Roy Bland

Roy Bland is a fictional character in the novels of John Le Carre, appearing most prominently in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy". He is a high-ranking official in "The Circus" (the British Secret Intelligence Service), and one of five men suspected of being a mole for the Russians.

Background

Roy is one of the Circus's poorer recruits (other high-ranking officers are shown as being at least middle class, and Bill Haydon is actually quite aristocratic). His father was a manual labourer of some kind with pronounced left-wing views. Roy received a scholarship to university (possibly Oxbridge) and was recruited by George Smiley, who met him at St. Antony's College, Oxford, where he looks as though it has taken a lot out of him to get this far.

It is not revealed whether he is a fellow of the college or not. Many have used this against him - Roddy Martindale snidely calls him the first "Red Brick Don to make The Circus (MI6)", which could refer to where he did his first degree, or the fact that St Antony's was founded comparatively recently (1950) and did not have as much prestige as other Oxford colleges.

Roy took an economics degree and, building on his father's reputation, built a career as a left-wing academic. Regarded as friendly to the Soviets, he thus gained a string of professorships at various Eastern Bloc universities, including Poznan, Budapest, Kiev, and Sofia, which were cover for him to recruit Circus agents from among his students. He suffered two nervous breakdowns during this phase of his career.

Prior to the events of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", the Circus hierarchy becomes polarized between the current Chief, "Control" and the party led by Percy Alleline. Roy gravitates toward Alleline out of ambition, forgetting any loyalties to Smiley, who is Control's supporter.

After Control's disgrace and Alleline's ascension to the chief's position, Roy becomes second-in-command to Bill Haydon, head of "London Station" (in effect, director of operations). Roy himself is in charge of Eastern Bloc spying. Like the other three top men at the Circus - Alleline, Haydon, and Toby Esterhase, he is part of the "magic circle" supervising the collection and distribution of the marvelous "Witchcraft" intelligence that ensured Alleline's succession.

Along with the rest of the magic circle, he helps brief Peter Guillam on the supposed threat that Ricki Tarr poses, and is shocked when Haydon turns out to be a mole.

Roy appears briefly in the opening of "The Honourable Schoolboy", the sequel to "Tinker, Tailor". In that novel it is revealed that Roy, along with Alleline and many other Circus officers, was forced to retire - partly in disgrace for his (unwitting) participation in Haydon's treachery, and partly because, with Haydon having laid open the entire Circus to the Russians, all of Roy's experience and secret knowledge has become useless.

Smiley briefly brings Roy out of retirement to attempt to rescue two agents from the ruthless purge the Russians are conducting after Haydon's exposure, since Roy was their old case officer. The attempt fails, and Smiley adamantly refuses Roy's further requests for reinstatement (Esterhase is the only one of the magic circle to escape dismissal).

Character and Habits

In "Tinker, Tailor", Smiley reflects that three of the four men suspected of being the mole are attempting to imitate Bill Haydon, regarded as the most brilliant and certainly the most flamboyant of the Circus's officers. For Bland, this means adopting a blunt, forthright manner that is almost gauche.

He once jokes that, like F. Scott Fitzgerald, he's perfectly capable of holding two completely opposite viewpoints at the same time: having worn his cover as a left-wing academic for so long, he's perfectly in sync with the Socialist/Communist agenda, and on the other hand, as a poor working-class hero, he will happily accept any of the "privileges" associated with wealth and status in the West, such as a large sum of money and a scholarship for his son to attend Eton College.

He smokes cigarettes so frequently he coughs and is often short of breath.

TV Adaptation

Bland appears in the BBC adaptation of "Tinker, Tailor", played by British actor Terence Rigby.