Night manager

We recently finished watching a Christmas present, the BBC version of 'The Night Manager', a six part series of the old sort of which we had not previously been aware.

Greatly helped along by the presence of two very personable male leads - Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston, with the latter having first come to our notice with a fine performance in 'The Deep Blue Sea', noticed at reference 1.

In essence an updated version of the Bond formula: British agent, a sort of Superman or Batman in mufti, overcomes world-class villain, getting quite badly bashed about in the process. Quite a lot of lady flesh, misogynistic to the extent that the ladies take more of a bashing than the the gentlemen, at least in so far as close up photography is involved. Lots of toys. Lots of exotic locales, but they fail to manage without using subtitles to tell us where we are. A big failing to my mind.

Perhaps with an eye to the US market, lots of bumbling Brits. and worse in high places. Olivia Coleman very likeable, if very unlikely, as the chief lady policewoman. Nice line in regional accent.

All quite gripping to watch, even if the plot seemed a little silly in the cold light of day.

There was also, to my mind, some serious content. How far is it right for an agent on the good side to go to bring down the bad side? And then, how much trust can the chief of the bad side put in his people? How can he be sure, without the corrosive influence of visible lack of trust? How can he be sure of his own bodyguards? The age-old problem of quis custodiet ipsos custodes, in spades. Much easier, to my mind, for the good side to keep tabs on their people, people who are likely to have pensions and family and whose history is mostly on the record. Plus, the good side has access to the all the forces of law and order. Not to mention the Home & Trump Departments.

I am reminded that Le Carré came from a broken home and that his own father was a con-man and crook, which probably explains his abiding interest in trust and breaches of trust.

PS: I think we lost something by watching it over a small number of days, rather than the small number of weeks intended. But we lack the self-discipline to do that with a DVD.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-unfinished-journey.html.