Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy's "brilliant" spy thriller is now streaming on the BBC

Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy's award-winning British spy thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has become available on the BBC.

Based on John le Carré's 1974 novel of the same name, the film is regularly held up as one of the best modern iterations of the genre by critics, with The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw naming it a "masterpiece" and "the magnum opus" of Le Carré adaptations.

Released in 2011, the film earned three BAFTA awards, including Outstanding British Film, and three Oscar nominations. And it's now available to stream on iPlayer for the next month.

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Oldman, taking up the role once played by Alec Guinness in the 1979 BBC television adaptation of the book, plays intelligence officer George Smiley. Le Carré envisioned the character as a direct rebuke of a too-glamorous and unrealistic James Bond. Smiley is unassuming in appearance, but cunning in behaviour.

He's a member of 'The Circus', a British overseas intelligence agency, but is forced to retire after a meeting with a source in Budapest turns out to be a deadly trap.

Tom Hardy plays Ricki Tarr, a field agent who brings evidence of a Soviet mole within Circus leadership. Smiley must risk life and limb to expose the double agent and, in turn, restore his reputation.

Colin Firth, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciarán Hinds, David Dencik and Kathy Burke also star.

Directed by Tomas Alfredson, the film earned rave reviews when it premiered at the 68th Venice International Film Festival.

The Irish Times' Donald Clarke called it "a brooding, brilliant reworking of John le Carré's classic tale of spies who never came in from the cold", while Kenneth Turan at the Los Angeles Times named it "deliciously, thrillingly, brilliantly complex".

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"Somebody should give Jina Jay, the casting director of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, an award," wrote The Telegraph's Sukhdev Sandhu. "The much-heralded remake of John le Carré’s 1974 spy novel has, with apologies to fans of The Expendables, the best acting ensemble of any film in recent times."

Time Out New York's Keith Uhlich ranked Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as the fourth-best film of 2011, calling it "a visually stunning adaptation with a stellar cast."

The film was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score at the 2012 Oscars, with Gary Oldman losing out on Best Actor to Jean Dujardin for The Artist.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is streaming now on BBC iPlayer.

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