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In the film Page Eight, Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) asks Rollo Maverley (Ewen Bremner) to look into the story of Nancy Pierpan's brother being killed by IDF forces during a protest. When Rollo reports back, he suggests that Nancy is too ideal of a friend for Worricker to meet (living right across the hall), and that the whole thing may have been engineered.

Did this go anywhere in the plot, or as the entire three-film series continued, did Nancy Pierpan remain a coincidental neighbor and learn the tradecraft from Worricker as time went on?

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  • @Paulie_D Of course I have! There's quite a lot going on throughout these films to keep track of, at least for me. Each time I watch one of them I pick up more and more pieces of the plot. Perhaps drama and intrigue is a bit more challenging for me than most people, so I focus on this genre and watch over an over as an exercise. I've watched Tinker Tailor probably 10 times and still see something new each time. You can call me stupid and down vote my question, but please somebody take a moment and write a decent, stackexchange-worthy answer. Right now I have no way to view them.
    – uhoh
    May 6, 2017 at 14:43
  • As far as I can remember, Rollo's suggestion went nowhere. He was just being cynical, as he was about so many things. In fact there were other awkward moments in the dialogue between he and Worricker that also seemed awkward, perhaps even a problem in the writing itself rather than a part of the plot. Each time I run through I try to focus on one or two characters, and when I try to listen carefully to Rollo, there's just something awkward - like they tried to develop his character without sufficient time, so each line has too much packed into it. I really wish I could see it again right now.
    – uhoh
    May 6, 2017 at 14:48

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Was Nancy Pierpan a spy?

NO

Every thing she said she was...was true. She was a Syrian-born political activist whose brother was killed by Israeli forces.

There's no indication that she knew who (or what) Worricker was before she actually met him.

Rollo reports back, he suggests that Nancy is too ideal of a friend for Worricker to meet (living right across the hall), and that the whole thing may have been engineered.

True but he's just being a good intelligence man. Suggesting that she's a plant is part of that. If she was a plant, what was her aim, who was she working for?....The only thing she got was proof that her brother was killed by the IDF and she already knew that...and she didn't ask for that proof or even hint at asking for it.

It seems clear to me that Worricker gave her that because of his feelings/sympathy for her not because she played him.

Did Nancy Pierpan remain a coincidental neighbor and learn the tradecraft from Worricker as time went on?

I'm not sure what you mean by "tradecraft"...she doesn't demonstrate any that I can see other than, quite naturally, not telling her father that Worricker is in the security services.

She plays chauffeur for Worricker...that's about the extent of it.

She's not mentioned in the second or third films at all except in passing if at all.

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  • Great! Thank you for the thorough answer. As soon as I get a chance I'll watch again and see if I can find the source of my tradecraft comment. I may have simply been projecting some of Margot Tyrell's background on to Pierpan.
    – uhoh
    May 7, 2017 at 3:26

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