Hugh Laurie and Joe Alwyn have joined the cast of the BBC’s upcoming George Smiley series, Legacy of Spies.
Announced last year, the series adapts John le Carré’s iconic, genre defining, 1963 novel The Spy Who Came In From The Cold while also drawing on additional material from his 2017 book A Legacy of Spies.
Matthew Macfadyen is set to star as George Smiley, le Carré’s most famous and enduring character, with Charlie Hunnam as British intelligence officer Alec Leamas, Daniel Brühl as East German spy Jens Fielder and Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu as Doris Quinz aka Agent Tulip.
Laurie has been cast in the role of Control while Alwyn plays Jim Prideaux.
Also joining the series are Anjana Vasan as Connie Sachs, Charlotte Ritchie as Ann Smiley and Lee Ross as Inspector Oliver Mendel.
James McArdle, John Dagleish and Goran Bogdan have been cast as Percy Alleline, Roy Bland and Toby Esterhase respectively, with Adam Hugill as Fawn, George Smiley’s hardman babysitter.
The series begins in the shadow of the newly-erected Berlin Wall, as Alec Leamas watches his last agent shot dead by East German sentries.
For Leamas, a senior British intelligence officer in Berlin, the Cold War is over. As he faces the prospect of retirement or worse – a desk job – Control offers him a unique opportunity for revenge.
Assuming the guise of an embittered and dissolute ex-agent, Leamas is set up to trap Mundt, the deputy director of the East German Intelligence Service, with himself as the bait.
In the background is George Smiley, ready to make the game play out just as Control wants.
The series is a co-production with Amusement Park Film in association with 127 Wall Productions and Paramount Television Studios and will air on the BBC in the UK and on MGM+ in the US.
The series is being made by The Ink Factory, the TV and film production company set up by the writer’s sons Simon Cornwell and Stephen Cornwell.
Stephen and Simon Cornwell said: “It’s wonderful to welcome Hugh into a new dimension of the le Carré universe alongside his brilliant portrayal of Richard Roper in The Night Manager, and we’re thrilled that Joe, who we first worked with on Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, is now joining us in this momentous undertaking as well.
“There is something profound about watching our father’s universe brought to life by actors of this calibre, and it is extraordinary seeing the ensemble take flight. It’s everything we could have hoped for and more.”