Warning: spoilers ahead for the first three episodes of The Night Manager Season 2.
There is a sense of relief as Stephen Garrett logs into our video call. It’s the second time we’ve spoken in recent weeks, and it feels as though a weight has been lifted from the shoulders of The Night Manager’s executive producer.
When we met before Christmas, Garrett was full of nods and winks about Season 2, but ultimately filed any spoilers under: Top Secret. But now, with The Night Manager three episodes deep on both sides of the Atlantic, the British producer is rather more loquacious. He is finally free to talk about the return of Richard Roper, the spy drama’s magnetic antagonist, played by Hugh Laurie.
The clues were there, not least Laurie’s executive producer credit and a brush with the paparazzi during filming in London, but it was not until the final seconds of episode three that it was confirmed: Dickie’s not dead! We hear Laurie’s unmistakable baritone voice, but then there is Roper, through the brush of the Colombian jungle, slapping the back of a comrade and calling him, “Old boy.”
Garrett says guarding the secret has been a privilege — “you just want to give viewers the best possible experience in an increasingly miserable world” — and great care has been given to misdirecting rather than lying. Even Olivia Colman got in on the act, asking that her character Angela Burr refer to Roper as a “body” rather than a “corpse” in the first moments of Season 2.
Stephen Garrett on set with Hugh Laurie (credit: Des Willie)
The downside is that the BBC and Amazon Prime Video have not been able to play perhaps The Night Manager’s strongest card in marketing the series. “It’s like going into a boxing ring with one arm behind your back,” Garrett winces. That’s about to change, with the BBC now running teasers unashamedly featuring Roper, in what Garrett describes as a deliberate switch in marketing strategy. He is all too aware that, since Season 1 premiered a decade ago, the competition has gone up a gear.
So what can we expect from Laurie in the second half of Season 2? Roper returns as his villainous heir, Teddy (played by the very watchable Diego Calva), is juggling a secret arms shipment for his undercover army. Tom Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine is on their tail, using his brash alter-ego Matthew Ellis.
Garrett is still keeping surprises up his sleeve, but reveals that Laurie brings an “even more deliciously evil spin” to Roper in the heat of Colombia. Garrett says the House star relished being back in Roper’s skin and improvised some “spine-tingling” threats against Pine. Laurie concurs: “I’m not going to apologize for loving the worst man in the world. I’m repulsed, but sneakily, I love him too.”
Garrett detects similarities between Roper and a “certain leader of a democratic country.” He won’t name Donald Trump because he is being polite to the BBC and Amazon, but the U.S. president’s presence lingers in his remarks. “There’s a really interesting articulation by Roper of his business model,” Garrett explains. “He talks about the philosophy underpinning regime change, why you do it, and how it works. It’s really prescient.”
The ghost of Roper did haunt the first half of Season 2, but it also gave writer David Farr the space to allow new characters to breathe. This is to the benefit of Calva’s Teddy and Camila Morrone’s Roxana, who steam up the screen at every opportunity. If Roper is the archetypal testosterone-charged bad guy, Teddy is a more enigmatic presence, with his unbuttoned shirts and sexual tension with Pine. This is played out explicitly in a sultry dance scene between Teddy, Pine, and Roxana, which feels a long way from Roper’s icy menace.
Tom Hiddleston, Camila Morrone & Diego Calva
Garrett says this was deliberate: “What David has brilliantly captured is the greater complexity and sophistication of the relationships between men and women. It’s not defined in the way that it used to be. And there’s something very contemporary about the attraction you can see between Teddy and Pine.
“It’s axiomatic, really, that spies have no friends, have no family. If they talk to anyone, they’re lying. So to communicate character, to get inside their heads, is tricky. The dance itself is a kind of metaphor of what’s going on with them.”
Diverging from John le Carré’s masterwork has been “scary” at times, Garrett admits. The author was heavily involved in Season 1, right down to barging his way into a scene with Tom Hollander’s Lance “Corky” Corkoran. Le Carré initially insisted that there be no further seasons, but changed his mind before he died in 2020. Honoring his world — as well as finding a way out of Season 1’s “narrative corner” — explains why it has taken a decade for The Night Manager to return.
Will we have to wait another 10 years for Season 3? Garrett, who runs Character 7, hopes not. He says development is underway and “broad brushstrokes” have been applied to canvas, but it remains too early to talk about storylines and shoots. After a garrulous conversation, Garrett is suddenly back to picking his words very carefully. Such is the world of spycraft.
