Four hours and 22 minutes into the series, The Night Manager (BBC1) finally delivered the scene it badly needed. Namely the money shot of the old adversaries Jonathan Pine and Richard Roper meeting, at a cosy hilltop restaurant, for the first time in nine years. The encounter was so bristling with tension, history and a weird toxic bromance that I wondered if they were going to drop their steak knives and snog.<\/p>\n
The evil arms trafficker Roper (Hugh Laurie<\/a>) told the British intelligence agent Pine (Tom Hiddleston<\/a>) that he had an inexplicable affection for him. \u201cYou dream of me every night, just as I dream of you,\u201d he said. Guys, guys, get a room.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a pity we had to wait so long for the two main draws to spar because their dynamic, a sort of Harry and Voldemort face-off in light chinos, is the source of The Night Manager\u2019s main energy, one that previous episodes<\/a> have sorely lacked.<\/p>\n But here the dialogue crackled, Roper goading Pine about his father, offering him $50 million to deliver Roxana to him and walk away, and telling him that conscience and shame are the shackles of the slave. \u201cConscience is what makes us human,\u201d Pine replied rather pompously, I thought. Oh, I know he\u2019s the good guy, but he can be awfully self-righteous, can\u2019t he?<\/p>\n Anyway Pine didn\u2019t show much conscience when he admitted to Roxana (Camila Morrone<\/a>) that he had lied, then commenced a mutual hate frottage with her. If this, along with their heavy panting, was supposed to show the fizzing sexual chemistry between them, I must say that I\u2019m not convinced. Pine always looks like he\u2019d rather steam press his trousers than take them off to have sex.<\/p>\n It was a strong and well-written episode, though, even if I didn\u2019t believe for a second that the loose cannon Teddy (Diego Calva) would have passed up the opportunity to shoot Pine dead during that cliffside drama when Pine played him a recording proving the father he reveres, Roper, cares little for him, much prefers his other son Danny and has used him \u201clike a dog\u201d.<\/p>\n Instead Teddy broke down crying like a baby in Pine\u2019s arms when he pressed his weak spot, telling him his loving sister was waiting for him. Are we supposed to believe, on this basis, that Teddy will now help Pine to stop the arms shipment, which will help start the rebel war? \u201cYou really did win his heart, didn\u2019t you?\u201d said Sally (Hayley Squires<\/a>), who is being so woefully underused she must have been grateful for even a line as duff as that. No, in the real world, crazy Teddy would have shot Pine like a dog.<\/p>\n \u2022 Read more TV reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews<\/a><\/p>\n Speaking of which, this is exactly what Roper did to his three beloved hounds, one by one \u2014 bang, bang, bang. Was it an act of love because he fears things are unravelling? When he was captured all those years ago his treasured dogs got gassed to death. Maybe he was protecting them from a similar fate or maybe he was just annoyed that one had been carrying a recording device on its collar.<\/p>\n Roper certainly hasn\u2019t grown soft in his old age. He told Roxana that if she deceived him, he would send her back to her mother in Miami \u201cin 31 shoeboxes, one box a day for a month. I\u2019m sure we can keep you alive for a week\u201d. Ah well. He can\u2019t feed her \u201cpiece by screaming piece\u201d to his dogs any more so I suppose a man\u2019s got to improvise. Love TV? Discover the best shows on Netflix<\/a>, the best Prime Video TV shows<\/a>, the best Disney+ shows<\/a>, the best Apple TV+ shows<\/a>, the best shows on BBC iPlayer<\/a>, the best shows on Sky and Now<\/a>, the best shows on ITVX<\/a>, the best shows on Channel 4<\/a> streaming, the best shows on Paramount+<\/a> and our favourite hidden gem TV shows<\/a>. Don\u2019t forget to check our critics\u2019 choices to what to watch this week<\/a>, and browse our comprehensive TV guide<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four hours and 22 minutes into the series, The Night Manager (BBC1) finally delivered the scene it badly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-263927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Catch up on iPlayer<\/p>\n