Post by Dirty Epic on Dec 16, 2016 11:20:45 GMT
Just wondering if anyone caught/liked BBC’s The Night Manager based upon John le Carré’s Novel recently? I didn’t see this when it was shown on BBC in the Spring but did catch up on this six part mini-series on some long haul flights I was on a few months ago. With a few little niggles I quite liked it.
{Spoiler Alert - Click Here To Reveal}
Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddlestone) is a ex-British army officer now employed as the ‘night manager’ at the Nefertiti hotel in Cairo during the Arab Spring of 2011. Amidst the unrest he unexpectedly acquires documents regarding an illegal arms deal. Pine passes this information to a British intelligence agent Angela Burr (Olivia Colman) and it soon becomes linked that the arms deals are the activity of Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). Roper uses his organisation’s ‘humanitarian aid’ front as a cover for this. Burr has been hunting Roper for years but has never had enough evidence to link him as a major player in the worldwide illegal arms trade. Events spiral out of control in Egypt and Pine flees the country. He is now the ‘night manager’ in another luxury hotel in Zermatt Switzerland. Likewise Burr encounters resistance from her superiors within the British security establishment but has enough pull to start getting a operation going against Roper. Burr meets with Pine and convinces him to join her undercover operation against Roper – all unofficial! Prior to this Roper and his entourage check into Pine’s hotel in Switzerland. With the assistance of Burr and her team Pine assumes a new identity and builds his cover in Cornwall in order to get close to Roper – with deadly results. On the run Pine is now working as a sous chef in Mallorca. At the same time Roper is having a family meal with his son, his de facto mistress ‘Jed’ (Elizabeth Debicki) and Lord and Lady Langbourne (Alistair Peitre)/(Natasha Little). Pine successfully subdues Albanian gangsters who attack and try to rob the diners and try to kidnap Ropers son. Injured by the attack Pine is looked after by Roper – he’s impressed with what he has done for him. However Pine attracts scepticism from Roper’s right hand man Major Lance ‘Corky’ Corcoran (Tom Hollander) and isn’t entirely trusted by Roper either. Roper gets Pine to assume the identity of the director of a bogus tractor business and gradually involves him in his business as he begins to trust him. Burr also encourages Pine to get more information on Roper to the point her team is in a position to infiltrate one of his a arms deals with individuals (possibly political?) from Egypt/the Middle East. However the permanent secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Katherine Kelly) and minister Geoffrey Dromgoole (Tiobias Menzies) are sceptical of Angela's operation and unaware that one of their number is betraying facts to Roper. Pine is also treading a fine line between being found out by Corky, getting sucked in to an affair with Jed and maintaining the confidence/trust of Roper. Thinking on his feat Pine uses the situation with Jed to get into Roper’s private safe and pass the details of his arms deal to Burr sets things up for Burr’s team to ambush the delivery. Burr also obtains a list of Roper's contacts from Juan Apostol (Antonio de la Torre), which she gives jaded MI6 officer Harry Palfrey (Neil Morrissey), in exchange for news of his superior Dromgoole's corruption. However Dromgoole also sees them, endangering the operation. Apostol is murdered and Burr orders Pine to give up his mission and return home but he refuses, believing he is near to exposing Roper. When Roper’s ‘arms delivery’ is intercepted it’s nothing more than humanitarian supplies and thwarted British intelligence demand Burr disbands her team. She is also warned off any further action against Roper both officially blocked by the Permanent Secretary's department and is told by Dromgoole that America needs the weapons sold by Roper and unofficially to the point her husband is viciously attacked in their own home and she is threatened on her way home from work. Undeterred Burr before her remit is taken away from her has one last attempt at getting Roper. Coincidently Pine has now (on the face of it) become Roper’s right hand man. After a confrontation with a drunk Corky who has pieced together that Pine is a infiltrator a violent clash with Pine leaves Corky dead. Not only that Pine has convinced Roper that Corky was the traitor in the camp and also puts on an impressive display of loyalty to Roper which brings him closer to his inner sanctum. However in achieving this Pine is pushed to the limit and has confessed his true identity to Jed and is looking for a way to get out. Pine sets up an ambush for Roper with Burr and her team in Cairo where Roper is close to finalising another arms deal. Convincing Jed, Pine passes on secure documents to Burr incriminating Roper and she and American intelligence officer Joel Steadman (David Harewood) arrest Roper as the deal is ready to be concluded. Roper is turned over to Egyptian authorities and a uncertain fate and Pine and Burr get revenge for the activities of Roper and it’s related activities during the Arab Spring in 2011.
