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After a decade-long break, Tom Hiddleston’s enigmatic Jonathan Pine has returned to screens in an explosive return for The Night Manager.
The hit BBC spy thriller, based on the bestselling novel by the late John Le Carre, debuted in 2016 to rave reviews and millions of viewers.
The show follows a former British soldier turned luxury Cairo hotel manager who is plunged into the world of conspiracy and espionage when he is recruited by Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), head of a task force tackling the illegal arms trade.
As the synopsis adds: ‘With betrayal at every turn, he must decide whose trust he needs to earn and how far he’s willing to go before it’s too late.’
For those unfamiliar with the show, we would recommend bingeing the first season before diving into the second, which premiered on BBC One on Thursday night.
Despite making fans wait 10 whole years for the long-awaited follow-up, it does still rely on plotlines established in the first season, so it’s best to go in with a fresh memory of the events.
As for what to expect from the new set of episodes, the BBC teases a farewell to Jonathan Pine and hello to his new alias, Alex Goodwin, ‘ a low-level MI6 officer running a quiet surveillance unit in London.’
Soon, his quiet life is upended once more when he violently clashes with Colombian businessman Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva).
With the help of the newly-introduced Roxana Bolaños (Camila Morrone), he soon infiltrates a whole new arms operation that will, no doubt, put his life in peril once more.
The stacked cast also features Indira Varma, Paul Chaidi and Hayley Squires alongside returning faces Alistair Petrie, Douglas Hodge, Michael Nardone and Noah Jupe.
What does Metro think of The Night Manager season 2?
Metro’s TV Editor Sabrina Barr shares her four-star review…
The series was perfectly brilliant as a standalone, having been based on the 1993 novel by the acclaimed espionage author John le Carré. If those six episodes were all we were ever going to get from a TV show about Jonathan Pine, then that would have been ok (even if it would have been a bitter pill to swallow).
But, thank goodness the creators of the series did decide to come back, because there is so much more of Pine’s story and his massive potential as a sleuthing secret agent to delve into in season two. The phrase ‘better late than never’ has never felt more apt.
The thrilling premiere of the six-episode season drew in 3.3 million viewers (and a peak of 3.8 million), with countless more likely to tune in on iPlayer where the second episode has already quietly been dropped.
Despite the sky-high expectations, it looks as though the new episode has suitably blown fans away.
‘Well that was a blooming good start! Welcome back,’ vickster51 wrote on X,
‘Definitely worth the wait. Gripping from start to finish,’ Homunculae agreed with leto agreeing with some relief that ‘it looks like we are in for a good one.’
‘Such a crazy show, James Bond for the small screen but so so entertaining. Just can’t believe it’s been 10 years???’ sarah declared.
‘The first series of The Night Manager was a cut above. Superb drama that credited its audience with the intelligence and attention span to follow complex international espionage with just the right level of hand-holding. An episode in series 2 looks like being more of the same,’ Johnboy_cook praised.
‘The [second] season of The Night Manager was sure worth the decade-long wait, delivering once again a Bond-esque spy thriller, one that is actually better than most Bond films,’ Phantom posed.
Given that two of the biggest British actors of today (Tom and Olivia) are helming the return, Sil has hailed the ‘masterclass in acting; they are incredible actors and work incredibly well together.’
A long time in the making, the second season had landed six years after Le Carre’s death, who gave his blessing for the new episodes to be made.
Discussing the huge time jump with Metro at the red carpet premiere, the Loki actor said: ‘I told everyone involved, David Farr, our screenwriter, our producers, our director… I said, it’s 10 years later. I’m 10 years older.
‘A few more scars on the inside. A few more scars on the outside. Let’s lean into it. Let’s embrace it.’
The Night Manager will air every Sunday at 9pm on BBC One.
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