Le Carré makes his return to television

The much-admired John Le Carré is one of those writers on course to become a Dickens or Verne, in other words, a writer continually adapted by the audiovisual world. So far, his work has been adapted to cinema by Martin Ritt, George Roy Hill, Fred Schepisi, John Boorman, Tomas Alfredson, Fernando Meirelles and Anton Corbijn. At the same time, all of the spy stories that find their way on to the screen have a touch of the UK author about them. Le Carré has become a genuine point of reference. Yet, of all the adaptations of his work, those I personally like the most are those starring Alec Guinness made for the BBC: I refer to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979), Smiley's People (1981) and A Perfect Spy (1987). Ever since I saw those series the names Le Carré and Guinness have been related in my head. This year, AMC and the BBC, will give us more of what we want, with an adaptation of Le Carré's first novel, The Night Manager (El infiltrado).

The series, adapted to contemporary times, takes as its starting point a night worker in a Cairo hotel, Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston), who by chance receives documents that reveal the existence of an international arms trafficking network. Pine, who is a former British soldier, is recruited to infiltrate the organisation headed by Richard Roper, played by the excellent Hugh Laurie.

As you can see, no expense was spared on the casting, and apart from Hiddleston (The Avengers) and Laurie (House), Tom Hollander (In the Loop) and, as a big surprise, Spanish actor Antonio de la Torre (Grupo 7 and La isla mínima) are also cast, along with the Catalan actor Marta Torné. Top talent has also been taken on to direct the series, in the form of Susan Bier, the Danish director who inspires both love and hate, but who showed in Things We Lost in the Fire or After the Wedding that she is someone who knows the job well and is capable of directing good films.

The Night Manager is also a well-directed series, with good performances and an engaging plot that maintains the intrigue in a very interesting manner and keeps the narrative pulse going. Meanwhile, the settings are very credible and the novel's atmosphere is successfully translated to the screen from the outset. We will now have to wait and see how things progress in the coming episodes, but I have a feeling that this AMC production will be a real winner and that this TV adaptation will not disappoint Le Carré fans.