The Night Manager (British TV series)


The Night Manager is a British spy thriller television serial based on the 1993 novel by John le Carré and adapted by David Farr. The six-part first series, directed by Susanne Bier and starring Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, Olivia Colman, Tom Hollander, David Harewood and Elizabeth Debicki, began broadcasting on BBC One on 21 February 2016.
The Night Manager was nominated for thirty-six awards and won eleven, including two Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards.
In April 2024, The Night Manager was renewed for a second and third series by BBC One and Amazon Prime Video, with Hiddleston and Colman reprising their roles, and Georgi Banks-Davies directing. The second series premiered in the UK on 1 January 2026.
In 2023, an Indian adaptation was released.

Premise

Jonathan Pine, night manager of a luxury hotel in Cairo and former British soldier, is recruited by Angela Burr, the manager of a Foreign Office task force investigating illegal arms sales, to infiltrate the inner circle of arms dealer Richard Roper.

Cast and characters

Overall

Main

  • Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine, a former military officer and hotel night manager seeking to bring down Richard Roper
  • Hugh Laurie as Richard "Dickie" Onslow Roper, a charismatic but ruthless arms dealer
  • Olivia Colman as Angela Burr, the Head of the Foreign Office's International Enforcement Agency, seeking to bring down Roper
  • Alistair Petrie as Alexander "Sandy" Langbourne, Lord Langbourne, Roper's financial director
  • Douglas Hodge as Rex Mayhew, Burr's supportive superior at the Foreign Office
  • Michael Nardone as Frisky, one of Richard Roper's henchmen
  • Noah Jupe as Danny Roper, Roper's young son

    Series 1

Main

  • Tom Hollander as Major Lance "Corky" Corkoran, Roper's second in command and front man
  • Elizabeth Debicki as Jemima "Jed" Marshall, Roper's girlfriend and love interest of Pine
  • Natasha Little as Caroline "Caro" Langbourne, Lady Langbourne, Sandy's wife and Jed's friend
  • David Harewood as Joel Steadman, an American ATF agent and ally of Burr
  • Tobias Menzies as Geoffrey Dromgoole, a senior MI6 official antagonistic to Burr's mission
  • Antonio de la Torre as Juan Apostol, Roper's lawyer
  • Adeel Akhtar as Rob Singhal, Burr's second in command at the IEA
  • Hovik Keuchkerian as Tabby, one of Richard Roper's henchmen

    Supporting

  • Aure Atika as Sophie Alekan, Hamid's girlfriend and Pine's secret lover in Egypt
  • Amir El-Masry as Youssuf, a chef at the Nefertiti hotel and close friend of Pine
  • Russell Tovey as Simon Ogilvey, an old friend of Pine's and a Foreign Office diplomat in Cairo
  • David Avery as Freddie Hamid, an Egyptian playboy and ally of Roper
  • Hannah Steele as Marilyn, a single mother Pine meets in Devon
  • Neil Morrissey as Harry Palfrey, an MI6 officer working for Dromgoole, but sympathetic to Burr's mission
  • Jonathan Aris as Raymond Galt, Dromgoole's deputy at MI6
  • Nasser Memarzia as Omar Barghati, the head of a consortium seeking to buy weapons from Roper
  • Katherine Kelly as Pamela, the Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Office and Mayhew's superior
  • Bijan Daneshmand as Kouyami, a senior member of Barghati's consortium

    Series 2

Main

  • Diego Calva as Teddy Dos Santos, a Colombian arms dealer
  • Camila Morrone as Roxana Bolaños, a Colombian businesswoman who reluctantly allies with Pine
  • Paul Chahidi as Basil Karapetian, the Head of Technical at MI6 and an ally of Pine
  • Hayley Squires as Sally Price-Jones, an MI6 officer and member of Pine's surveillance unit, the Night Owls
  • Indira Varma as Mayra Cavendish, the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service
  • Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Dr Kim Saunders, Pine's MI6-mandated psychiatrist
  • Slavko Sobin as Viktor, the chief enforcer working for Dos Santos
  • Unax Ugalde as Juan Carrascal, a lawyer working for Dos Santos
  • Alberto Ammann as Alejandro Gualteros, a Colombian prosecutor trying to bring down Dos Santos
  • Diego Santos as Martín Álvarez, a Colombian private detective hired by Pine
  • Cristina Umaña Rojas as Consuelo Arbenz, an attorney general and head of the Colombian Supreme Court

    Supporting

  • Alex Mugnaioni, Raphel Famotibe and Anil Desai as Graham, Mike and Waleed, three members of Pine's surveillance unit, the Night Owls
  • Gijs Naber as Jaco Brouwer, a mercenary who previously worked for Roper
  • Annabel Mullion as Celia Mayhew, Rex's wife
  • Kerr Logan as Adam Holywell, an international business broker working with the criminal underworld
  • Mario Bolaños as General Horacio Sánchez, a Colombian general on Dos Santos' payroll
  • Luis Fernando Hoyos as José Cabrera, an exiled Colombian politician planning to overthrow the government
  • Fabio Espinosa, Erik Rodríguez and Samuel Gómez López as Chico, Beni and Tavo, three of Dos Santos' henchmen

    Production

Series 1

In January 2015, it was announced that the series, an adaptation of John le Carré's novel of the same name, would be co-produced by the BBC, AMC and The Ink Factory, starring Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman in lead roles, written by David Farr and directed by Susanne Bier. Onsite services were provided by Palma Pictures.
Filming began on 19 March 2015 in Zermatt, Switzerland. Production then moved to London. From 13 to 17 April 2015, location filming took place at Blackpool Mill Cottage, Hartland Abbey, and in and around Hartland, Devon. On 20 April 2015, production moved to Marrakesh, Morocco. The Es Saadi Resort was used as the location for the fictional Nefertiti Hotel in Cairo. At the end of May, production moved to Majorca, Spain; principal photography wrapped in Majorca on 3 July 2015. Notable places include Port de Sóller, luxury property La Fortaleza in Port de Pollença and several locations in Palma.
Le Carré makes a cameo appearance as an insulted restaurant diner in episode four.

