The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Dramatised) cover art

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Dramatised)

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Dramatised)

By: John le Carré
Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £8.99

Buy Now for £8.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

 Simon Russell Beale stars in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of John le Carré's novel, which introduced his most famous character, George Smiley.

It is 1962: the height of the Cold War and only months after the building of the Berlin Wall. Alec Leamas is a hard-working, hard-drinking British intelligence officer whose East Berlin network is in tatters. His agents are either on the run or dead, victims of the ruthlessly efficient East German counter-intelligence officer Hans-Dieter Mundt.

Leamas is recalled to London where, to his surprise, instead of being washed up and consigned to a desk he's offered a chance to have his revenge by becoming a pawn in a brilliantly-conceived plot to destroy Mundt. But in order to do so he has to stay out in the cold a little longer...

Starring the award-winning Simon Russell Beale as Smiley, and with a distinguished cast including Brian Cox as Alec Leamas, this tense, compelling dramatisation perfectly captures the atmosphere of le Carré's taut, intricate thriller.

©2009 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2009 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd Espionage Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Scary

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas cover art
Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection cover art
An Inspector Calls (Classic Radio Theatre) cover art
When Lightning Strikes cover art
The Fourth Protocol cover art
Reanimators cover art
Maigret A Man's Head & Other Stories cover art
Maigret and the Minister and Other Stories (Dramatised) cover art
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan cover art
The Witness cover art
Cast in Shadow cover art
Doctor Who: The Feast of the Drowned cover art
The Second Opinion cover art
Harvest Home cover art
All stars
Most relevant
This has to be one of the best spy thrillers i've ever enjoyed.



The story is an artfully crafted masterpiece, and the BBC's format of telling it doesn't skip a beat in building the tension.



You get a similar story format from many of Le Carre's novels, (like Bond: the enemy, the back-stabbers, the beautiful girl, the plot, the peril) - but each time there's a difference that makes each distinctive in its own way.)



The story for this is chilling and gripping from the start. It brings out the coldness of the cold war with style.



Not only one of my favourite audios, this is certainly my favourite of Le Carre's stories.

Gripping masterpiece

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a superbly acted dramatisatrion of the John Le Carre novel which had me gripped all the way through. The cast is uniformly excellent, but a particular mention from Brian Cox who is the 'spy' in the title. A very fine performance.

Gripping Spy Story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Russell Beale and the rest of the cast transport one back to the civil service of the 60's with ease and atmosphere. Masterful.

Exquisite

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A brilliantly dramatised version of the book. On par if not better than the film with Richard Burton.

The dramatisation is dark and claustrophobic with minimal background sound and only ever two people talking at any time which really makes you be in the room with the characters. The play immerses you into the atmosphere and you live each moment.

Brilliant and a sheer joy to experience!

Brian Cox as Alec Leamas is perfect for the role as big drinking, bitter spy on one last mission... Ruth Genmell as Liz Gold, naive and innocent... Another great performance. Simon Russel Beale is a scene stealer with his role as Smiley!

Well worth the listen over and over and over again!

Best of the Le Carre dramatisations

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This dramatised version is spare - which suit this story just fine. I really enjoyed it, the accents are not distracting and the dark menace is very well conveyed.

Good, gripping and well-dramatised

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews