Published: 11 Jun 2026

Author: Lily Ford

Hugh Laurie (The Night Manager, House) and Joe Alwyn (The Brutalist, The Favourite) have joined Matthew Macfadyen, Charlie Hunnam and Daniel Brühl in the BBC and MGM+‘s John le Carré adaptation Legacy of Spies.

Adapted from le Carré’s global bestseller, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and drawing on material from his 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies, the eight-part drama is written by Stephen Cornwell and Clarissa Ingram.

The show will mark spymaster George Smiley’s long-anticipated return to television with Macfadyen in the iconic role and Hunnam as the embattled, world-weary agent-runner and field operative, Alec Leamas. Laurie will play Control, the fiendish and commanding head of The Circus, Smiley’s morally fickle superior, known only by his code name. Alwyn joins as Jim Prideaux, a charismatic Circus veteran and roguish scalp hunter, whose off-book exploits in the field “ruffle a few feathers back in London.”

From The Ink Factory, the espionage thriller will also star Anjana Vasan as Connie Sachs (We Are Lady Parts, Black Mirror: Demon 79) with 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.

They join the previously announced Brühl as Josef Fiedler, Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu as Doris Quinz, Agnes O’Casey as Liz Gold, Felix Kammerer as Hans-Dieter Mundt, Dan Stevens as Bill Haydon, Jake Dunn as Peter Guillam, Safia Oakley-Green as Molly Gibson, Ariyon Bakare as Cy Aflon, Patrick Güldenberg as Dr Karl Riemick, Volker Bruch as Emmanuel Rapp and Saskia Rosendahl as Lotte Gamp.

Oscar nominee Claudia Llosa (The Vampire Lestat, The Milk of Sorrow) joins lead director and executive producer Michael Lennox as second director and co-executive producer on the series.

Legacy of Spies was commissioned by Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama. It will premiere on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the U.K. and on MGM+ in the U.S.