10 TV Characters Who ONLY Appear In The First And Last Episode

The 2016 adaptation of John le Carre's first post-Cold War novel honored the source material by respecting its espionage roots while adding its own spin on the narrative. This led to a well-told six-episode saga and one of the best adaptations of le Carre's work in any medium.

Tom Hiddleston's Jonathan Pine may be the series' lead but he was not forced to carry the show as he was more than capably aided by the likes of David Harewood, Elizabeth Debicki and especially Olivia Colman and a rarely-better Hugh Laurie as series antagonist Richard Roper.

The simmering conflict between Pine and Roper is driven by the involvement of the volatile hotel owner Freddie Hamid (David Avery) and his partner, Sophie Alekan (Aure Atika). Sophie immediately saw Jonathan as an ally in her mission to bring down Hamid by exposing his dealings with criminals such as Roper.

To that end, she entrusted him with sensitive documents with the information needed for such an act.

Unfortunately, this was her undoing as Hamid found out about their budding relationship and assaulted Sophie, before having her killed. Her death sees Pine's further involvement with bringing down Roper and in the final episode the hotelier/former spy enacts his vengeance by killing Hamid once he learns the reason behind Sophie's death.