Play With Words

BBC FOUR又在重播Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy，我偶尔看了第一集的一小段，注意到了一个以前完全没有印象的细节：George Smiley偶遇一个熟人Roddy Martindale，不情愿地被拉着和他一起吃晚饭，此人自以为是、喋喋不休，Smiley不胜其烦。终于等到分手时，有这么一段对话：

Martindale: All right, then, it’s Roy Bland, the shop-soiled white hope, the first redbrick don to make the Circus.

Smiley: Roy Bland is NOT redbrick. He was at St Antony’s, Oxford.

Martindale: Don’t be silly, dear! Of course St Antony’s is redbrick! It doesn’t make the slightest difference there was a bit of sandstone in the same street!