The Little Drummer Girl is here to fill that sexy spy thriller-shaped hole

The BBC knew they had struck gold with the deliciously bingeable 2016 miniseries The Night Manager.

With a potential sequel still a long way off, the British broadcaster has stepped in to fill that sexy spy thriller-shaped hole in your life with another miniseries based on a John Le Carre novel.

The Little Drummer Girl, starting tonight on BBC First on Foxtel and Fetch, is an exciting and compelling series starring Alexander Skarsgard, Michael Shannon and Florence Pugh.

Turning to Le Carre again means a story steeped in mystery, betrayal and thrills against a tense political backdrop.

Set in the late 1970s, aspiring British actor Charlie (Pugh) finds herself in Greece after her theatre troupe is invited by an elusive benefactor to perform there. On the beach, she meets an older, enigmatic man who calls himself Peter (Skarsgard).

Charlie is initially put off by him, but finds herself drawn to his allure. When he asks her to go with him to Athens, she impulsively agrees. Once there, he arranges a next-to-impossible date at the Parthenon at night, closed off to everyone else.

Meanwhile, in Germany, a prominent Jewish scholar is killed by a suitcase bomb, along with a small child.

Israeli intelligence, led by spymaster Martin Kurtz (Michael Shannon), still branded by a concentration camp tattoo on his arm, is convinced the violent act is the work of a Palestinian terrorist named Khalil.

Charlie, with her radical politics background, is recruited by the Israelis in a dangerous undercover mission — an operation that’s sold to her as the role of a lifetime. For Peter isn’t really Peter, he’s an operative named Gadi.

As Charlie’s handler, it seems inevitable their strong chemistry will get in the way of a professional partnership.

But who’s playing who?

The Little Drummer Girl is a gorgeously crafted series, richly textured with great performances, especially from Pugh and Shannon.

Pugh is a real rising star, with an extraordinary breakout performance in 2016’s Lady Macbeth, and then having gone on to star in The Commuter with Liam Neeson and Outlaw King with Chris Pine. She’ll be in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women next.

She has a magnetism and a strong screen presence that is irresistible. She can play every degree of vulnerability and confidence, and to swing between them with a single look.

Like Tom Hiddleston in The Night Manager, Skarsgard’s character remains more cryptic but also like Hiddleston, there’s something to be said for how his physicality fills out a frame, whether that’s sitting in a chair or gliding through the ocean with elegant strokes. You can’t help but stare.

With every episode directed by Korean Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden), The Little Drummer Girl has a strong visual and tonal cohesion, and on-point art direction and design.

Deftly plotted with layers of intrigue, The Little Drummer Girl is one of those TV shows that’ll have people talking for months.

The Little Drummer Girl starts tonight on BBC First on Foxtel and Fetch at 8.30pm

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