The Night Manager season 2: Everything we know so far

John Le Carre is reportedly 'very involved' in discussions about a possible new storyline

The Night Manager cost £3 million an hour to make but reaped its reward with high viewing figures (The Ink Factory/BBC)

The Night Manager might have just reached its grand finale, but already talk has turned to whether or not a second season awaits fans.

The big-budget BBC adaptation based on John le Carré’s 1993 spy novel starred Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine, a former British soldier recruited by Olivia Colman’s Angela Burr to infiltrate a cunning arms dealer’s inner circle.

Its dramatic conclusion aired on Sunday but despite thrilling climactic scenes suggesting everything is over, the cast are reportedly keen to rev up for another run.

Olivia Colman has won praise for her performance as pregnant spy Angela Burr (BBC)

Lord Sandy Langbourne actor Alistair Petrie told the Daily Express that “everybody is up” for a second series after the overwhelmingly positive audience reaction, but as of yet, nothing has been confirmed.

“For these characters it’s a global playground, that’s the exciting part and it’s a very international show,” he said. “It means if they were to decide on series two, they could travel anywhere in the world. We know there’s a lot of dastardly people out there, not just where we’ve been set at the moment.

“Where the story might go and with who is very hard to say but it is conceivable that a series two might happen and I think it would be such a shame if it didn’t.”

Charlotte Moore, BBC controller of television, has already hinted to The Telegraph that she is in discussions for a second run with le Carré’s sons’ production company The Ink Factory.

The Night Manager was written as a stand-alone book but the 84-year-old author is “very involved” with plans for series two, with Moore insisting that she “wouldn’t be talking with them if he didn’t think it was a good idea”. If a second series goes ahead with new material, it will be the first time le Carré has given producers the go-ahead to go beyond his original work.

Some critics and fans, however, have been protesting that making a second series would be a silly, rushed mistake.

Arguably, too many quality shows are being brought back for their ratings potentials, when they would be better off left alone as one-offs: think Broadchurch, The Missing, Doctor Foster and Happy Valley which will likely get a third series somewhere down the line.

Whether the BBC can do a second run of their latest success justice remains to be seen.