John le Carré’s life was as intriguing as his spy novels

“The Pigeon Tunnel,” a new documentary from renowned filmmaker Erroll Morris reveals that John le Carré had a life as intriguing as his acclaimed spy novels.

The film, which premieres today on Apple TV+ and captures the English-born le Carré, who died in December 2020 at the age of 89, reflecting on his personal and professional life.

His mother abandoned the family when he was 5. Le Carré, whose given name was David Cornwell, was raised by his father, Ronnie Cornwell, a lifelong confidence trickster who amassed and lost fortunes and later served prison time. Le Carré was a good student and was accepted into Oxford (paid for by his father, until he went bankrupt — the university took le Carré back after a few years) and, afterward, he worked as a teacher before entering into his military intelligence career. He was in West Berlin when the Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall.

His intelligence work informed many of his books, including “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “Smiley’s People.”

The 90-minute documentary is, in itself, a product of Le Carré’s 2016 memoir, “The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life” and makes use of the author’s own words.

Morris captures his subject with unflinching interviews with off-screen questions, older archival interviews, clips from several of the big-screen movies and TV series adapted from his books and re-enactments, which manage to be complementary, not cheesy.

Le Carré was, throughout his life, most reticent about commenting on the process of writing his books — particularly about what fueled his central literary conceit: betrayal.

“I feel like you got the last drop out of the sponge on that subject,” the amiable author tells Morris — after admitting, early on, that he “lived through a period of endless betrayal,” alluding to his entire childhood and, in particular, to his father.

“The Pigeon Tunnel” captures a forthright, honest and occasionally humorous le Carré. “I saw this project, at my great age, as something definitive,” he tells Morris.

“They want to unmask me,” he continues, “but you have all I am, as far as I know.”