified with Alec in one way," he told Empire, "but with Gary in a completely different one. You do feel with Oldman that he steps right outside of himself. You share the pain more."
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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is out on September 16 and has just been confirmed in competition at next month's Venice Film Festival. Pick up the new issue of **Empire for lots more in the meantime, including on-set interviews with Le Carré, Alfredson and Oldman.