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The Night Manager voted best TV show of 2016 by Radio Times critics

Fans have already been clamouring for a second series of the John le Carré adaptation 

Clarisse Loughrey
Tuesday 27 December 2016 05:09 EST
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Being in the midst of this so-called 'Golden Age of Television' would presumably make an impossible task of choosing the very best of 2016 - but somehow they did it.

The Radio Times has polled its critics, with The Night Manager coming up on top; the taut, sexy spy thriller directed by Susanne Bier, which saw Tom Hiddleston play soldier-turned-hotelier Jonathan Pine, recruited into the British intelligence services by Angela Burr (Olivia Colman).

Pine is tasked with an undercover infiltration of the inner circle of corrupt billionaire Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie); attempting to hold off both Roper's chief of staff Corkie (Tom Hollander), and control his affection for Roper's girlfriend Jed (Elizabeth Debicki).

An adaptation of John le Carré's 1993 novel, the joint production between the BBC and the US' AMC proved an international hit; launching Hiddleston into a front runner position to become the next James Bond, though the actor himself has attempt to keep his distance from the role.

The pressure is now on from fans for The Night Manager to deliver a second season; Hiddleston has admitted he'd only agree to it if Carré himself wrote a sequel, though Laurie more optimistically said there is a "glimmer of a possibility" the show may return.

Here are the top 10 in full:

1. The Night Manager
2. Line of Duty
3. Happy Valley
4. Fleabag
5. War and Peace
6. The Missing
7. The Crown
8. Planet Earth II
9. National Treasure
10. The Great British Bake Off

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