Hugh Laurie was ‘tricky’ on The Night Manager over starring role

When Hugh Laurie showed up on the The Night Manager set with the show’s star Tom Hiddleston, he must have thought: It should have been me! 

And so it nearly was… because years ago Laurie, now 66, had tried to get an option on John le Carre’s original book – with an eye to playing the lead character Jonathan Pine. 

That project fell through. But it didn’t stop Laurie having some very fixed ideas about the script when he was cast as charismatic arms dealer Richard Roper, the thriller’s screenwriter has revealed. 

David Farr said: ‘It was actually very tricky with Hugh because he’d tried to option the book when he was much younger because he’d loved it and he really wanted to play Pine.’ 

‘Then I was suddenly doing the television show and had written the first episode, and everyone liked it and Tom Hiddleston had signed up [as Pine]. 

‘But then Hugh became really tricky, because he had such fixed ideas and none of his notes were about his character [Roper] – they were all about Tom’s character – and I was like, “Give me a break.”’ 

The 2016 BBC series, which also starred Oscar-winner Olivia Colman, Tom Hollander and The Crown’s Elizabeth Debicki, became one of the most watched shows of the decade. 

It earned Laurie and Hiddleston Golden Globes. Farr, whose much-anticipated second series begins on BBC One on New Year’s Day, insists he now has a good relationship with House actor Laurie. 

He told an audience at London’s Blackheath Concert Halls: ‘We’re fine now. I think if I’d been more mature, I could have dealt with it better. Hugh is a lovely man, very passionate. He’s not in the sequel that much, except in flashback.’ 

The new show will see Pine pulled back into the world of international espionage. Hiddleston and Ms Colman return, and are joined by Mexican actor Diego Calva and Camila Morrone – ex-girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio. 

The Daily Mail contacted Hugh Laurie for comment. 

The show, which made Hiddleston a national heartthrob, is back after nine years off screens – and it is racier than ever with threesomes and steamy shower scenes.

Morrone, 28, meanwhile, will replace Elizabeth Debicki as the main love interest of the show.

The trailer opens with Jonathan being told: ‘A lot of intelligence officers come through this room. They sit there and they smile just like you. The ones I really worry about say nothing and then one day they explode.

‘Tell me who you really are.’

To which he replies, as action-packed scenes including explosions and high speed chases play out: ‘I am the man who will not explode.’

Fans were thrilled by the trailer and took to X to share their excitement. They wrote: ‘the night manager season 2 promo is finally here (tom Hiddleston is the hottest man alive confirmed).’

‘And that’s my man!’ and ‘look at him!’

The action is expected to expand the story of the novel of the same name by writer John le Carré, which follows an ex-soldier helping penetrate the secret world of ruthless arms dealers.

Now living under the alias Alex Goodwin, low-level MI6 agent Jonathan is running a quiet surveillance unit in London, with a comfortable and uneventful life.