When is The Little Drummer Girl on TV?
The team behind The Night Manager have reunited for another John le Carré adaptation on the BBC
Remember when we collectively fell in love with The Night Manager? Well now the production company behind that John le Carré drama is coming back with another adaptation from the spy novelist – and it looks set to be one of the big TV events of the year.
Florence Pugh, Michael Shannon, Alexander Skarsgård and Charles Dance are lined up to star in a seventies tale of international plots and espionage.
- First look at BBC's new John Le Carré adaptation The Little Drummer Girl
- Elizabeth Debicki confirms work on The Night Manager sequel: “I’m sworn to secrecy”
- The Night Manager team reunite for new John Le Carré TV adaptation
Here's what we know so far:
When will The Little Drummer Girl be on TV?
The Little Drummer Girl began on Sunday 28th October at 9pm on BBC1.
Thanks to the new series of David Attenborough's new BBC series Dynasties, The Little Drummer Girl is moving to a later slot for episode three – airing on Sunday 11th November at 9.30pm on BBC1.
As with The Night Manager, this is a co-production between the BBC, broadcaster American channel AMC, and independent production company The Ink Factory.
Is there a trailer for The Little Drummer Girl?
Yes! Here's the first-look trailer:
Who will star in The Little Drummer Girl?
The six-part series will star Florence Pugh as Charlie, a young actress who is sucked into a story of espionage amid rising tensions in the Middle East. We've recently seen her in Lady Macbeth, and as Cordelia to Anthony Hopkins' King Lear in the TV movie.
True Blood and Tarzan's Alexander Skarsgård is set to play Becker, Charlie's holiday fling – who is revealed as an Israeli intelligence officer.
Oscar-nominated actor Michael Shannon, known for The Shape of Water and Man of Steel, is also in the cast. He'll play Israeli spymaster Kurz.
Game of Thrones' Tywin Lannister actor Charles Dance has joined the series in the role of Picton, alongside Michael Moshonov as Litvak, Charif Ghattas as Khalil, Amir Khoury as Michel, Katharina Schüttler as Helga, and Simona Brown as Rachel. Max Irons will star as Al.
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook will direct the adaptation of the 1983 novel. He said in a statement: “At the core of this story is an extremely painful, but thrilling, romance… I am excited at the prospect of seeing how the drumbeats of Florence Pugh, the most energetic young female actor I have seen recently, will resonate with the audience.”
There will also be a cameo from the author himself...
The Little Drummer Girl: author John le Carré cameos as Austrian waiter in episode 3
What is The Little Drummer Girl about?
John le Carré published The Little Drummer Girl in 1983, a decade before his Cold War spy novel The Night Manager, which was adapted by production company The Ink Factory for BBC1 in 2016 in a miniseries starring Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman.
The Little Drummer Girl is a classic le Carré tale of an everyday person being sucked into the shadowy world of espionage, as an actress (Pugh) discovers her holiday romance (Skarsgård) is actually an Israeli intelligence officer and his "intentions are far from romantic".
While The Night Manager was brought into the 21st century for its TV adaptation, the team behind The Little Drummer Girl has opted to keep this story in its original period: the late 70s.
Nevertheless described by the BBC as “sharply contemporary”, the six-part series will “weave a dynamic and exciting story of espionage and international intrigue”.
Le Carré himself will serve as an executive producer.
Where is The Little Drummer Girl filmed?
The drama was filmed in Greece, the UK and the Czech Republic. Check out our full location guide to find out more about filming locations for The Little Drummer Girl.
Is this a Night Manager sequel?
No, though it's from the same production company. A second series of The Night Manager is currently in development as a separate project.
This isn’t the first time that The Little Drummer Girl has been on screen, of course. A little-loved film version was released in 1984 – the year after the novel was published – with Diane Keaton as Charlie.
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