{"id":358954,"date":"2026-01-08T13:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/358954\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T13:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:02:13","slug":"tom-hiddleston-addresses-doing-strictly-despite-having-new-baby-with-famous-fiancee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/358954\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Hiddleston addresses doing Strictly despite having new baby with famous fiancee"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Night Manager star tells the Mirror that fans can expect the new series of the critically acclaimed BBC show to be bigger, bolder and deeper – with more risks. He tells the Mirror what’s in store…<\/p>\n

20:00, 07 Jan 2026Updated 20:00, 07 Jan 2026<\/p>\n

\"TomTom Hiddleston(Image: WireImage)<\/p>\n

With his immaculate suits and impeccably pressed linens, he is the man currently making espionage look elegant on TV. But Tom Hiddleston, who is starring in The Night Manager, says plenty of blood, sweat and tears went into season 2 of the critically acclaimed BBC1<\/a> show, which comes a decade after the original. \u201cWe set a high standard for ourselves. We knew it had to be bigger, bolder, deeper and we had to risk more,\u201d says Tom, 44. \u201cWe knew it would cost more in terms of spirit. It takes time to develop six hours of television.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is a fabulously stylish spy drama that sees Jonathan Pine, a former soldier turned spy, using the new identity of Alex Goodwin and running a surveillance unit of \u2018night owls\u2019 watching high-end London establishments for a terror threat. But he is soon pulled into a live situation, infiltrating a perilous Colombian operation involving arms and the training of a guerilla army, posing as Matthew Ellis, a wealthy playboy financier.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: The Night Manager fans should see ‘must-watch’ spy thriller next<\/a><\/p>\n

Tom – who famously bared his bottom in a saucy scene in the first series – says he was drawn to playing Pine, created by author John Le Carre, because of \u201cthe tension between his exterior and interior.” On the surface he is immaculate, charming, collected, capable and calm,\u201d he says. \u201cLike all great hoteliers, a great actor – so think about it the next time you are staying in a hotel!<\/p>\n

\"TomTom Hiddleston and his fiancee Zawe Ashton(Image: WireImage)<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he had also been a British soldier in the Army. There is this tension between the still water of this immaculate, pristine face and inside a heart that is on fire with moral courage and solitude and pain and trauma. Who does not want to play that guy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing the character as \u201cstencilled into my brain,\u201d he continues: \u201cLe Carre was fascinated by the masks we wear. Spies have to lie to get to the truth and it is easy to get lost in the maze; one slip up and you are a dead man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in London and educated at Cambridge, this year looks set to be a busy one for Tom, who is a UK ambassador for UNICEF. As well as The Night Manager, he will be reprising the role of Loki in Avengers: Doomsday, which will also star Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart.<\/p>\n

Scheduled to hit cinemas this December, Tom will once again slip into the horns of Marvel\u2019s most charismatic trickster, set to create cosmic chaos. \u201cIt was very exciting to be back, but you will have to wait and see what happens next. The last time you saw Loki he was on a throne,\u201d says Tom, who first brought the God of Mischief to life in the 2011 movie Thor.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Night Manager is critically acclaimed (Image: BBC\/The Ink Factory\/Mitch Jenkins)<\/p>\n

\u201cI revere Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, so it was amazing to be in that ensemble. On the studio lot you would bump into these people and they would be pinch me moments. It is a big cast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having won a Golden Globe for The Night Manager and an Olivier award and Tony nominations for his theatre work, Tom says he likes TV, cinema and stage work equally. \u201cI like all three,\u201d he says. \u201cThere is no preference. I am so grateful I get to do them all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rumoured to be lined up to star in a production of Shakespeare\u2019s Much Ado About Nothing on Broadway, he continues: \u201cThe camera captures the truth – it is so sharp. You can\u2019t lie in front of it or a live audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cVanessa Redgrave told a story that somebody tried to say making films was less, as she was a great classical actress, but she said she needed both as they feed each other. Me, I love the precision of acting for a camera, but I love playing a whole story night after night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TomTom says fans have plenty to look forward to in the new series of The Night Manager(Image: CREDIT LINE: BBC\/Ink Factory\/Des Willie)<\/p>\n

