The Night Manager (miniseries)

Plot

Luxury hotel night manager and former British soldier Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) is recruited by Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), an intelligence operative. He is tasked to navigate Whitehall and Washington, D.C. where there is an alliance between the intelligence community and the secret arms trade. He must infiltrate the inner circle of arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper (Hugh Laurie), Roper's girlfriend Jed (Elizabeth Debicki), and associate Corkoran (Tom Hollander).

Production

In January 2015 it was announced that the serial would be co-produced by the BBC, AMC and The Ink Factory.

Filming began on 19 March 2015 in Zermatt, Switzerland. Production then moved to London, UK. From 13–17 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.

The author John le Carré made an appearance in Episode 4.

Broadcast

Episode 1 of The Night Manager was broadcast on 21 February 2016 on BBC One in the United Kingdom. AMC Spain broadcast the first episode on 24 February 2016. TV3 in New Zealand broadcast the first episode on 28 February 2016. In the United States, the show premiered on 19 April 2016 on AMC. The serial was scheduled to air in Australia on BBC First on 20 March 2016. The serial aired in Saudi Arabia on AMC starting on 6 June 2016. In Finland the serial premiered 22 June 2016 on MTV3. In Sweden the serial first aired on 22 August 2016 on TV4, split up into eight episodes. In Germany the serial started airing on 29 August 2016 on ZDF and on Raidió Teilifís Éireann in Ireland. On February 24th The Night Manager started to air on Dutch public broadcaster NPO 1, being broadcast by AVROTROS.

Critical reception

The series received widespread critical acclaim, with The Sun calling it "one of the greatest series of all time".

Adam Sisman, le Carré's biographer, wrote in UK daily newspaper 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 Episode 1 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 do find the righteous revenge he's intent on wreaking on Roper compelling."

IGN reviewer Jesse Schedeen gave the miniseries an 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."