What I liked about the 1979 TTSS and Smiley's People was that the riddles, characters, and relationships had ample space to be explored properly with unashamedl

What I liked about the 1979 TTSS and Smiley's People was that the riddles, characters, and relationships had ample space to be explored properly with unashamedly long, drawn out scenes and side stories. The atmosphere of it is just terrific. I think it's the best piece of television I've watched. Thing is, that was 10 hours per season. It was a futile task to try and cram that into a film; more so than most series/books because it has a fucking confusing plot. It'd have lent itself better to 2/3 parts - and then onto Smiley's people, which IMHO is even better!