Gerald Westerby, or Jerry Westerby, is a fictional character created by spy novelist

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

. He first appeared in ''

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' is a 1974 spy novel by British author John le Carré. It follows the endeavours of taciturn, aging spymaster George Smiley to uncover a Soviet mole in the British Secret Intelligence Service. The novel has receive ...

'' (1974), and is the titular figure in ''

The Honourable Schoolboy ''The Honourable Schoolboy'' (1977) is a spy novel by British writer John le Carré. George Smiley must reconstruct an intelligence service in order to run a successful offensive espionage operation to save the service from being dismantled by ...

'' (1977). Westerby, a former cricketer and international sports

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, is an "occasional" asset of

British intelligence The Government of the United Kingdom maintains intelligence agencies within three government departments, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence. These agencies are responsible for collecting and analysing foreign and d ...

("the Circus"). He was initially recruited by

George Smiley George Smiley OBE is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is a career intelligence officer with "The Circus", the British overseas intelligence agency. He is a central character in the novels ''Call for the Dead'', '' A Mu ...

, for whom he holds great respect. In ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', he is approached by Smiley regarding information concerning the betrayal of

Jim Prideaux Jim Prideaux is a fictional character created by John le Carré. He appears in ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', with the book's events alternating between his point of view and that of George Smiley, and a minor character in '' A Legacy of Spies''. ...

on an assignment in Czechoslovakia. In ''The Honourable Schoolboy'', Westerby is recalled from his semi-retirement in Italy and despatched to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Portrayals

Westerby was played by Joss Ackland in the 1979 television adaptation of ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy''.https://www.imdb.com/character/ch0113470/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t18 Played by Stephen Graham in the 2011 film adaptation, his role in the plot was amalgamated with that of Sam Collins from the novel.

Hugh Bonneville Hugh Richard Bonneville Williams (born 10 November 1963) is an English actor. He is best known for portraying Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, in the ITV historical drama series ''Downton Abbey''. His performance on the show earned him a no ...

played the role of Westerby in the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

dramatisation of the

novel ''The Honourable Schoolboy'', first broadcast in January 2010.

References

Fictional British secret agents John le Carré Novel series Characters in British novels of the 20th century Literary characters introduced in 1973 {{novel-char-stub