Parenting duties are also making nightly demands on the actor, who had a second child with fiancee Zawe Ashton last month. The couple met while starring together in the West End in a 2019 revival of the play Betrayal and were engaged in 2022 – having their first child later that year.<\/p>\n

Once describing becoming a dad as \u201cthe most important thing I will ever do,\u201d Tom says he\u2019s definitely changed more in the 10 years since the first series of The Night Manager than his character Jonathan Pine has. He says: \u201cThey have been a complicated ten years in the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho has changed more, Jonathan Pine or Tom Hiddleston? Probably Tom Hiddleston I would think. We have all been through those years, so we leant into it. So much has happened – the world is more fragmented and uncertain. There have been so many political, cultural and environmental changes and a pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as Jonathan Pine, we thought if you worked at the centre of the intelligence community, then those 10 years would also have been complex.\u201d Tom, who dated Taylor Swift<\/a> in 2016, first appeared on our screens in 2001 in an ITV<\/a> adaptation of Nicholas NIckleby and cites Jack Nicholson as a key influence.<\/p>\n

\"TomTom in Loki(Image: Internet Unknown)<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I would have played Loki without the film Batman,\u201d he says. “The way Jack Nicholson played The Joker, it made such an impact on my imagination. I understood he was the villain, but he was having such a good time. He was so charismatic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I played Loki, I consciously carried Jack Nicholson in mind.\u201d A movie buff, he says The Shining is \u201cthe scariest film that was ever made\u201d. \u201cThe funniest? I remember watching Ace Ventura for the first time and I cried with laughter all the way through,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His classic music choices are diverse. He can \u201crecite\u201d Mary Poppins and loves Die Hard. \u201cIt all comes back to Die Hard in the end,\u201d he says. \u201cI like salted popcorn too – I say keep it simple!\u201d As for the future, Tom would love the chance to take a spin beneath the Strictly glitterball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would do Strictly or The Traitors<\/a>,\u201d he confides. \u201cWe are big fans of Strictly in our house. It’s very wholesome and emotional – but I am a massive fan of both shows. Traitors is great. The version of it with celebrities \u2026the entire country watched the finale, like 11 million people. It was like a sporting event – like the World Cup final or a Super Bowl. It\u2019s really unusual for a piece of entertainment to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TomTom won a Golden Globe in 2017 for The Night Manager(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He is also looking forward to a third series of The Night Manager which has already been slated, despite John Le Carre\u2019s death in 2020. \u201cWe went to the memorial service and his sons said \u2018Dad loved the show and he would want us to do more\u2019. It was him making a legacy to leave to all of us,\u201d says Tom.<\/p>\n

As for his ongoing fascination with the character of Jonathan Pine, he continues: \u201cPine wants to know the truth and understand the world and that is what I like about him. But the closer his feet are to the fire the more alive he feels. That is an interesting human characteristic.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Tom Hiddleston was in conversation at a 92NY event in New York<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Dazzling’ adaptation fans have to watch twice is streaming on Netflix<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Night Manager star tells the Mirror that fans can expect the new series of the critically acclaimed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[10581,9453,22121,6491,96,38706,347,21854,74192,2413,129683,2201,69158,111128,35772,52023,1598,26740,27012,10568,102759,137841,102760,56,20668,54,55,107881],"class_list":["post-358954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-armed-forces","tag-bbc1","tag-british-army","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ian-mckellen","tag-itv","tag-jack-nicholson","tag-john-le-carre","tag-love","tag-mary-poppins","tag-parenting","tag-patrick-stewart","tag-popcorn","tag-shakespeare","tag-soldiers","tag-strictly-come-dancing","tag-surveillance","tag-talent-shows","tag-taylor-swift","tag-the-night-manager","tag-thomas-william-hiddleston","tag-tom-hiddleston","tag-uk","tag-unicef","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-vanessa-redgrave"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}