'The Night Manager' is set to have a second series.

Tom Hiddleston

Tom Hiddleston

The popular programme set tongues wagging when it first aired last year because of the raunchy episodes, which saw Tom Hiddleston - who played the role of Jonathan Pine in season one - strip down for the intimate sex scenes, is set to make a comeback as the script for a follow-up is reportedly "slowly being developed".

The programme's director, Susanne Bier, is believed to be working on the production with the BBC and American co-producers AMC, although the creative team behind the series fear a second series will not "live up" to their debut show.

She told BroadcastNow.co.uk: "We all want very much to do a season two but the thing we absolutely do not want is to do something that does not live up to the level of season one," she said. "That would be a really bad idea."

And producer Simon Cornwell has revealed the broadcasters are desperate to see another adaptation of John Le Carré's 1993 novel return to their screens because it has yet to be explored further as the texts did not have a sequel.

He said previously: "Of course, the broadcasters would love to do another series.

"There's no book and there's never been a Le Carré story that has been extended beyond the confines of the novel. It would be interesting to try that."

Meanwhile, the 85-year-old author has announced he will be writing another novel based on the fictional spy George Smiley titled 'A Legacy of Spies', which will be published in September this year.

And the BBC are set to adapt John's 1963 text 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' into a television production next year.