TV Reviews : A Wonderful Little Masterpiece of ‘Murder’

You would have expected “Masterpiece Theatre” to begin its 1991-92 season on PBS with a bigger bang. Instead, its two-part premiere Sunday seems more attuned to PBS’ sleuthing “Mystery!” series than to Alistair Cook.

Yet “A Murder of Quality” is a production of quality, a glowing, small jewel of a whodunit from John le Carre, who is infinitely less known for this kind of detective yarn than for his intricately plotted spy novels.

“A Murder of Quality” arrives at 9 p.m. Sunday on KCET Channel 28 and KPBS Channel 15. Although much less ambitious than his “Smiley’s People” or “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”--whose BBC adaptations rank among the best television ever--”A Murder of Quality,” based on a 1962 Le Carre novel, does have as its primary snooper a veteran intelligence agent, albeit one on sabbatical.

He’s none other than George Smiley, Le Carre’s self-effacing superspy, with Denholm Elliott taking over the role that Alec Guinness played so memorably in Smiley’s previous TV incarnations.

Prodded by his former colleague Ailsa Brimley (Glenda Jackson), Smiley finds himself helping investigate the gory murder of a schoolmaster’s cruel wife at one of those smug private boys’ schools that preaches correctness while supposedly providing the best education that money and privilege can buy.

Himself an alumnus of one such school, Le Carre infuses his teleplay with sharp commentary on classism and English manners, making headmaster Terrence Fielding (Joss Ackland) a metaphor for decadence in contemporary culture. Yet in doing so, he never weakens the complex mystery at the core of his plot, unearthing suspects galore. And Gavin Millar directs with a nose for the sinister.

Elliott was third choice as Smiley, picked only after Anthony Hopkins withdrew and Le Carre rejected an offer to play his own creation. Rarely will there ever be a better third resort than Elliott, who is especially true to Le Carre’s vision of the bespectacled Smiley as the sort of bland, easily underestimated man who fades into his surroundings, never revealing more than necessary. His inscrutability makes him all the more formidable, angry words and insults ricocheting off him like rain glancing off pavement.