Sources say the spectacles seen in BBC and MGM+'s first images of Macfadyen as George Smiley have not been seen since Monday.
The glasses Matthew Macfadyen wears as George Smiley in the first-look images from BBC and MGM+'s Legacy of Spies have reportedly gone into hiding. Production insiders say the frames were debriefed and refused to talk. Charlie Hunnam's Alec Leamas raincoat is coping.
The glasses have declined to comment. Sources close to the frames confirmed on Monday that they have been moved to an undisclosed location. These are the spectacles Matthew Macfadyen wears as George Smiley in the first-look images from the BBC and MGM+'s Legacy of Spies. Nobody, not even the frames' own representation, will say where they are.
The images, first reported by Deadline and Variety, show the Succession star as John le Carré's spymaster. He is wearing the trademark glasses. Charlie Hunnam also appears, as Alec Leamas.
Nobody is asking about Charlie Hunnam.
By lunchtime the glasses were, by any honest reading of the room, the lead. That is when the production says things turned dangerous.
"They knew too much," said Pemberton Grice, the production's head of eyewear continuity. "Twenty-six people saw those frames before the public did. Twenty-six. In this world, that isn't a crew, it's a network."
Grice said the frames were debriefed in a quiet room with a pot of tea and one hard chair. They gave up nothing. "Very Smiley of them, frankly," he said. "Very on brand. I have never been so proud of an accessory."
The Leamas question
Insiders describe the mood around Hunnam's side of the production as "cordial, a bit damp, like a platform in Berlin." A spokesperson for the costume department, Odile Marchbank, insisted the Leamas raincoat was "equally important" and "doing its own quiet work." She then asked whether anyone had seen the glasses.
Reaction from the Smiley faithful was swift. Ambrose Tuttle, who chairs a society devoted to cardigans in Cold War fiction, called the frames "the finest casting decision of the decade." Asked about Macfadyen, he said, "Who?"
The frames were last seen on Monday evening, leaving a Soho building in a padded hard case. They rode in the back seat of a grey saloon. The case had its own seatbelt. It also, witnesses say, had a better lawyer than the driver.
The BBC would not confirm that the glasses exist. MGM+ said it does not discuss "operational matters of the face." The eight-part drama is expected in due course, glasses permitting.
Grice says the frames may yet attend the premiere. "If the terms are right," he said, lowering his voice. "And if they can be sure who's really on our side."
