The idea of returning for a second season of The Night Manager was challenging, if not downright impossible, the stars and creators say.
Of all the things Tom Hiddleston remembers about the 2016 release of The Night Manager, a moment with Joe Biden immediately comes to mind.
The actor, who played Jonathan Pine in the original BBC One/AMC production and its subsequent season on Prime Video, remembers how the 46th president approached him at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to say how much he loved the John Le Carré adaptation about an undercover night porter who spies on Hugh Laurie’s arms-dealing Richard Roper.
“All sorts of extraordinary people would approach me to say how much they loved it, like President Joe Biden,” remembered Hiddleston. “It’s an extraordinary privilege to make something that has an impact like that, that the audience really took the show to their hearts, and it seemed to reflect something honest about the state of the world at the time.”
Hiddleston was joined by his The Night Manager co-star Diego Calva, director/executive producer Georgi Banks-Davies, executive producer Stephen Garrett and creator/executive producer David Carr for a conversation at Deadline Studio @ Prime Experience. Watch their conversation below and scroll down for photos from the event.
As compelling (and Emmy-winning) as the first season was, Farr unwittingly “painted ourselves rightly into a narrative corner,” admitted Garrett. That made the idea of returning for a second season challenging, if not downright impossible, because “we’d actually ended the story.”
“We’d done what so many shows now that come back don’t do, leaving audiences frustrated because they’re setting up a second season,” he added. “We had no intention of setting up a second season. It’s a difficult story to tell and all credit to David and everyone else involved that [Season 2] turned out the way it did.”
Credit for the success of Season 2 – which launched on Prime in January – goes to the “fresh ignition” that is Calva (Babylon, Bird Box: Barcelona). He plays Teddy Dos Santos, Roper’s illegitimate son who has taken up the family business.
“I had a thought about Teddy as a character, this very strange, lonely, other son who’s sexually fluid, odd,” says Farr. “Then the next piece of the jigsaw, just to kind of keep the momentum, was to find an actor who could take that on. Suddenly the show had its own color and feel. It was an exciting moment for all of us.”
What transpires in Season 2 is an extraordinary journey of two men who become unwitting partners in a quest to destroy Roper once and for all. Now living under the alias Alex Goodwin in London, Hiddleston’s former intelligence officer character finds out that Roper is not only alive and kicking but backing a military coup in Colombia and using an illegal charity to train kid soldiers. Teddy wants to please his absentee father but learns through Pine that daddy will never love him the way he adores his blue-blooded white son back in the UK.
One of the more provocative moments of the six-episode second season is when Pine and Teddy perform a seductive dance with Camila Morrone’s Roxana, who ends up looking like a bit of a third wheel.
“It’s about power,” explained Banks-Davies. “It’s about using sex as power. Roxana is using it against Pine in the first instance and then bringing Teddy in to weaponize the moment. Those shields kind of slip. The connections start to truly come together. Some of that is sexual chemistry, and some of it is just friendship and camaraderie and danger. For one simple dance, it’s quite complicated.”
“It’s really dangerous,” continued Hiddleston. “So much of what Diego and I talked about with Teddy and Pine wasn’t necessarily about their physicality. It was about their spiritual bond that they connected through so many shared experiences, even though they’ve had very different lives. They both recognize each other. They’re both orphans and perhaps not literally, but they feel as though they are. They’re alone in the world. They have deep wells of private pain and deep wells of complex interior life. They understand the tension between the external and the internal and they recognize each other very quickly. We had a phrase which Diego translated from it takes one to know one…”
“Como el que sabe sabe,” says Calva.
“There’s almost a brotherhood between them,” continues Hiddleston, to which Calvo responds, “and a common enemy.”
The Night Manager, which also marked the return of Laurie and Olivia Colman as Angela Burr, will return for a third season.
After Arsenal secured a first Premier League title in 22 years, the actor is gearing up for another big weekend of football; watching his be
“By the way, can I just say, ‘Come on you Gunners!’” Admirers of Tom Hiddleston (of which there are many) will think they know most things about him; that he’s a charming English gent who’s a pretty decent actor on the big and silver screen, a loving husband and father, and someone who always looks immaculate in Ralph Lauren – be it on a red carpet or breezing through an airport. But few can truly begin to know quite how massive a football fan he is; more specifically an Arsenal one.
