‘WE STARTED ONE EPISODE… AND SUDDENLY IT WAS 3 A.M.’” Fans of intelligent thrillers are quietly becoming obsessed with a stunning spy drama many are now calling one of the most addictive binge-watches to hit streaming in years. It has danger. Luxury. Betrayal. Gorgeous locations that feel straight out of a Bond film — but underneath all the beauty lies something darker, colder, and impossible to stop watching.
Fans are binge-watching this BEAUTIFUL and pulse-pounding spy thriller non-stop!
Olivia Colman and Hugh Laurie star.
A spy thriller starring Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman has been added to a new streaming platform in the UK. BBC series The Night Manager, based on the 1993 book of the same name by John le Carré, has just become available to stream on a different platform in the UK.
Currently streamable on BBC iPlayer and Sky, the series adapted by David Farr has just landed on Disney+, but there’s a catch. Only season 1 of The Night Manager is streaming for Disney+ as well as Prime Video subscribers based in the UK, with fans of spy stories having to turn to one of the other platforms to
Premiered in 2016, the first season of the show follows Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine, a former military officer now working undercover as a night manager at a luxury hotel in Cairo whilst on a mission to bring down arms dealer Richard Roper, played by Hugh Laurie. Olivia Colman stars as Pine’s boss, Angela Burr, the Head of the Foreign Office’s International Enforcement Agency, with David Harewood portraying Burr’s ally, ATF agent Joel Steadman.
The series returned for a second instalment earlier this year. Premiering on New Year’s Day on BBC One, The Night Manager season 2 opens with two time jumps as Roper appears to be dead. When Roper’s former acolyte, Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva), kills all of Pine’s team, he’s sent to live in Colombia under a new identity. There, he infiltrates a new gang of illegal arms dealers, starting to suspect that Roper might not be dead after all.
Joining the series on season 2 are Camila Morrone as Roxana Bolaños, Hayley Squires as MI6 officer and member of the Night Owls, Sally Price-Jones, Indira Varma as Mayra Cavendish, the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Pine’s psychiatrist, Dr Kim Saunders.
On Rotten Tomatoes, The Night Manager season 1 is Certified Fresh with an impressive critics’ score of 91% out of 67 reviews, with season 2 falling behind with an equally positive, if slightly lower, rating of 88%.
Season 1 was branded “intense, sexy and compelling” television that could rival spy stories for the big screen (via film-authority.com), with Lainey Gossip enthusing: “This is a GORGEOUS television series, with jet-setting locales and a series of extremely well-fitted suits for Hiddleston.”
The newest instalment prompted more mixed reactions, as it has been described as “a much more generic thriller” compared to the first season (via The Spectator) and “bigger and better on every level” (via Inverse).
The Night Manager season 1 is streaming on Disney+ and Prime Video in the UK. Seasons 1-2 are currently available on BBC iPlayer and Sky.