Give or take a few things I enjoyed The Night Manager. If you like political thriller as well as John le Carré’s previous works I’d fully recommend it to you. For once it’s a contemporary British drama that isn’t harking back to a period paradise nor (on the whole) is it something which feels forced substance over content. The filming is also quite stunning and the subject matter is very relevant given recent political shenanigans – proven and unproven. That said The Night Manager is not in the same league as Tinker Tailor or Smiley’s People and I’m not entirely convinced Roper would naïvely buy into Pine’s infiltration and bring him into his inner sanctum so quickly. Nor in the real-world would Roper have blindly bought the lies from Pine that his trusted right hand man Corky was the infiltrator either. Another little gripe is the ending felt a little bit rushed too – no doubt to sell worldwide as a mini-series concept and again I’m sure if this was real life Roper would insulate himself enough from being at risk of his activities being discovered, let alone dabble in a risky deal which sees him at the mercy of prosecution by Egyptian authorities. I do know le Carré’s novel is very different from the TV series being set in the 1990’s and also both the Pine and Burr (male in the Novel) characters and subject matter not the same as they’re depicted here. Still for me it was the most interesting piece of British television drama I’d seen in the last decade and the quality of the acting/cast involved do raise it above the average BBC drama being made at the moment. It also shows a side of the British security establishment which sometimes justifies it’s actions in the terms of ‘defence of the realm’ and ‘ends justify the means’. In turn the complexity of the plot and characters makes you think about their moral quandaries – the choices, decisions and relationships these characters make.
A good 8/10 overall with a few slight gripes but at least it’s something different and not another bloody ‘period drama’ that BBC and ITV love churning out in the hundred at the moment!
Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddlestone) is a ex-British army officer now employed as the ‘night manager’ at the Nefertiti hotel in Cairo during the Arab Spring of 2011. Amidst the unrest he unexpectedly acquires documents regarding an illegal arms deal. Pine passes this information to a British intelligence agent Angela Burr (Olivia Colman) and it soon becomes linked that the arms deals are the activity of Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). Roper uses his organisation’s ‘humanitarian aid’ front as a cover for this. Burr has been hunting Roper for years but has never had enough evidence to link him as a major player in the worldwide illegal arms trade. Events spiral out of control in Egypt and Pine flees the country. He is now the ‘night manager’ in another luxury hotel in Zermatt Switzerland. Likewise Burr encounters resistance from her superiors within the British security establishment but has enough pull to start getting a operation going against Roper. Burr meets with Pine and convinces him to join her undercover operation against Roper – all unofficial! Prior to this Roper and his entourage check into Pine’s hotel in Switzerland. With the assistance of Burr and her team Pine assumes a new identity and builds his cover in Cornwall in order to get close to Roper – with deadly results. On the run Pine is now working as a sous chef in Mallorca. At the same time Roper is having a family meal with his son, his de facto mistress ‘Jed’ (Elizabeth Debicki) and Lord and Lady Langbourne (Alistair Peitre)/(Natasha Little). Pine successfully subdues Albanian gangsters who attack and try to rob the diners and try to kidnap Ropers son. Injured by the attack Pine is looked after by Roper – he’s impressed with what he has done for him. However Pine attracts scepticism from Roper’s right hand man Major Lance ‘Corky’ Corcoran (Tom Hollander) and isn’t entirely trusted by Roper either. Roper gets Pine to assume the identity of the director of a bogus tractor business and gradually involves him in his business as he begins to trust him. Burr also encourages Pine to get more information on Roper to the point her team is in a position to infiltrate one of his a arms deals with individuals (possibly political?) from Egypt/the Middle East. However the permanent secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Katherine Kelly) and minister Geoffrey Dromgoole (Tiobias Menzies) are