Last week I was super excited to be invited along to a secret screening of BBC One and The Ink Factory’s new drama The Night Manager, and to hang out with some of the cast (including one of my longtime actor heroes – Hugh Laurie!).

Hardly able to contain myself with excitement, I trotted along to the swanky May Fair Hotel to find out all about it.

This adaptation of John le Carré’s wonderful spy thriller The Night Manager (published in 1993) is a fascinating and complex story of criminality. Former British solider, Jonathan Pine, is recruited by intelligence operative, Angela Burr, to infiltrate the inner circle of an arms dealer who is known as ‘the worst man in the world’, Richard Roper, in an attempt to bring him to justice.

Gracefully interpreted for the small screen, The Night Manager remains faithful to le Carré’s original whilst bringing it undeniably into current times. From the opening scenes in Cairo, the story pulled me into the world of The Night Manager and held me enthralled (and sometimes appalled) for the duration of the screening. In the discussion afterwards, Hugh Laurie spoke of his love for le Carré’s novel and his desire to bring the story to the screen after he first read it over twenty years ago. It’s been a long time in the making, but having seen the results I’d say that the wait has been absolutely worth it.

Stunning visually, with stand out performances from Hugh Laurie in the role of Richard Roper, Tom Hiddleston in the role of Jonathan Pine, and Olivia Colman in the role of Angela Burr, this gripping adaptation is a must-watch drama for 2016

The Night Manager will be screened later this month on BBC One in six one-hour episodes.

Be sure to watch live or record it (FYI I’m going to do both!) because you’re really not going to want to miss it!

For a sneaky peep at The Night Manager click here to go to the trailer on YouTube