Ten years ago, a spy thriller series made headlines for several weeks, especially in the UK.
The Night Manager, a co-production between the BBC and AMC and based on the novel by John le Carré, stars Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine, a hotel worker and ex-soldier hired to infiltrate the inner circle of sleazy arms dealer Richard Roper, played by Hugh Laurie.
At the time, the film was unlike anything typically produced in the UK, being an expensive, big-hitting, highly flamboyant showcase that traveled around the world with major sets and exotic locations (much to the delight of the British press, one sex scene, featuring Hiddleston’s buttocks, was controversially cut from the US broadcast). Several executives joked at the time that the intro alone probably cost more than the average budget for a British television series. Thankfully, The Night Manager was very well received and won a number of major awards, including two Emmy Awards (one for Suzanne Bier, who directed the entire series) and three Golden Globes (for Hiddleston, Laurie, and Olivia Colman, the first major honor in the United States). Unsurprisingly, Hiddleston, who flexed his wiry spy muscles on TV screens, quickly became the publisher’s first choice for the role of James Bond, but that’s not to say they weren’t looking back in 2016.
A lot has changed in the past decade.
Big-budget TV in the UK is no longer a novelty, with studios and streamers flocking across the Atlantic to set up major local hubs since then (‘The Night Manager’ actually launched eight months before Netflix’s game-changer ‘The Crown’). Coleman is also currently an Oscar winner, and it is expected to be announced soon who the next 007 will be (though Callum Turner is the bookmakers’ current favorite). And le Carré sadly passed away at the age of 89 at the end of 2020.
But The Night Manager is finally back for a second installment, this time airing on the BBC and Amazon Prime from January 11th. Ten years later, Hiddleston’s Pine is still in the intelligence community, but now runs a surveillance unit in London under a different name (Coleman also returns). Naturally, things quickly go awry and he soon attempts to infiltrate a Colombian arms cartel, now taking orders from post-Brexit Britain, where there are questions of national identity and who is working for whom.
George Banks-Davies, best known for directing Sky Atlantic’s I Hate Suzie and Netflix’s Chaos, will be in the director’s chair for the six-part return, which was shot in the UK, Colombia, Spain and France.
In an interview with Variety, Banks-Davis talked about resuming the series after a 10-year hiatus following the “incredible” director Bier, and how Season 2 of “The Night Manager” marks the first time le Carré’s spy world has been expanded beyond the novels, which he fully celebrates.
How did you come to be involved in this project? It seems very different from your previous works.
Actually, it was two years ago today. My agent called me out of the blue and said, “Hey, they want to see you on The Night Manager.” Honestly, my first reaction was, “Oh my god, I can’t believe it.” I’m a big le Carré fan, I’m a big espionage fan, I’m a big thriller fan. I’ve always wanted to take action, but my career wasn’t always pointing in that direction. So, in a sense, being given such an opportunity came out of the blue. Then I went to meet the Ink Factory producers (le Carré’s children) and the writer David Farr. We talked about the show’s larger themes and what it stands for politically on a larger platform. However, what impressed me were the characters he created. For me, character comes first. Then I met Tom (Hiddleston) and was unearthing the character — what does Jonathan Pine look like in 10 years? Finally they said, “Do you want to direct it and oversee everything?”
I think this is the closest thing to film that you can do as a TV director. From the beginning, we were basically told, “This is a six-hour movie.” So it’s all shot at the same time, it’s all edited at the same time, and it’s like a six-hour movie. There’s a lot of pressure, but there’s also a lot of creative freedom. And I still can’t believe I was able to accomplish that.
Season 1 of The Night Manager is based on le Carré’s novel, but is this the first time you’ve expanded on his book?
that’s right. And there are a lot of question marks around it. But they were very conscious about how they did it. And le Carré knew this before he died.
So did he give it his blessing?
