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The night manager4/9/2023 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). ![]() Luxury hotel night manager and former British soldier Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) is recruited by Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), an intelligence operative. Plus, he wrote exceedingly good stories.Amazing cast, scintillating dialogue, great exotic locations, just the right number of plot twists, explosions and gunfire, “unforced” plot development and most importantly, the breathtakingly gorgeous Elizabeth Debicki. Not an apologist for the ills of the empire, says Hennessey, but a man who mocked it mercilessly and had a deep understanding of (what was then all) India, its people and culture. Patrick Hennessey totally is the real Jonathan Pine but with a different mission: to repair the damage done to the reputation of his literary hero, Rudyard Kipling. Next, briefly, a handsome blond English former soldier in a blue shirt strides confidently along a bustling street in a hot Muslim country … hang on, haven’t we done this? Not Cairo, but Lahore in Pakistan, and not The Night Manager but Kipling’s Indian Adventure (BBC2, Saturday). No need to recruit me, I’m already thoroughly signed up for the duration. He takes out the book (the Letters of TE Lawrence, of course, it might have been Kipling) where he put Angela Burr’s number and gives her a call. But he hasn’t forgotten Cairo he must avenge Sophie’s death. Time for Pine to snap into action, show what he’s got under that understated posh English charm. Not enough naked wet Jed for the night? Here she is again, having a late-night skinny dip in the pool. Roper’s beautiful American missus, Jed, stretches a bubbly leg out of the freestanding bath, demanding more champagne. Tom Hollander is on fabulousness, as Roper’s camp fixer. Hugh Laurie is the best worst man, a splendid villain, bullish and bullying, not overdone though, just right. Pine now works at the rather lovely Meisters hotel, where guess who is helicoptering in with his entourage for a visit – Richard Roper, the worst man in the world, remember. It gets really fun in the Alps, four years on. Nor was Le Carré - complaining - in the Guardian on Saturday. But Le Carré can get knotted en-route from page to screen (certainly this television long form suits him) I’m not complaining about any loosening going on, sexing-up of documents or anything else. (That Farr was a Spooks writer isn’t surprising). ![]() ![]() Yes, it has all been nudged about 10% – 007% perhaps – in that direction. Zermatt’s better on the screen – prettier, a bit more Bond. Burr’s sex change the Arab spring (which fits so perfectly with Cairo, I’m sure Le Carré would have done the same had the Arab spring happened by 1993 when his book was published), Pine’s previous tours of Iraq instead of Northern Ireland the switch from Zurich up the road to Zermatt. The alterations and updates are skilfully and almost invisibly tailored by David Farr, who has adapted the novel. That couldn’t have happened in John le Carré’s original his Burr is a he Leonard. Literally later, she’s pregnant (because Olivia Colman who plays her is). And we pop back to Blighty, where no-nonsense Angela Burr, head of a mysterious intelligence agency that operates separately and seemingly at odds with MI6 and has an ongoing vendetta against Roper, brings things back to earth and England, with a bump. Is it all getting a bit Milk Tray ad, circa 1973? Or Fry’s Turkish Delight maybe, because of Sophie, full of eastern promise? No, because Sophie is then murdered.
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