The Night Manager says confirms series two is "slowly being developed"
Susanne Bier says a follow-up to the John Le Carré spy hit is in the works
After months of rumour, hints, sly nods and suspicion, the director of BBC1's The Night Manager has finally confirmed that a second series of the hit spy drama is in the works.
Susanne Bier told Broadcast that a follow-up to the John Le Carré TV series is "slowly being developed" with the BBC and US co-producers AMC, but that the creators were hoping to take their time to make sure series two 'lives up' to the first series.
"We all want very much to do a season two but the thing we absolutely do not want is to do something that does not live up to the level of season one," she said. "That would be a really bad idea."
She added that the script was currently being written by a "team of writers".
Producer Simon Cornwell, who also happens to be author Le Carré's son, had already said that all sides were keen to tackle a sequel, despite the fact that it would mean going beyond the original source material.
"Of course, the broadcasters would love to do another series," he said at a Royal Television Society event.
"There's no book and there's never been a Le Carré story that has been extended beyond the confines of the novel. It would be interesting to try that."
The first series of the drama starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie earned rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, winning three Golden Globes as well as being named the Radio Times TV Show of the Year.
The production company behind The Night Manager, The Ink Factory, is also in the process of adapting another John Le Carré novel, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, with Oscar-winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy in charge of bring the book to the small screen.
