BBC announces 'most ambitious' production of bestselling John Le Carré novel featuring Succession star

Legacy of Spies will adapt le Carré’s best-selling novel, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, as well as drawing on his later work, A Legacy of Spies, which was published in 2017 - three years before his death aged 89.

The series, written by le Carré’s son, Stephen Cornwell, with Clarissa Ingram, features Succession star Matthew Macfadyen as master spy George Smiley, Charlie Hunnam as the British intelligence officer Alec Leamas and Daniel Brühl as East German spy Jens Fielder.

A two-time Emmy and Bafta award winning star, Macfadyen will perform aslongside Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu, who previously featured in The Empress, as Doris Quinz, aka Agent Tulip.

The plot charts Mr Smiley’s overarching quest for his nemesis, Russian master-spy Karla, through the Cold War period. Legacy of Spies will be set across the UK, and what was, in the time period of the story, East and West Germany and Czechoslovakia.

Simon Cornwell and Stephen Cornwell, founders and co-chief executives at The Ink Factory, said: “This project is in many ways the most ambitious and all-encompassing adaptation of le Carré’s work to date, taking our father’s best-known and most-loved most character – the complex and brilliant spymaster George Smiley – and using this medium as a canvas to chart his story as he moves through a world which culturally and politically shapes the one we live in today.

“To have Matthew embody this operational mastermind, a man both vulnerable and dangerous, alongside the brilliant talent of Charlie and Devrim, is a great coup.”

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold dominated the world’s best-seller lists when it was first published in 1963 and remains one of le Carré’s best-selling novels today. Le Carré’s 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies was also a global number one bestseller.

Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, said: “Legacy of Spies is a dream le Carré project adapted by the brilliant Stephen Cornwell and Clarissa Ingram.

“We are thrilled to have The Ink Factory – who are the ultimate experts in this genre - making this series which stars some of our best actors; Matthew, Charlie, Devrim and Daniel.”

Le Carré had a number of connections to Scotland, not least through his son, Tim Cornwell, a journalist at The Scotsman for over a decade. He is believed to have based a character in his book, A Delicate Truth, on Scottish politician John Reid.

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, for the BBC and MGM+. Graham Yost, producer on Slow Horses, will executive produce the series.

The series will be shown on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK and MGM+ in the US. A release date has not yet been announced.