The Night Manager: How to Make Great British Drama (Simon Cornwell)
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Executive producer and son of John le Carré, Simon Cornwell, speaks to Amol about how The Night Manager was revived a decade after its first season and how his father’s work was reimagined for a new generation.
They also discuss the shifting realities of producing for linear TV versus streaming, the risk of losing distinctive British storytelling, and whether there should be a ‘streamers’ tax’.
And as the second series comes to an end, Simon offers Amol a tantalising hint of what’s to come in series three.
GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Dafydd Evans. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Hello and welcome to our second episode of the week about the world of culture and entertainment. After Thursday's episode about |
| 0:22.5 | the music industry, we're going to turn our attention to television because the spy thriller, |
| 0:27.3 | the night manager, has been the BBC's big play for audiences at the start of 2026. It comes a decade |
| 0:34.2 | after series one, which, as you may remember, was based on John La Cary's 1993 novel, |
| 0:40.0 | the first that he wrote after the collapse of the Soviet Union. |
| 0:43.3 | And it followed the Hottelier turned spy, Jonathan Pyn, played rather brilliantly by Tom Hiddleston, |
| 0:49.0 | as he went undercover to bring down arms dealer Richard Roper, played by Hugh Lorry. That adaptation became |
| 0:55.7 | event television, pulling in 10 million viewers and selling to 180 countries. But there was a |
| 1:02.7 | small problem. There wasn't actually a sequel. In other words, there wasn't another book which |
| 1:08.3 | John LaCarray had written. So, for Series 2, the screenwriter, who was David Farr, who also wrote Spooks, McMafia, |
| 1:14.8 | works at the Royal Shakespeare Company, really brilliant human being, |
| 1:17.7 | he created a world based on the same characters. |
| 1:21.3 | But the question is, how do you stay true to Le Carre whilst also creating something new? |
| 1:26.2 | And what about the morality of how you approach Le Carrey's work when Le Carrey's not around to give you the thumbs up? |
| 1:33.3 | Well, it helps if you've got his family on board. |
| 1:36.6 | And they are very on board because I've been talking to Le Carrey's son, Simon Cornwall. |
| 1:40.8 | And Simon is also the executive producer of the night manager and I was talking to him |
| 1:45.7 | about the enduring influence of his extraordinary father's work about the deep underlying trends |
| 1:51.9 | that are reshaping television not just here in the UK but around the world and indeed about |
| 1:57.3 | the future of British television in a world of crazy competition and being squeezed |
| 2:02.5 | by the streamers. |
... |
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