Advertisement

The Londoner: Light fades for The Night Manager

No more Mr Night Manager: Tom Hiddleston at the Ralph Lauren Fashion Show (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images): Getty Images
No more Mr Night Manager: Tom Hiddleston at the Ralph Lauren Fashion Show (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images): Getty Images

We may never see Tom Hiddleston’s bare bum again: a long-discussed second series of BBC hit The Night Manager has so far failed to get off the ground and now producer Simon Cornwell appears to be losing hope.

Cornwell, co-founder and co-chief executive of production company The Ink Factory, is the son of John le Carré, who wrote The Night Manager novel. The success of the programme — which starred Hiddleston, Olivia Colman, Hugh Laurie and Tom Hollander and earned both impressive audience figures and several international awards — meant that a second series was hotly tipped.

Despite David Farr, who wrote the first series, saying he was “not keen” on penning a follow-up, a team of four writers including Charles Cumming and Matthew Orton was assembled. But the process is yet to yield results.

“Not being cute, I really don’t know,” Cornwell says in an interview with this month’s Television magazine, when asked when we can expect to revisit the show. “We don’t have scripts for it yet, and we would only think about making a second series of The Night Manager if it was going to be really good. And I’m sure that Hugh and Tom and Olivia, who are not exactly under-employed actors, won’t want to come back unless it’s excellent, frankly.

“And, you know, we have all of Le Carré’s body of work to pick from.”

Indeed, Cornwell is also behind the forthcoming adaptation of The Little Drummer Girl, also by his dad.

The Night Manager speedbump comes after a tease from actor Elizabeth Debicki, whose character had the bum-baring affair with Hiddleston’s character. Earlier this year she played coy.

“Is there another one?” she said. “I’m sworn to secrecy…”

Cornwell also insists that being Le Carré’s son didn’t mean he automatically received the rights to his work: he had to earn it.

“I wish it had been done over a brandy one night,” he says.

“For all kinds of appropriate reasons... it needed to be a bona fide, arm’s length deal.”

New Left see red

Yesterday’s meeting of Labour’s National Executive Committee didn’t end to everyone’s satisfaction. “I have to say that I am deeply disappointed,” new rep Darren Williams, one of those elected after Momentum’s #JC9 campaign, wrote on Facebook after the nine-hour session last night. After some minor tweaking to the way NEC members were elected, “everything else was kicked into the long grass or killed off altogether”, he said. “I’m sorry to say that the majority of the NEC — including much of the so-called Left — has proven itself too cautious and conservative.” The revolution will have to wait.

---

Former head of BBC Comedy Jon Plowman says the corporation no longer treats the genre with respect. In his new memoir, How To Produce Comedy Bronze, he says the Beeb gives less time to comedy than it used to. “Apparently,” he writes, “on the main channels, people don’t want to laugh anymore.”

---

Actor Suki Waterhouse shot someone on the set of new film Assassination Nation. “I hurt somebody,” she says, explaining that a stunt backfired. “The bullet ricocheted. It came back at the guy and hurt him. They hadn’t seen that in 20 years.” Suki blames a lack of experience. “We didn’t get extensive training,” she confesses.

Film night with Patsy? Absolutely fabulous!

Ab Fab: Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images) (Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Ab Fab: Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images) (Dave Benett/Getty Images)

Ab Fab queens Joanna Lumley​ and Jennifer Saunders were at the Curzon Mayfair last night attending a preview of Nureyev, a film about the Russian ballet dancer. It was a rare reunion for the comedy duo. “We don’t get to hang out together as much these days as we no longer make TV together and I miss that,” Saunders recently lamented. “That, combined with a couple of glasses of champers.” Elsewhere, fashion designer Giles Deacon previewed his new collection with accessories brand Aspinal — actor Tamsin Egerton was among the well-wishers — while model and actor Elizabeth Hurley hosted the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning for Macmillan Cancer Support at Isabel in Mayfair. She is all smiles now that her beloved labrador Hector has recovered after being hit by a van driver working for Amazon. The family asked Amazon to pay the vet bills and the company, which stated that the van was driven by a contractor, promised the issue “would be resolved to the full satisfaction of the customer”.

SW1A

A shoulder to cry on: Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell (Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images) (Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A shoulder to cry on: Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell (Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images) (Bloomberg via Getty Images)

John McDonnell recalls his reaction to the shock exit poll in the 2017 general election. “I was too busy trying to reassure the Conservative spokesman sitting beside me who, at one point, turned so pale I thought we might need paramedics,” the shadow chancellor told Mumsnet. Jeremy Corbyn’s offering was rather different. In a new book, aides recall a one word comment: “F**k.”

---

Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, had a withering response to Lib-Dem leader Vince Cable’s conference speech blunder yesterday. After he fluffed his lines — saying “exotic spresm” instead of the much- hyped “erotic spasm”, Walker weighed in. “After all that build-up, a failed delivery. All the more reason sisters should be doing it for themselves.”

Quote of the day

"It's got old messages from Gordon Brown, actually - it's very emotional"

Ed Miliband got nostalgic after finding an old BlackBerry in his attic

Out of print: Duchess loses Kiely option

The news of the closure of design brand Orla Kiely may be particularly disappointing for the Duchess of Cambridge: its colourful prints and pleated skirts have become her fashion staple. The Duchess has been photographed wearing the Irish designer’s clothes on several occasions, including the floral number, right, which she chose for an event at the National Portrait Gallery. Earlier this week Kiely’s official website declared that Kiely Rowan Plc, the “retail and wholesale fashion business of Orla Kiely”, had stopped trading but the company’s home and licensing business won’t be affected.