Tom Hiddleston returns to spy series, this time without John le Carre

Take a look across headlinesand 2026 feels like a world of confusion and distraction. The modern world we see on television suddenly looks more like the moody, dark universe of espionage writers John le CarreIt’s full of spies like George Smiley and Jonathan Pine.

Is this life imitating art? Or is it art imitating politics? At a time when we are reminded of Orwell’s famous quote, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears; that was their last, most fundamental command,” there are many questions but few easy answers.

“Art needs to interact with the real world, but the best art can still exist on its own,” says actor Tom Hiddleston, who plays superspy Jonathan Pine in the film. Night Manager. “But if there is a tangible connection to the real world, I think it invites the viewer to bring their own experiences here.”

“One of the things I know Le Carré cared deeply about was, if he was talking about East and West and their capacity for invention, [that] Coming from the Western perspective, right? And I know that his work has evolved to some extent as a reaction to what’s going on in the world.

“What fascinated him as a British writer was the question ‘What does it mean to be British?’” Hiddleston says. “Played by Douglas Hodge [high-ranking intelligence officer] A country’s security service is the most accurate expression of itself, Rex Mayhew says in the first episode. Know yourself. And the question is: What does this country represent? Where is it going and who is driving the boat?”

“As a UK citizen, who are we now, what do we stand for and where do we want to go?” “And I think le Carré was always interested in that question,” adds Hiddleston.

Night ManagerThe series, which is currently in its second season, is adapted from le Carré’s novel of the same name, published in 1993. The first season aired in 2016. was greatly appreciatedwon two Emmys and three Golden Globes. Deciding on a second season felt slow, but Amazon made up for it by commissioning the second and third installments in 2024.

For Hiddleston, whose job in Hollywood (my wording, not his) is to play the mischievous Norse god Loki in the billion-dollar Marvel movie franchise, Night Manager It is an infinitely more subtle work. It’s a collaboration with some of Britain’s finest actors. Hugh Lauriewho plays arms dealer Dickie Roper and Olivia ColmanIt stars agency boss Angela Burr and acclaimed director Susanne Bier, whose duties were taken over by Georgi Banks-Davies in the second season.

But everything changed when Hiddleston met him and le Carré’s sonsSimon and Stephen Cornwell, who manage their father’s literary estate and executive produce adaptations of his work.

He trusted me. [It might be] because he was getting older and less protective of his personal history.

Tom Hiddleston about John le Carre

Hiddleston and le Carré had met several times during production of the show’s first season. Night Managerbut in later years a more personal friendship developed as they lived close to each other in London.

“I ran into him at the park, I was training my puppy and he was healthy that morning and we were talking about current events and world events,” Hiddleston says. “I really understood that he trusted me, and I believe that maybe it was because he was getting older and less protective of his personal history.

“His writing process was a process of self-discovery; these extraordinary stories were really about trying to understand his own experience,” Hiddleston adds. “He had an extraordinarily turbulent and difficult childhood. His father was a con artist and his mother left home when he was five.”

He told Hiddleston that, according to le Carré, people are unreliable and man is not central. There was no such thing as truth or belief. What mattered was the imprint of the personality, and that risk was attractive.

“He became incredibly agile at reading people because he was so used to it,” Hiddleston says. “The masks people wear and the lies they tell. And the sense that the certain kind of person who is drawn into this world, who is good at it, is a human being who is somehow broken. A human being who is highly competent, highly capable, highly intelligent, aware and alert, but also broken.”

“Le Carré’s work relies on this complexity,” says Hiddleston. “An understanding of the relationship between trust and inevitable betrayal. An understanding of the relationship between danger and vitality. That risk itself is a human impulse. And yet he was a patriot. He cared so deeply about the United Kingdom. He also resented her for caring so much.”

Perhaps the strangest thing about Le Carré is our perception of him. For high school students in Australia, her works have become part of the curriculum alongside the works of other writers such as Henry Lawson and even Jane Austen. But the company tends to portray le Carré as a historical figure.

In reality, he lived through almost the entire 20th century and died at only 89 years old. in December 2020. Far from being an old world spy, Le Carré was a man who went through the pandemic with us. Considering his name’s place in the classics, this makes him a somewhat modern man.

But he also creates an artistic dimension around his work that is both unexpected and deeply affecting. I suggest to Hiddleston that le Carré is a kind of artistic ghost, whose presence will inevitably be felt in the pages of his works or on the sets of his film and television adaptations.

“I think in his work he has a keen quest, a longing, an intelligence, a curiosity to desire and understand the world, and a sense of understanding the world as it really is, not as it’s presented to us. And that takes a lot of courage, because you have to be able to endure what you discover,” Hiddleston says.

“I think he had a profound courage in trying to understand the world and himself,” Hiddleston adds. “And tremendous playfulness and mischief, because he understood that people are complex and contradictory, and so no one moves in a straight line. I tried to honor that deep curiosity that he felt deep in his soul, but also his mischief.”

“When I met him and got to know him and saw his deep kindness and humanity – he was extremely kind to me – I felt like I was holding him close to me on set,” Hiddleston says. “I think I could feel the artistic ghost in his work, even his presence. His spirit was with us in some way, at least his legacy.”

“Before the first season, I asked him about David. [real] My name is David Cornwell. Is there anything you want me to know at this last moment before we start?” Hiddleston remembers.

“And he said, well, of course, Tom. You’ve probably guessed by now… Jonathan Pine is mine, and now he must be you. And in those words there was an incentive to own him and live him and make it mine, to devote myself as much to the role he played; it always felt like a brotherhood that I shared with him.”

Night Manager is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

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