He’s currently standing in front of me wearing a beautiful velvet tuxedo (“Ralph all the time,” he replies when I request a fit check for the night), and he can’t stop talking about football. The occasion for the sharp tux is the Soccer Aid for UNICEF gala dinner (he’s playing in this weekend’s match at the London Stadium), so the Marvel villain is in good company when it comes to being surrounded by football heads.
Jo Hale/Getty Images
“I ran around my house silently because I was putting my children to bed,” he says when I ask him how he celebrated City's loss and Arsenal’s ultimate gain on Tuesday night. “I literally ran around silently with my hands and arms above my head, like a kind of old school comedy. If you put the Benny Hill theme tune to it, it would be hilarious – like Tom from Tom and Jerry when he wins.”
That night, Hiddleston and his father-in-law – an Arsenal fan of 45-years – went through exactly what every other Arsenal fan around the world did. “He always says that the most intense human emotion is not anger. It's not despair, it's not grief, it's not euphoria, it's not happiness. It's relief. And that's what I felt on Tuesday.”
For the time being, football is the only thing on his agenda. On Saturday, he will once again line up for England alongside the likes of Jill Scott, Tom Grennan, Jermaine Defoe, Jack Wilshere and Patty McGuinness. “I don't know about our tactics yet because we haven't done any training together, but I've played with these legends before so hopefully there's a little bit of history there,” he adds. With Harry Rednapp as the gaffer again, Hiddleston is hoping that the “magic of 2024 can return where I played for him and we won at Stamford Bridge 5-2”.
Then, come Sunday, he has the small matter of Arsenal’s Champions League final against PSG to get excited about. “It's a huge football triangle, it will be amazing,” he says. “I mean, it's an amazing confluence of joy. It just feels like all joy all the time.”
With the Premier League title already in the trophy cabinet, Hiddleston believes an historic double is now on too. “I think with that in the pocket, the confidence, the flow, I'm really excited. Against Paris Saint Germain don't take it from me, I'm just an actor, but I've heard people like Alan Shearer, Gary Lineker, Gary Neville and all The Overlap boys seem to think that if anyone can beat PSG, it's us. I've always believed it, frankly. We've got the best defence in the world as far as I'm concerned. And now we're champions.”
So if you ever bump into Tom Hiddleston down the pub, you now know what to chat about. Unless you’re a Spurs fan, in which case: best avoid.
Soccer Aid for UNICEF is happening on May 31. It will be viewed live on ITV and tickets are still available.
Sometimes you just need something to look forward to. Consider the fall handled: Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell are coming to Broadway'
Sometimes you just need something to look forward to. Consider the fall handled: Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell are coming to Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre in Jamie Lloyd’s Much Ado About Nothing starting on October 31. Expect pink confetti, disco lights and a lot of fun. London audiences went wild, and we’re next!
Much Ado is Shakespeare’s greatest romantic comedy. Like many rom-coms, it features two clever, self-protective people who would rather die than admit they’re falling for each other, surrounded by friends who are absolutely going to make sure they do anyway. It’s funny and fast and has one of best will-they-won’t-they dynamics of all time. Director Lloyd knows how to amp up the delights. Here are five of them:
1. Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell are everything.
Benedick and Beatrice live or die on their chemistry, and these two have it. They spark, clash, flirt and unravel in exactly the way you’re hoping. Fair warning: you’re going to crush on both of them.
2. It’s a party.
Pink confetti rains from the ceiling and pop music blasts between scenes. The whole evening plays like a celebration. Oh, and don’t be intimidated: the Shakespeare part almost sneaks up on you.
3. It’s for everyone.
Lloyd keeps the language clear and the storytelling nimble. Bring whoever swears they don’t “get” Shakespeare. They'll probably thank you.
Forbes Masson, Mara Huf, Hayley Atwell, Mason Alexander Park and Phillip Olagoke in London's "Much Ado About Nothing" (Photo: Marc Brenner)
4. Get ready for unforgettable visuals.
In addition to watching Hiddleston shake his booty (!), there are glitter microphones, a giant pink heart and rave-worthy lighting. The stage feels like a rom-com fantasy crossed with a night at the club. The production even winks at the Marvel Cinematic Universe past of its two stars.
5. You get to feel your feelings.
Somewhere in all that witty banter, there’s a real love story. It’s by no means soppy, but underneath all the glitter and chaos, you might even cry a little.
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