Gary Oldman as George Smiley.

The seminal, influential, unbeatable TV series got bloody lucky. Alec Guinness hadn't done much (if any) TV before, but he hit Smiley so hard on the head it was breathtaking.

In the new film, Smiley will be played by Gary Oldman.

Gary Oldman is a Very Good Actor. But I have some very serious doubts about his Smiley, and they are:

Smiley is meant to be an entirely unremarkable man. He is frog-like, and badly dressed. He is insignificant. He is taken-for-granted, ignored, cuckolded, patronised, and dismissed. But he won't let you see how that makes him feel. He'll just tuck himself away in Bywater Street, with some Goethe. But he's got this job to do, so he might as well try to do it properly. And it is only then, in the commission of a job he has no love for, that we see the deadly laser beam that is George Smiley's intellect, and the walls come tumbling down.

Gary Oldman doesn't do unremarkable. He does facial expressions, and darting eyes, and showing off those vulpine teeth. He is too lean to be a frog, and too edgy to be insignificant. You would always notice Gary Oldman. And if you patronised him or cuckolded him, he would mind. And he'd probably hit you. Or some other non-Smiley thing. Also, Gary Oldman doesn't do laser beams.

Simon Russell Beale was an excellent Smiley on radio. Lovely. Love him. No chance.

So who would I like to see in that part? Hmm. Tom Hollander. But not for twenty years. Maybe he could do the next one.

I thought pretty hard about Kenneth Branagh, but I'm not sure he does laser beams. So I'm going for Simon McBurney. Who is too young. But who would disappear without complaining and then reappear without needing to shout 'ta-da!' Simon McBurney as Smiley? One ticket sold.