Series 2

In February 2023 it was reported that the second series was in development with Hiddleston set to return. In April 2024 it was announced that BBC and Amazon Prime Video had ordered a second and third series, with Hiddleston and Colman returning in lead roles and Laurie as an executive producer. Alistair Petrie, Noah Jupe, Douglas Hodge and Michael Nardone also reprise their roles from the first series, while Camila Morrone, Diego Calva, Indira Varma, Paul Chahidi and Hayley Squires joined the cast in lead roles. Georgi Banks-Davies serves as director for the second series.
Filming for the second series began on 14 June 2024 and concluded on 6 December 2024, as confirmed by director Georgi Banks-Davies on her Instagram account. Production reportedly spanned 93 shoot days and took place in several international locations including London for three weeks and Colombia for five. "More than 75% of the story is about Colombia", confirmed Barry Ryan, head of production at Ink Factory. Colombian drug barons featured in the original book but were replaced by Middle Eastern warlords in the first series that adapted it. Filming also took place in Spain, France and the Three Cliffs Bay area in Swansea, Wales.
A teaser trailer for Series 2 was broadcast on BBC One ahead of the Celebrity Traitors final in November 2025.

Episodes

Series overview

Series 1 (2016)

Series 2 (2026)

Broadcast

The first episode of The Night Manager was broadcast on 21 February 2016 on BBC One in the United Kingdom. AMC Spain broadcast the series on 24 February 2016 in Spain, while TV3 in New Zealand broadcast the series on 28 February 2016. In the United States, the show premiered on 19 April 2016 on AMC. Season 1 aired in Australia on BBC First on 20 March 2016. In Finland it premiered on 22 June 2016 on MTV3. In Sweden, it first aired on 22 August 2016 on TV4, split up into eight episodes rather than the original release of six episodes. In Germany it started airing on 29 August 2016 on ZDF. The series was broadcast on Raidió Teilifís Éireann in Ireland on 29 August 2016. On 24 February 2017, The Night Manager started to air in the Netherlands on public broadcaster NPO 1, being broadcast by AVROTROS.
Series 2 began broadcasting on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK on 1 January 2026. Outside the UK, the series was broadcast on Prime Video, with three episodes released on 11 January, and new episodes released weekly every Sunday, leading up to the season finale on 1 February.

Reception

Critical response

Series 1

The series holds a 91% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 67 critics with an average rating of 8.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "The Night Manager's smart writing and riveting story are elevated all the more by Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston's captivating performances." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gives the series a score of 82/100 based on 32 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Adam Sisman, le Carré's biographer, wrote in the UK The Daily Telegraph: "It is more than 20 years since the novel was published, and in that time two film companies have tried and failed to adapt it, concluding that it was impossible to compress into two hours. But this six-hour television adaptation is long enough to give the novel its due." He added: "And though Hugh Laurie may seem a surprising choice to play 'the worst man in the world', he dominates the screen as a horribly convincing villain. Alert viewers may spot a familiar face in the background of one scene, in a restaurant: John le Carré himself makes a cameo, as he did in the films of A Most Wanted Man and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. But he is on screen only for an instant: blink and you'll miss him."
Reviewing the first episode for The Guardian, Archie Bland began by noting: "The Night Manager is as sexed up as television drama comes. In Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie it has bona fide international stars; in John le Carré's source novel it has a pedigree of untouchable grandeur. The palette is as sumptuous as one of our hero Jonathan Pine's beautiful hotels". He added, "It's Laurie's vulpine performance that gives The Night Manager its force once the smell of money has worn off. But we barely see him for the first 40 minutes – a delayed gratification trick that's always worked like magic on me, ever since we spent the whole first episode of The West Wing waiting impatiently to meet Josiah Bartlet." Turning to Hiddleston's performance, Bland wrote: "And as the embodiment of the show's atmosphere of paralysed establishment glamour, Hiddleston is the business. When the noble beast beneath that accommodating English exterior begins to make itself known, I find the righteous revenge he's intent on wreaking on Roper compelling."
IGN reviewer Jesse Schedeen gave the serial 8.8 out of 10, saying: "The Night Manager proves that television is the ideal format to bring le Carré's novels to life. This miniseries is tightly paced, suspenseful and boasts strong performances from the likes of Hiddleston, Laurie, Colman and Hollander. With any luck, this series will open the doors for more of le Carré's classic spy tales to make their way to the small screen."
The New Yorker reviewer Emily Nussbaum was unimpressed, calling the miniseries "elegant but ultimately empty", with "overwrought sequences of doomed love", "just an old recipe made with artisanal ingredients". She praised the actors but found the characterisation of Roper "less Dr. No and more Mr. Magoo". However, Brian Tallerico called it a "brilliant adaptation" on RogerEbert.com, with praise for the performances of Hiddleston and Laurie, and for Susanne Bier's direction: "Bier brings a cinematic language to The Night Manager, and a deeper understanding of character than we often get in projects that hinge on espionage. She understands that it's not about the twists and turns of the spy game but the impact it has on those who are playing it."