John le Carré on To Tell the Truth

On April 27, 1964, author John le Carré--né David Cornwell--appeared on the American TV panel game show To Tell the Truth. “At the time of the broadcast on CBS,” explains The HMSS Weblog, “the author’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was a best seller. Cornwell had sold the film rights and it would be made into a 1965 movie starring Richard Burton. One of the screenwriters would be Paul Dehn, who had penned the later drafts of 1964’s [James Bond film] Goldfinger.

“The regular panel of Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean, and Kitty Carlisle faced the daunting task of determining which of three contestants had once worked in British intelligence. The outcome? Well, let’s just say it didn’t turn out well for the panel.”

Le Carré appears among the second collection of deliberately deceitful contestants on this episode, beginning at the 8:30 mark.