Hugh Laurie’s mystery role in the BBC and MGM+’s Legacy of Spies is secret no more.
Deadline revealed last week that The Night Manager star had landed his second le Carré adaptation role in as many years and the team behind it has now revealed Laurie will play Control, the fiendish and commanding head of The Circus and George Smiley’s morally fickle superior.
Laurie is joined by new cast including Joe Alwyn (The Brutalist) and Black Mirror star Anjana Vasan as Jim Prideaux and Connie Sachs respectively. Oscar-nominated director Claudia Llosa (The Milk of Sorrow) has also boarded as second director alongside lead director Michael Lennox.
Laurie, Vasan and Alwyn are joined by Charlotte Ritchie (You, Ghosts) stepping into the role of Ann Smiley and Lee Ross (Andor, White Gold) as Inspector Oliver Mendel. James McArdle (Mare of Easttown, Playing Nice), John Dagleish (Sexy Beast, 3 Body Problem) and Goran Bogdan (The Last Panthers, Father) join The Circus as Percy Alleline, Roy Bland and Toby Esterhase respectively, with Adam Hugill (Sherwood, Dear England) as Fawn, Smiley’s hardman babysitter.
Laurie’s role is an intriguing one and contrasts with Richard Roper, his character in The Night Manager, a snarling villain. With a third season of that one in the works, this puts Laurie in the rare position of starring in two separate adaptations of an author’s work that could land around the same time.
The news caps off a strange week for Laurie, who lambasted a journalist on X for criticizing his hit show House before subsequently apologizing and saying he was “very slightly drunk.”
Legacy of Spies is one of the BBC, MGM+ and stalwart le Carré producer The Ink Factory’s biggest budget bets in recent years. It is based on 1963’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and the 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies, which itself is a prequel and sequel to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Laurie joins an ensemble cast including Matthew Macfadyen as legendary spymaster Smiley, Dan Stevens as the enigmatic Bill Haydon, All Quiet on the Western Front’s Felix Kammerer as Hans-Dieter Mundt and Agnes O’Casey, who reprises her Spy Who Came In From The Cold West End role of Liz Gold.
Producers Stephen and Simon Cornwell said: “We are delighted to have Academy Award nominee and Golden Bear winner Claudia Llosa bring her vision and cinematic sensibility to Legacy. Her joining Michael on directorial duties has only compounded what is shaping up to be a truly remarkable production. To be reunited with Hugh Laurie and Joe Alwyn as Control and Prideaux is a remarkable privilege as we build out the world of the Circus.”
Llosa added: “Stepping into a world as rich and complex as le Carré’s is a hugely exciting prospect. All of our extraordinary cast and crew are bringing this universe to life in ways that continually delight me.”
Legacy of Spies was commissioned by Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama. It will premiere on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK and on MGM+ in the US. Legacy of Spies is produced by The Ink Factory, in co-production with Amusement Park Film and in association with 127 Wall Productions and Paramount Television Studios. The executive producers are Stephen Cornwell who also serves as showrunner, Graham Yost (Justified, Silo), Simon Cornwell (The Pigeon Tunnel, The Night Manager), Michele Wolkoff, Malte Grunert (All Quiet on the Western Front), Chris Rice, Macfadyen, Charlie Hunnam, Michael Lennox and Joe Tsai. Susanne Bier and Mike Lesslie are also executive producers. The executive producers for the BBC are Gaynor Holmes and Nick Lambon. Nick Cornwell is executive producer for the le Carré estate. Sam Costin and Clarissa Ingram serve as co-executive producers, and Nancy Bray is producing for The Ink Factory. Fifth Season is handling global sales.
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