sceptical of Angela's operation and unaware that one of their number is betraying facts to Roper. Pine is also treading a fine line between being found out by Corky, getting sucked in to an affair with Jed and maintaining the confidence/trust of Roper. Thinking on his feat Pine uses the situation with Jed to get into Roper’s private safe and pass the details of his arms deal to Burr sets things up for Burr’s team to ambush the delivery. Burr also obtains a list of Roper's contacts from Juan Apostol (Antonio de la Torre), which she gives jaded MI6 officer Harry Palfrey (Neil Morrissey), in exchange for news of his superior Dromgoole's corruption. However Dromgoole also sees them, endangering the operation. Apostol is murdered and Burr orders Pine to give up his mission and return home but he refuses, believing he is near to exposing Roper. When Roper’s ‘arms delivery’ is intercepted it’s nothing more than humanitarian supplies and thwarted British intelligence demand Burr disbands her team. She is also warned off any further action against Roper both officially blocked by the Permanent Secretary's department and is told by Dromgoole that America needs the weapons sold by Roper and unofficially to the point her husband is viciously attacked in their own home and she is threatened on her way home from work. Undeterred Burr before her remit is taken away from her has one last attempt at getting Roper. Coincidently Pine has now (on the face of it) become Roper’s right hand man. After a confrontation with a drunk Corky who has pieced together that Pine is a infiltrator a violent clash with Pine leaves Corky dead. Not only that Pine has convinced Roper that Corky was the traitor in the camp and also puts on an impressive display of loyalty to Roper which brings him closer to his inner sanctum. However in achieving this Pine is pushed to the limit and has confessed his true identity to Jed and is looking for a way to get out. Pine sets up an ambush for Roper with Burr and her team in Cairo where Roper is close to finalising another arms deal. Convincing Jed, Pine passes on secure documents to Burr incriminating Roper and she and American intelligence officer Joel Steadman (David Harewood) arrest Roper as the deal is ready to be concluded. Roper is turned over to Egyptian authorities and a uncertain fate and Pine and Burr get revenge for the activities of Roper and it’s related activities during the Arab Spring in 2011.
Give or take a few things I enjoyed The Night Manager. If you like political thriller as well as John le Carré’s previous works I’d fully recommend it to you. For once it’s a contemporary British drama that isn’t harking back to a period paradise nor (on the whole) is it something which feels forced substance over content. The filming is also quite stunning and the subject matter is very relevant given recent political shenanigans – proven and unproven. That said The Night Manager is not in the same league as Tinker Tailor or Smiley’s People and I’m not entirely convinced Roper would naïvely buy into Pine’s infiltration and bring him into his inner sanctum so quickly. Nor in the real-world would Roper have blindly bought the lies from Pine that his trusted right hand man Corky was the infiltrator either. Another little gripe is the ending felt a little bit rushed too – no doubt to sell worldwide as a mini-series concept and again I’m sure if this was real life Roper would insulate himself enough from being at risk of his activities being discovered, let alone dabble in a risky deal which sees him at the mercy of prosecution by Egyptian authorities. I do know le Carré’s novel is very different from the TV series being set in the 1990’s and also both the Pine and Burr (male in the Novel) characters and subject matter not the same as they’re depicted here. Still for me it was the most interesting piece of British television drama I’d seen in the last decade and the quality of the acting/cast involved do raise it above the average BBC drama being made at the moment. It also shows a side of the British security establishment which sometimes justifies it’s actions in the terms of ‘defence of the realm’ and ‘ends justify the means’. In turn the complexity of the plot and characters makes you think about their moral quandaries – the choices, decisions and relationships these characters make.
A good 8/10 overall with a few slight gripes but at least it’s something different and not another bloody ‘period drama’ that BBC and ITV love churning out in the hundred at the moment!