Bill Haydon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bill Haydon is a fictional character created by John Le Carré. He was played in the television version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by Ian Richardson.
[edit] Biography
Bill Haydon is recruited into the Circus (John Le Carré's lightly fictionalised version of MI6/SIS) in 1938 while a brilliant student at Oxford University. He is an aesthete, academically brilliant, charming, and, it appears, smitten with fellow student Jim Prideaux, an acclaimed athlete. Haydon introduces Prideaux to the Circus "talent spotters" and the two rise through the Circus through World War II, with Haydon ascending to become one of the senior officers in London and Prideaux a resourceful field agent.
It is never made clear whether a physical relationship developed with Prideaux, although Haydon's bisexuality is referred to at several points in the novel.
In any case, Haydon was a double agent working for Moscow Centre. As he rose within the Circus, Haydon (code-named "Gerald") introduced a new (and ultimately bogus) Russian intelligence source called "Merlin", the product of the source being termed "Witchcraft". Percy Alleline was keen to use this source as a bargaining chip with the CIA; his "London Station" operations directorate soon came to dominate the Circus and starved the field offices of resources; several key networks were infiltrated and eliminated at about this time.
Control, the anonymous chief of the Circus, came to suspect that there was a mole deep in the circus. After much thought, he eliminated all but Alleline, Roy Bland, George Smiley, Haydon and Toby Esterhase from his suspicions. But after the failure of Operation Testify (in which Jim Prideaux expected to be told of the mole's identity by a Czech general, but instead was betrayed and shot) Control was forced out of power; Alleline became Chief and Haydon assumed control of London Station. With a double-agent in control of the Circus' operations, their successes dwindled to almost nothing and yet more agents were rounded up.
At about this time, Haydon cuckolded George Smiley, indulging in an affair with his wife Lady Anne.
Smiley's investigations eventually unmasked Haydon as a mole. Under interrogation, he revealed that he was a full Colonel in Soviet intelligence. Plans were set in motion to exchange Haydon for Western agents held in the Eastern bloc. Before this could happen, though, he was killed by Jim Prideaux, in revenge for Haydon's betrayed in Operation Testify.
[edit] Background
Haydon is portrayed rather in the mould of real-life double agent Kim Philby; certainly his actions parallel Philby's ability to paralyse the British intelligence service.
