The Night Manager star reveals secret of character's survival – and what they want now

**Warning: contains spoilers for The Night Manager season 2 episode 3.**

The Night Manager season 2 star Hugh Laurie has addressed the shock return of his character at the end of episode 3, detailing how Richard Roper survived his years in captivity – and what his plans are now.

The arms dealer experienced an almighty fall from grace at the end of season 1, after Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) sabotaged a massive weapons sale, which left Roper heavily indebted to his furious customers.

It seemed he had paid the ultimate price for his failure, with Pine and his former handler Angela Burr (Olivia Colman) travelling to Syria in the season 2 prologue, where they identified the body of a bruised and dishevelled Roper.

While stopping short of explaining how that particular deception was pulled off, Laurie has filled in some of the blanks in our knowledge ahead of this weekend's episode.

He began: "For a large chunk of the intervening years, [Roper] was a prisoner, essentially a hostage to the shadowy cartel to whom he owed a great deal of money.

"Initially they were going to simply kill him, but Roper’s a good talker and he's quick on his feet, and he was able to bargain with them. The captive can sometimes gain the upper hand over the captor, even though he doesn't have the key to the door."

Although Roper appears to have returned to his old tricks in The Night Manager season 2, Laurie is quick to clarify that this isn't business as usual for the character. Rather, there are enormous personal stakes attached to this latest scheme.

"He's got himself back onto the playing field and reactivated a lot of his contacts and formed a plan that will allow him to pay off his debt and therefore survive, because if he doesn’t, they will surely get him," the former House star explained.

"But also to rebuild his empire, and once again, conquer all. He's a conqueror really, a pirate, and he will never stop dreaming of the treasure of taking people, territory, and control."

Laurie proceeded to tease that Roper is seeking to build "a new force in the world" and will do "almost anything" to restore his former status. However, there's one thing that separates him from other power-hungry characters.

"Roper does not dream of public glory, or 30-foot bronze statues. Roper enjoys the mystique, being off stage. Roper doesn't have that weakness, but he does have a weakness for power. He does have a weakness for control.

"And he has it on a grand scale, building a vast empire, but he also has it on a small individual scale of obtaining victories against specific people, and Pine is his principal objective.

"He was beaten by Pine once, and Roper is not a man to forgive or forget easily."

Hiddleston, Laurie and Colman are officially back in The Night Manager season 2 cast, with Diego Calva, Camila Morrone and Hayley Squires among the notable new additions for this chapter.

The Night Manager season 2 is airing Sundays on BBC One and iPlayer.

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