The latest film from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an ensemble drama  that is garnering buzz for its masterfully minimalistic take on the espionage genre. It’s also the film many have jokingly referred to as ‘that flick with every British actor in it.’ With an expansive cast that includes Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Toby Jones, Stephen Graham and the man with the most decidedly British name ever Benedict Cumberbatch, this M16 thriller is practically a who’s who of Britain-born actors of note. This got me thinking of the anglophilic Harry Potter film franchise, which over the course of eight films famously shunned A-list American actors in favor of casting nearly every living British thespian worth their character shoes to play wand-waving wizards and witches.

Soon other peculiar parallels between the tale of the Boy Who Lived and the Spy Who Lied arose. Beyond a preference for ponderously long titles, the austere Tinker Tailor Solider Spy shares seven other curious elements with the fantastical Harry Potter movie series. And as Potterheads know, seven is a very magical number…

Beware: they are spoilers ahead!

HP1-7.2 and TTSS have a startling amount of crossover casting with 6 actors performing in both:

Gary Oldman
Misunderstood secret godfather Sirius Black / Mole-hunting secret agent George Smiley

John Hurt
Secret-spilling wand-salesman Ollivander / Secretive Circus-runner Control

Toby Jones
Witchcraft-making runaway Dobby / Operation Witchcraft-runner Sir Percy Alleline

Simon McBurney
Scowling Grimmauld Place House-Elf Kreacher / Stodgy Cabinet Office Secretary Oliver Lacon

Ciaran Hinds
Long-Forgotten Brother Aberforth Dumbledore / Short-sighted spy Roy Bland

Roger Lloyd-Pack
Department of Magic Loyalist Bartemius “Barty” Crouch Sr.  / Smiley Loyalist Mendel

Whether in a world of duplicitous double-agents or two-faced wizards, a safe place to discuss witchcraft strategy is an absolute must. For Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, this place was the old Black Estate neatly (and magically) tucked between some muggle homes on Grimmauld Place. This tricky locale could only be found if you already knew where it is. Likewise, the steely spies in TTSS are tight-lipped about their government-funded hideaway, refusing to give its address even to Witchcraft’s Cabinet overseer Kreacher – I mean Lacon.

Just as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) in Harry Potter and the Prisoner from Azkaban bonded with Prof. Lupin (David Thewlis), a teacher with a dark secret, so does a paunchy boy with grey glasses called Bill Roach befriend former secret agent turned teacher Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong), with no idea of his mentor’s shady past.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry and Ron cause havoc at Hogwarts by crashing a flying, blue Ford Anglia into the whomping willow. In TTSS the aforementioned bespectacled boy drives a blue car that looks strikingly like the Weasely’s ride around a park’s playfield, causing a bloody good stir among the student body!

During a high-speed chase with the Death Eaters in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Harry’s long-time feathered-friend Hedwig bit it brutally. In TTSS, a little white owl mistakenly tumbles down a classroom’s chimney, setting itself on fire. As it wildly flaps about the confines of the room with its wings ablaze, merciless (or merciful?) spy-cum-teacher Prideaux promptly and efficiently beats it to death.

Poor Harry Potter’s drama-filled destiny was sealed the day his mother was mercilessly murdered right before his infant eyes. A flash of magic and boom. A baby is motherless. TTSS traffics in mom-murder too – but ups the stakes with a bullet to the brain, blood, and an unaware baby still nursing from its now-dead mamma. Yeesh.

Be it by wand or rifle, the best way to die is at the hands of a long-time friend. Apparently.

Can you think of any TTSS-HP similarities? And how did the HP series never include Colin Firth?