10 Best Spy Thrillers Similar To The Night Manager

British spy thriller The Night Manager is back with a bang, as its second season goes from strength to strength on Prime Video. 10 years on from its debut on the BBC, Tom Hiddleston's return as Jonathan Pine has reminded us all of what we were missing in the intervening decade.

This elegant, superbly-paced espionage series barely seems to put a foot wrong in its depiction of British secret service operations in modern-day Egypt and Colombia. It was already widely regarded as one of the best BBC drama shows ever made before its comeback season, which has only served to burnish its stellar reputation.

For those who’ve already finished all 12 episodes of Tom Hiddleston’s best TV role, however, there are plenty more scintillating spy thrillers out there to get your teeth into. For a start, The Night Manager is far from the only John le Carré novel to have been adapted for television.

It isn’t the only suspenseful espionage series to revolve around the goings on at a luxury hotel, either. Nobody else does it better than Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, Camila Morrone and co., but there are several contemporary classics out there that push them pretty close, and a company of all-time greats without which The Night Manager could never have been made.

10 Bodyguard

2018

Bodyguard was the action thriller show that made Richard Madden the hottest prospect in line to play James Bond since Tom Hiddleston first appeared as Jonathan Pine. Madden is ridiculously cool and collected as security detail turned counter-terror conspiracy agent David Budd in this adrenaline-fueled Jed Mercurio miniseries.

Budd might not be quite as slick and sophisticated as Pine, but he certainly knows how to operate with remarkable skill under extreme pressure. The action in Bodyguard is a little more full-throttle in The Night Manager, but there’s no mistaking the similarities between the protagonists of the two shows.

9 Killing Eve

2018–2022

A spy drama that hooks you in from the get-go, Killing Eve involves an inseparable pair of adversaries worthy of comparison with Jonathan Pine and Richard “Dickie” Roper. In fact, the relationship between unofficial MI6 agent Eve Polastri and Villanelle is halfway between Pine versus Roper and Pine’s dalliances with his seductive female allies.

Killing Eve is a pulsating cat-and-mouse story that surprises at every turn. It must also be said that Villanelle is among the most brilliant TV villains ever created in any genre. Although the show didn’t stick the landing, it’s still a peerless female-led espionage thriller, which was practically beyond reproach by the time its final season came around.

8 Black Doves

2018–Present

One of the best TV thrillers of 2024, Black Doves features a cast beyond the wildest imagination of most spy shows on the small screen. Keira Knightley and Ben Wishaw team up in the name of a mercenary spy organization operating just out of sight in London’s underworld.

Across the six episodes of its first season, everyone in the Black Doves ensemble has their chance to shine, from Julia title star Sarah Lancashire to legendary comedian and variety show host Tracey Ullman. Yet, the spread of showbiz royalty throughout the series isn’t gratuitous, and is ultimately subordinate to an expertly produced and brilliantly original contemporary thriller.

7 The Night Agent

2023–Present

If America did The Night Manager, it’d probably end up looking an awful lot like The Night Agent. While Jonathan Pine and Peter Sutherland technically have very different job descriptions, neither of them is doing what it says on their name tag anyway.

The Night Agent has more cut and thrust about it than its British counterpart, but they still make for the perfect small-screen pairing. This FBI-centric action thriller may not have the slow-burning tension of The Night Manager’s central season-long plots, but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in suspense – quite the contrary.

With the imminent release of season 3, we already know that The Night Agent season 4 will be on the way not long afterwards. Given the burgeoning popularity of this Netflix action spectacular, there are likely to be even more installments in the pipeline soon. This espionage series is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

6 Grand Hotel

2019

Fronted by Demián Bichir, who’s now arguably most famous for starring in the 2025 Halloween box-office success Black Phone 2, this single-season drama is a simmering mystery about the shadowy happenings at a family-owned Miami Beach resort. Tonally it’s a world away from The Night Manager, but the premises of the two shows share a lot in common.

What’s more, many of the seedy characters we see on the beaches of southern Florida in Grand Hotel will be instantly recognizable for those who’ve seen season 2 of The Night Manager. The stakes aren’t quite as high, and the ABC drama features a somewhat garish visual aesthetic, but it remains a highly engrossing watch.

5 A Perfect Spy

1987

This British TV adaptation of one of John le Carré’s greatest novels is essentially the blueprint The Night Manager follows. Jonathan Pine is very much in the mold of its enigmatic and wholly untrustworthy central antihero Magnus Pym, although Pym is more outwardly treacherous.

But, more than anything else, it’s the show’s neo-noir sensibility and distinctly British approach to portraying double-crossing spies that will feel familiar to fans of The Night Manager. The rise and fall of Magnus Pym, based on John le Carré’s own experiences as an intelligence officer makes for one heck of a fascinating life story, too.

4 The Little Drummer Girl

2018

The Little Drummer Girl is another le Carré adapted in a very different way from A Perfect Spy. This forgotten spy thriller starring Florence Pugh is exquisitely produced. The miniseries self-consciously indulges in the labyrinthine path it leads us down, while fully in command of its story throughout.

Visually breathtaking and painstakingly suspenseful, The Little Drummer Girl is every bit as worthy of consideration among the all-time greats of TV espionage as The Night Manager. Here’s hoping the team behind the series consider a tenth anniversary comeback in 2028, just as David Farr and Susanne Bier have done with their show through Prime Video.

3 Babylon Berlin

2017–Present

A masterpiece in period spy drama, Babylon Berlin ranks among the best neo-noir TV shows of all time. Set in the bowels of the German capital during the interwar Weimar Republic, it tells the story of a police inspector going undercover to thwart a secret extortion racket.

The show feels like a cross between Peaky Blinders and old-school John le Carré TV specials. For those able to find a place to stream it outside Germany, Babylon Berlin is well worth the effort. With a fifth season on the way soon, it’s now the second most extensive series on this list.

2 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

1979

Forget the (admittedly exceptional) movie version starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth. The best screen adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the original miniseries starring Alec Guinness as George Smiley. The godfather of British spy TV shows, this 1979 series remains the pinnacle to which every other John le Carré iteration continues to aspire.

Tom Hiddleston might be inimitably debonair as Jonathan Pine, but he still has a long way to go to become as iconic as Guinness for espionage fans of a certain age. This version of le Carré’s most beloved novel more than holds its own against any similarly stylish spy thriller out there today.

1 Slow Horses

2022–Present

Still, even an all-time classic like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has to doff its cap to another Gary Oldman release that’s even more recent. Slow Horses is quite simply the best spy show on TV today. Based on Mick Herron’s Slough House novels, its focus is the stragglers at MI5 who are effectively given the least important secret service work.

Ironically, their espionage team becomes the one with the most exciting, high-stakes cases across the full breadth of the UK intelligence services. While Slow Horses differs in tone slightly from The Night Manager, it executes every trick in John le Carré’s spy fiction handbook to perfection, and is now the gold standard for modern spy thrillers on the small screen.