{"id":367287,"date":"2025-12-24T09:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T09:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/367287\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T09:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T09:45:11","slug":"hugh-laurie-was-really-tricky-on-the-night-manager-as-he-wanted-tom-hiddlestons-role-says-showrunner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/367287\/","title":{"rendered":"Hugh Laurie was \u2018really tricky\u2019 on The Night Manager as he \u2018wanted Tom Hiddleston\u2019s role\u2019, says showrunner"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The creator of the hit BBC series The Night Manager<\/a> has said it was \u201dreally tricky\u201d working with Hugh Laurie<\/a> on the first series as the actor \u201creally wanted to play\u201d Tom Hiddleston<\/a>\u2019s lead character. <\/p>\n

The Night Manager, adapted from John le Carr\u00e9\u2019s 1993 novel, won Golden Globes for both Laurie and Hiddleston when it debuted in 2016 and a second season will finally arrive in the New Year<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Speaking at an event at London\u2019s Blackheath Concert Halls, screenwriter David Farr explained that House actor Laurie had previously tried to option the novel and envisioned himself as soldier-turned-spy Jonathan Pine. <\/p>\n

\"Laurie<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Laurie won a Golden Globe for his star tarn as arms dealer Richard Roper (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

When Farr finally got the project off the ground though, Hiddleston was signed up for the leading role while Laurie was cast as arms dealer Richard Roper. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was suddenly doing the television show and had written the first episode, and everyone liked it and Tom Hiddleston had signed up [as Pine],\u201d Farr explained, as reported by MailOnline<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut then Hugh became really tricky, because he had such fixed ideas and none of his notes were about his character [Roper] \u2013 they were all about Tom\u2019s character \u2013 and I was like, \u2018Give me a break.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Farr continued: \u201cWe\u2019re fine now. I think if I\u2019d been more mature, I could have dealt with it better. Hugh is a lovely man, very passionate. He\u2019s not in the sequel that much, except in flashback.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted Laurie\u2019s representative for comment. <\/p>\n

The Night Manager\u2019s six-part first season was a hit with critics<\/a> and won Golden Globes for a number of its cast, including Hiddleston and Laurie, who took home the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor accolades, respectively. <\/p>\n

\"Hiddleston<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Hiddleston will return in series two (BBC)<\/p>\n

Olivia Colman, who played MI6 intelligence officer Angela Burr\u200b\u200b, also won Best Actress, while at the TV Baftas, Tom Hollander was named Best Supporting Actor for his star turn as Major Lance “Corky” Corkoran, Roper\u2019s second in command. <\/p>\n

Le Carr\u00e9, who died 2020, never penned a sequel to his novel \u2013 but his sons previously told Vanity Fair that Farr came up with the idea for the second season in a dream, the night before Le Carr\u00e9\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a lot of writers pass, their estates contain all kinds of strict rules. Thou shalt not change this, or that,\u201d Simon Cornwell said. \u201cAnd my dad\u2019s letter said, \u2018You know what I stand for, respect what I stand for, but only you can figure out where to go next.\u2019 And that is sort of the invitation.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Hiddleston,<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Hiddleston, Camilla Morrone and Diego Calva pictured in the new season (BBC)<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with The Independent<\/a>, Alistair Petrie, who will reprise his role as Roper\u2019s associate Sandy Langbourne in series two, said: \u201cI\u2019m gonna hazard a guess, I think [le Carr\u00e9] would be very proud of the new one. But obviously there was no novel to base it on, so it\u2019s a really hard thing to pull off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also returning are Colman, Michael Nardone as another of Roper\u2019s associates and Noah Jupe as his son, Daniel Roper. Indira Varma (Obsession), Paul Chahidi (Wicked Little Letters) and Hayley Squires (Adult Material) will also star.<\/p>\n

Two new characters, Roxana Bola\u00f1os and Teddy Dos Santos, will be played by Daisy Jones and the Six star Camilla Morrone and Narcos: Mexico actor Diego Calva.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-367287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}