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Entertainment

25th Jan 2018

The BBC’s latest thriller has some of the world’s best talent attached

Paul Moore

Like The Night Manager? You’ll love this.

In recent years, the BBC has commissioned some TV shows that could rival anything that Hollywood has made. The production values on the likes of Peaky Blinders, Luther, Sherlock, The Night Manager and Line of Duty are exceptional but if you love gripping thrillers, their new show looks exceptional.

The absolutely brilliant Michael Shannon (The Shape of Water, Nocturnal Animals) will join BAFTA nominated Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth) and Emmy and Golden Globe award winner Alexander Skarsgård (Big Little Lies, True Blood) in Park Chan-wook’s (Oldboy, The Handmaiden) television debut The Little Drummer Girl, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by John le Carré.

If you’ve seen Oldboy then you’ll know just how much visual flair Chan-wook has a director. Aside from visceral violence and breathtaking cinematography, the South Korean cult-classic also featured one of the best twists in modern cinema.

As for the plot of The Little Drummer Girl, the story revolves around a talented young actress named Charlie (Pugh) who strikes up an acquaintance with an intriguing stranger while on holiday in Greece, but it rapidly becomes apparent that his intentions are far from romantic.

The man is Becker (Skarsgård), an Israeli intelligence officer, who entangles her in a complex and high stakes plot orchestrated by Israeli Spymaster Kurtz (Shannon). Set in the late 1970s, The Little Drummer Girl weaves a dynamic and exciting story of espionage and international intrigue; of love and betrayal.

Film fans will know that Michael Shannon is widely regarded as one of the most talented actors in Hollywood after receiving Academy Award nominations for his roles in Nocturnal Animals and Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road.

In the next few days, he’s returning to the big screen in The Shape of Water – Guillermo del Toro’s gothic-romance-horror that’s received 13 Oscar nominations.

As for the works of John le Carré – the pen name that is – his previous works include the likes of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Tailor of Panama, The Constant Gardener and A Most Wanted Man.

Topics:

BBC,TV