Yes, he was celebrating it – he wanted them to be. And David Farr, the same writer (from Season 1), is a le Carré aficionado and understands how to live in that world. For me, it’s like I have to believe that this project literally has le Carré’s family DNA. Nothing can detract from that or detract from their father’s intentions. Although I was not able to meet him, I somehow believed that everything was a blessing in disguise. But I think I read somewhere that le Carré said that a film adaptation is an adaptation of a movie, not a book. And that meant that he really gave the writer and director creative freedom when working on the piece. If you look at the first book and the TV show, some of the time periods, settings, and characters have changed. He’s always given us a lot of strength in that regard in adapting.
I feel like it’s rare to find a sequel to a series that was released 10 years ago. I don’t mean to imply that 2016 was a more innocent, carefree time, but a lot has happened since then. Do you think this story reflects how the world has changed over the past decade?
Yes, 100%. We now live in a post-truth world. We have experienced massive and seismic political changes. And I think this show has always been about an identity crisis for me. The characters often struggle with who they are. And in this moment that we’re living, everything about us, who we are and everything that makes us who we are, whether it’s our race, our religion, our gender, where we’re born, where we want to live, it feels like it’s much more prevalent and much more judged. What can make us safe in one moment can make us completely unsafe in another. I feel like I’m on a knife’s edge every day. As a woman, as a queer person, things that you take for granted can be taken away from me. Fundamental human rights, which I consider human rights, are balanced at the moment, and we are now in a position to enjoy them. And the show really continues to examine ideas about who we are based on where we come from and the ideals we hold.
When the first season was released, it was a big deal. That was before there was a rush of very expensive high-end dramas here in the UK, before streamers set up huge bases here. I remember people noting at the time how flashy this piece looked compared to most British work. Was this a bit daunting to accept, given that there has been so much change in the UK and we are now the global center of television?
I’d be lying if I said it didn’t turn me off, but just as quickly, I needed to push that feeling out. You can’t ignore what’s gone before, you can’t ignore the fan base, you can’t ignore success like that. But if you try to reproduce it or instill it, you will fail. As a filmmaker, I have to ask myself, “Why am I doing this?” I do this purely to react to the material. You just have to trust and believe in the material. You also have to trust your instincts that made you want to tell this story and do it in a unique way. Another thing that really surprised me was the amount of autonomy that was given to me. This is what I was told. “There’s no need to repeat the past, there’s no house style, there’s no need to shoot in this way.” There’s no way it has to sound. There is no way the story has to be told. It’s like this: We like your instincts.
Suzanne Bier directed the first season and won an Emmy Award, following in her footsteps. Have you talked to her at all?
I’m a big fan of her and her work, and she’s amazing. And as a woman in this industry, you can’t ignore how amazing Suzanne is and how much she paved the way for so many female directors. But then you have to go: Okay, thank you. So we talked, but we talked after the shoot, not before. And I really liked it. Because it’s like we were two soldiers who went to different battles and then we swapped war stories.
If I remember correctly, Olivia Colman was pregnant with her third child when the first season was filmed. So it should now be in double digits.
know! Isn’t it wonderful? What a great show mascot.
After the first season, as there always is when a British actor of a certain age picks up a gun, there was a buzz that Tom Hiddleston might become the next James Bond. They clearly weren’t looking for a new 007 at the time. But 10 years later, they’re really looking. Do you think this could reignite the desire to have Tom as Bond?
I don’t know! That’s a question for Tom. But what I’m really saying is that if we were to do a Night Manager prequel, people might start thinking about who would play Jonathan Pine. I want that to be a conversation, who’s going to be leading Pine in the early days?
Was there any talk of continuing in season 3?
A third season was always planned. David is currently writing this article. He’s on the coalface and in the early stages. But certainly, when the second season came around, the plan was to move on to a third season. So if you look at the series as a whole, you’ll see that this book can stand on its own, but it also works well as the second book in a trilogy.
What’s next? Where does Tom Hiddleston go after directing a six-hour spy movie?
There are several projects, but the one I’m currently focusing on is a film project. One is an adaptation of a book about a young woman, and the other is a sports movie about the movement of period race cars and women in the driver’s seat, which is a big passion of mine. So those are the focus for now and I hope one of them moves forward soon.
